There’s a direct line that begins with the early mountain bikes pioneered within the ’70s and runs by way of the inflexible XC rigs of the 80s straight to at this time’s gravel bikes. Lots of the identical geometry rules nonetheless maintain, however now we profit from higher tyres, greater wheels and disc brakes. Flat-bar gravel bikes, specifically, carry ahead the distinctly American biking custom—although they are often polarising.
Why not simply experience a mountain bike? Gained’t your arms harm on lengthy rides? Isn’t it much less aero? Why are you driving a hybrid? Truthful sufficient, possibly, most likely, as a result of it’s enjoyable. Flat bar gravel bikes occupy a distinct segment inside a distinct segment, which is numerous niches. However, they are surely enjoyable to experience. Will a flat bar gravel bike change your drop bar bike? Maybe, maybe not. It relies upon the place you experience.
Flat bar gravel bikes supply one main promoting level over their curly-configured counterparts: management. Vast bars and a brief stem make precision line decisions—like on a mountain bike—a lot simpler. For some riders, the extra upright place can be extra snug. For touring and bikepacking, this setup could make dealing with a motorcycle laden with provides extra manageable. And since these are sometimes slower-paced rides, the aerodynamic penalty created by the upright place doesn’t pose a big drawback.
What to know, ought to you end up turning into flat-bar-curious
(Picture credit score: Tyler Boucher)
Occupied with experimenting with flat bars? There are some issues it’s best to know. Changing a drop bar bike to flat bars isn’t as simple as merely altering your handlebars. Most often, you’ll additionally must swap out shifters, brakes and callipers at a minimal. It’s doubtless you’ll want to alter stems as nicely.
These substitutions should not low-cost. Actually, I’d suggest towards changing a drop bar bike, if attainable. A greater strategy is to start out recent. Ideally you’d need a longer body (elevated attain) than you’d for an everyday gravel construct. It is because flat bars work finest with a shorter stem, so to be able to preserve a cushty place and account for the completely different cockpit dimensions, the highest tube will should be correspondingly longer.
There may be one situation during which a drop-to-flat conversion does make sense, nevertheless: in case you have a motorcycle that’s too massive for you. Assuming the bike in any other case suits your wants, this can be a nice strategy to adapt it to be just right for you.
My flat bar gravel bike expertise
(Picture credit score: Tyler Boucher)
After racing some gravel and cyclocross occasions final yr on a singlespeed (once more: area of interest inside a distinct segment) I made a decision it is perhaps enjoyable to check out a flat bar setup this gravel season. My standard race bike is designed for drop bars, nevertheless, so I made a decision to attempt one thing completely different. After taking a look at a number of choices, I landed on the BlackHeart Allroad AL, which is a no-nonsense, inexpensive aluminium bike with considerably ambiguous geometry that will be versatile sufficient for some experimentation.
I opted for a measurement up, so as to add a bit of bit extra size to the body, however discovering the proper place on the bike wasn’t as simple as I anticipated. I needed to take care of my standard saddle place whereas shortening the attain barely in comparison with my common hand place on the brake hoods.
I obtained shut by way of exhaustive experimentation with stem size, but it surely was very a lot based mostly on really feel as a substitute of what the tape measure stated. There isn’t a simple plug-and-play setup translation from a drop bar place, and utilizing an XC place isn’t fairly proper both.
Bar width is one other curveball to navigate: I began out with 760 mm XC racing bars, which have been a lot too broad—although the extent of management with that a lot leverage was exceptional—earlier than discovering a cheerful center floor nearer to 720 mm. I extremely encourage you to test-ride your bars completely earlier than chopping them.
I constructed up my BlackHeart as a singlespeed, with the choice to simply convert it to 1x drivetrain by slapping on a cassette, shifter and rear derailleur, however I had a lot enjoyable on the singlespeed that I’ve no plans so as to add gears. Vast bars supply nice leverage whereas pushing an enormous gear, and it feels far more safe leaning the bike over in sharp corners and having the ability to dig the tyre into the bottom together with your higher physique.
A flat bar gravel bike additionally makes an important commuter. Gears are really useful, nevertheless.
The Specialised Diverge Skilled E5 EVO
(Picture credit score: Specialised)
If build up a motorcycle from scratch doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, there are some good pre-built options obtainable. For entry-level choices, two good ones are the Surly Preamble—a extra road-focused design—or the Marin DSX, which could be very a lot a mountain biker’s gravel bike. For efficiency, the Specialised Diverge Skilled E5 EVO is the best choice on the market: the geometry is progressive and it comes with a dropper submit.
Don’t knock ’em until you’ve tried one
(Picture credit score: Enve Composites)
A flat bar gravel bike isn’t for everybody. But when you end up commonly driving on terrain that doesn’t warrant suspension or fashionable mountain bike geometry, then a flat bar gravel bike is perhaps the proper device for the job.
Personally I’m an enormous fan of hardtail XC bikes, and infrequently really feel {that a} hardtail is a greater gravel bike for something aside from clean gravel roads. For longer rides, or important street transfers, nevertheless, the steep seat tube angle and slack head tube angle simply isn’t match. Moreover, it’s onerous to hold bikepacking luggage on an XC bike—there simply isn’t sufficient area within the entrance triangle. And that is the place the flat bar gravel bike suits the area of interest.
Keep on with me right here: within the large imaginary Venn Diagram of bikes, there’s a really good little carved out portion only for flat bar gravel bikes. It’s someplace between touring bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes and commuter bikes, and positive, there’s some overlap, however that’s OK. As I discovered, flat bar gravel bikes is perhaps a bit of foolish, however don’t knock ‘em until you’ve tried one
