There’s long been a chorus of comments, immediately trailing any story on gravel gear, that gravel bikes are “just ’90s mountain bikes.” And, while there may have been some kernel of truth to that, no more. We’ve moved on.
Gravel bikes are now way better than ’90s mountian bikes.
Look at Trek’s new CheckOUT. And the RockShox Rudy attached to it. And the wheels, tires, brakes, bars, seat post. Everything. Everything is better than it was in the ’90s. So, are gravel bikes just ’90s mountain bikes? No, they’re so much more. Like, at least a mid 2000s mountain bike at this point.
Step by Step: Gravel gets through the ’90s
Gravel is, undoubtedly, the teen hearthrob of the cycling industry right now. It’s all about gravel. Or e-bikes, or gravel e-bikes. But gravel is the great hope for attracting new people to cycling, or at least getting existing cyclists to buy another bike. Much like Step by Step, it’s about bringing together cycling’s two families. Road and mountain biking, in this case.
Gravel bikes borrow tech from both of those families. That’s gradually turned what started out as slightly beefier road bikes with a little more tire clearance into something that looks, for better or worse, like a ’90s mountain bike. That happened piece by piece, step by step. Here’s how gravel got to the ’90s.
Disc brakes are a huge part of this. It allowed drop bar frames to go way beyond the limitations of brake clearance that limited cyclocross bikes. Once you had reliable drop bar disc brake options, frames were free to open up way beyond the 32-34mm cyclocross tires that many of us were using to ride gravel before gravel was gravel.
Wide tires and pro-level racing also increased the speed at gravel races. That helped bring in suspension. First forks, then Niner’s full-sus Magic Carpet, then, when that was resolutely rejected, just forks again for a while.
Getting past the ’90s
Now, piece by piece, gravel’s moved on from the ’90s, again. Starting back at the wheels, gravel pros are now…
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