Gravel bikes vs road bikes: what are the differences and which is best for you?

These days, drop-handlebar bikes come in many different forms, including road bikes, gravel bikes, cyclocross bikes, endurance road bikes, all-road bikes and even monster gravel bikes! To make things worse, not all brands stick to the same nomenclature and the lines between categories are more blurred than ever. The choice of a new bike can be bewildering, so here’s our guide to the ways in which gravel bikes and road bikes differ, and how to select the best one for you.

If you’re in the market for a new bike, then you might be asking yourself whether your money will be better spent on a road bike, or whether you should be listening to all the hype and getting a gravel bike instead. Well, over the last few weeks, I’ve been quizzing the road.cc team to see which bike they’d choose for their one-bike garage. I've also been putting the miles in on two almost identically priced bikes to see how big the differences actually are.

To keep things simple, we'll be comparing a £2,500 carbon-framed road bike to a £2,500 carbon gravel bike. Both come with components that are very typical for their intended use, and both are very competitively priced. If I had to choose just one of these bikes to ride for the next five years, which would it be? Well, by the end of this article, hopefully I will have decided just that…

> Should you buy a race bike or an endurance bike?

Not so very many years ago, the vast majority of drop bar bikes were designed for riding fast on tarmac. Representing the road bike corner today is the 2025 Orro Gold Evo. It has a carbon frame, it’s got a Shimano 105 mechanical groupset, and like most road bikes today it has disc brakes. It also has geometry that is fairly typical of an endurance bike. This, then, is a very strong choice for anyone wanting to munch miles on the road.

In the opposing corner, we have what is perhaps the biggest threat to road cycling since the mountain bikes came along: a gravel bike! The new 2025 Boardman ADV 9.2 to be exact.

It too has a carbon fibre frame and disc brakes, but instead of a double crankset, it’s got a single ring at the front. It’s also got space for up to 42mm tyres, and at the back you’ll find an absolute dinner plate of gears. Despite these differences, you can of course use this bike quite happily on the road as well as on the bumpy stuff. In fact, Boardman says its neutral 71.5-degree head angle delivers predictable handling on and off-road.

Having a gravel bike could open up a whole host of new routes, but what do you have to compromise for this go-anywhere attitude? Let's take a closer look at some more differences to find out.

The differences

When you look at these two bikes, some of the differences between them are immediately obvious, while others take some riding to really uncover. It basically boils down to four main points: geometry, tyre clearance, weight and gearing. Let's go through them in turn and see how they might influence your bike choice.

Geometry 

Geometry isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun night in, but it is absolutely critical to not only how a bike rides and handles, but also how it feels. 

Clearly, the road bike is designed for smooth tarmac, hence they are typically more aggressive than gravel bikes. For example, the front end is much lower on the Orro than it is on the Boardman thanks to this shorter headtube. That should mean that you can get into a more aerodynamic position and travel faster on open roads, but if you’re not interested in speed or aren’t very flexible, then more relaxed geometry might actually suit you better and be more comfortable.

> How to read a bike geometry table

Then we’ve got the lengths of the bikes. Again, the road bike is more aggressive with a longer top tube that stretches you out, making you more aerodynamic.

Then you’ve got the seat tube angle. On a road bike, it’s much more steep to put you further over the pedals for power output. On the gravel bike, things are more laid back. The front wheel is also further in front of you to stop you going over the bars on gnarly gravel descents. 

You’ll also notice that in order to accommodate these wide tyres, the seat stays and wheelbase have to get bigger. This can make a bike feel less lively and agile, which would be a very bad thing if you were to ask a pro rider. In reality, it can actually help less experienced riders feel more stable and in control of the bike, especially on twisty descents.

Tyre clearance

As you probably already know, gravel bikes can fit much wider tyres than road bikes, even though in recent years they've been getting much more spacious on the latter. The general rule is that the bigger the obstacle you want your bike to get over, the more tyre volume you’re going to want.

If you plan on never venturing off paved roads, then you’re only going to need around 30-32mm of tyre clearance. If you want to ride on unpaved roads and light gravel, then around 32-40mm is going to be the sweet spot. If you want to ride on chunkier gravel, then I’d be looking at a bike with space for at least 42mm tyres.

> How much slower is a gravel bike on the road? 

For reference, the Orro has space for 30mm tyres and the Boardman has space for 42mm rubber.

The only other thing to consider is that it’s always going to be possible to ride on the road with wide tyres, but riding off-road with skinny tyres just isn't going to end well. If you want to see how much slower gravel bike tyres are on the road, click the link above.

Weight

Our next difference between road bikes and gravel bikes is weight. There are exceptions to the rule, but in general gravel bikes are going to be at least a good few hundred grams heavier than the equivalent tarmac muncher.

So where are those differences? Well, firstly the frame is often a bit heavier, as it needs to have slightly thicker carbon to ward off rock strikes and the increased abuse of going off-road.

> Best road bike wheels

Secondly, the wheels. They’re generally heavier as they’re sometimes wider and have a higher spoke count, once again to make them more robust.

Finally, the groupsets can also often weigh more. Those big gravel cassettes aren’t light! Oh, and the increased tyre size can also contribute a surprising amount.

The result is that these almost identically priced builds vary in weight by about half a kilo. The Orro weighs 8.7kg and the Boardman about 9.2kg.

> How to make your bike lighter

Out in the real world that’s not going to make a massive difference to your performance, but if you are someone who likes to try and get up hills as quickly as possible, or want to challenge your mates on the local road ride, then clearly the gravel bike is going to be a disadvantage.

Gears

The final major difference that you’ll find between just about all road and gravel bikes is their gearing, so let’s open that can of worms!

This Orro has fairly typical gearing for a road bike with this 2X setup, so two chainrings at the front and 12 sprockets at the back. The Boardman gravel bike, meanwhile, has just one ring at the front and 12 sprockets at the back. Now, you might be thinking that this means you have loads less gears on the gravel bike, but actually gravel bikes tend to have more range. 

The downside is that there are bigger jumps between the gears. That’s fine if you’re changing speed a lot, but it can make it harder to find a comfortable cadence during steady-state efforts. Personally I find these jumps just fine if I’m riding by myself when I can dictate my own speed, but if you’re riding with others then you might be forced to ride at a speed that you just can’t find the right gear for. In those situations, the closer spacing of the road bike gears are the clear winner.

The exact gearing will vary from bike to bike, but if we take these two as an example then you can expect to ride up to about 65kph or just under 40mph on the road bike gears before your legs are spinning uncomfortably fast, and about 55kph or just over 30mph on the gravel bike.

What do the road.cc staff think?

So what do we think? Well, I posed the question 'road bike or gravel bike?' to the road.cc team, and this is what they had to say…

Mat Page, who writes reviews for both road.cc and off.road.cc, reckons that gravel is the way to go. He’s sure that anyone with any off-road riding background would say the same if they had to choose just the one bike.

> Is a gravel bike the ultimate winter bike?

George, meanwhile, said that where he lives he would choose a road bike as there are far more quiet lanes for road riding than gravel routes nearby.

Tony, co-founder of road.cc, also voted for gravel, despite not actually riding much gravel. He reckons that a gravel bike offers a bit more versatility, especially the ones at the roadier end of the spectrum. He also pointed out that gravel bikes are great for commuting.

Emily added another vote for gravel, as did Dave who said he’d choose a quick gravel bike with a spare set of wheels.

It seems, then, that gravel bikes are a bit more than just an N+1 bike. When push comes to shove, they are that one bike to rule them all.

In summary

So after riding both of these bikes, do I agree? Would I also choose the gravel bike? Well, firstly I think I would be very happy on either of these bikes, but if I had to choose one then yeah, I think it would have to be the gravel bike.

Especially if you purchase an additional set of slick tyres, then a gravel bike can absolutely take the place of a road bike. Yes it will be a tiny bit slower, and yes the jumps in the gears will at times get annoying on the tarmac; but at the end of the day, although a slight compromise, it is more than up for the task.

Put the shoe on the other foot and the road bike is understandably the more capable machine on the road, but you simply can’t replace a gravel bike with it.

Maybe you don't want to ride gravel? Fine! But my commute, to give one example, is along a cycle path that just sort of runs out in places. It’s not me voluntarily choosing to ride gravel, it’s just me trying to take the flat way to work on this country's famously cr*p cycling infrastructure. 

So how should you decide whether a road bike or a gravel bike is best for you? Well first, do you ever want to go off-road? If so then the gravel bike is the only one to go for. Secondly, are you interested in your average speed on the road? If yes, and you never venture off-road, then the road bike is undoubtedly going to help you increase your speed.

Third, are you going to ride on group rides on the road, or do you want to compete against other people? If so then this is the only time that I think the gravel bike with a set of slicks will really come unstuck. 

> What is an all-road bike? 

The upside of all these categories merging and blurring is that there is the perfect bike for you out there. Endurance bikes are getting wider and wider tyre clearances, gravel bikes come in all kinds of forms from racey ones to multi-day adventure ones, and then there’s all-road bikes, a whole new genre that sits in the middle.

Let us know whether your next bike will be a road bike or gravel bike in the comments section below, and if you think a gravel bike can really replace a road bike.