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 present’s gravel bikes. Lots of the similar geometry rules nonetheless maintain, however now we profit from higher tyres, greater wheels and disc brakes. Flat-bar gravel bikes, particularly, carry ahead the distinctly American biking custom—although they are often polarising.
Why not simply experience a mountain bike? Gained’t your fingers harm on lengthy rides? Isn’t it much less aero? Why are you using a hybrid? Truthful sufficient, perhaps, in all probability, 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 substitute 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. Large 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 also be extra comfy. For touring and bikepacking, this setup could make dealing with a motorbike encumbered with provides extra manageable. And since these are sometimes slower-paced rides, the aerodynamic penalty created by the upright place doesn’t pose a major drawback.
What to know, ought to you end up changing into flat-bar-curious
(Picture credit score: Tyler Boucher)
Involved in experimenting with flat bars? There are some issues you need to know. Changing a drop bar bike to flat bars isn’t as easy as merely altering your handlebars. Typically, you’ll additionally must swap out shifters, brakes and callipers at a minimal. It’s possible you’ll want to vary stems as nicely.
These substitutions are usually not low cost. In actual fact, I’d advocate towards changing a drop bar bike, if doable. A greater strategy is to start out contemporary. 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 so as to preserve a snug place and account for the totally different cockpit dimensions, the highest tube will should be correspondingly longer.
There’s one state of affairs by which a drop-to-flat conversion does make sense, nevertheless: when you’ve got a motorbike that’s too massive for you. Assuming the bike in any other case suits your wants, this can be a nice technique 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 may be enjoyable to check out a flat bar setup this gravel season. My traditional race bike is designed for drop bars, nevertheless, so I made a decision to attempt one thing totally different. After taking a look at a number of choices, I landed on the BlackHeart Allroad AL, which is a no-nonsense, reasonably priced aluminium bike with considerably ambiguous geometry that might 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 easy as I anticipated. I needed to take care of my traditional saddle place whereas shortening the attain barely in comparison with my common hand place on the brake hoods.
I bought 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 mentioned. There isn’t a straightforward 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 had been a lot too extensive—although the extent of management with that a lot leverage was outstanding—earlier than discovering a cheerful center floor nearer to 720 mm. I extremely encourage you to test-ride your bars totally earlier than slicing 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. Large bars supply nice leverage whereas pushing a giant gear, and it feels far more safe leaning the bike over in sharp corners and with the ability to dig the tyre into the bottom together with your higher physique.
A flat bar gravel bike additionally makes a terrific commuter. Gears are really helpful, nevertheless.
The Specialised Diverge Skilled E5 EVO
(Picture credit score: Specialised)
If increase a motorbike 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 may be very a lot a mountain biker’s gravel bike. For efficiency, the Specialised Diverge Skilled E5 EVO is the most suitable choice on the market: the geometry is progressive and it comes with a dropper put up.
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 repeatedly using on terrain that doesn’t warrant suspension or trendy mountain bike geometry, then a flat bar gravel bike may be the proper device for the job.
Personally I’m a giant fan of hardtail XC bikes, and sometimes 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 arduous to hold bikepacking baggage on an XC bike—there simply isn’t sufficient house within the entrance triangle. And that is the place the flat bar gravel bike suits the area of interest.
Stick to 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 certain, there’s some overlap, however that’s OK. As I realized, flat bar gravel bikes may be a bit of foolish, however don’t knock ‘em until you’ve tried one
