![]() It is simply a smaller diameter wheel and the benefit is that it means some gravel bikes allow you to run an even larger tyre. What in the world is that, I hear you ask. This allows the tyre to sit on the rim with a straighter sidewall, giving you maximum width for your tyres, allowing you to run them at lower pressures, and there are also said to be some improvements to tyre feel in the corners.īut then some bright spark decided that a gravel bike could benefit from a 650b wheel. Gravel wheels will often have an internal rim width - that’s the measurement from bead hook to bead hook - of around 25mm. The standard is a normal 700c wheel, but given the extra tyre width that a gravel bike uses, it’s a good idea to pair that with a wider rim than you’d find on the average road bike. WheelsĪnother difference comes at the wheels with gravel bikes deciding that they want to be extra difficult and have two wheel sizes that they can use. You’ll generally find a gravel bike giving you room for anything up to a 57mm tyre, though that can vary quite a bit depending on the purpose of the gravel bike in question. It’s one of the best things about winter.Ī gravel bike is destined for rougher surfaces and to smooth out the ride, wider tyres are needed. We’re not sure if this is a particularly British thing to do, but seldom is there a British winter club run without a collection of rattling full-length mudguards. Many endurance bikes are bought with year-round riding intentions and as a result, riders will be looking to fit mudguards. But there is a secondary benefit to this extra space around the tyres. Most endurance road bikes will give you room for up to a 35mm tyre, allowing you to churn out the road miles in plenty of comfort. So for something like an endurance bike, which is designed to efficiently eat up miles on the road, a balance needs to be struck between efficiency and comfort. Once you go wider than 28mm, a tyre will start to become more of a drag, with the extra rolling resistance slowing you down. They need the extra tyre volume for riding over massive rocks and all of that scary-looking stuff that mountain bikers do. At the other end of the extreme, a mountain bike can boast clearance for tyres over 70mm wide. A super speedy aero race bike won’t have that much tyre clearance - it’ll be about 30mm max - as these bikes are ridden exclusively on paved roads, they don’t need more. Tyre clearance matters because it is the main determining factor as to what terrain your bike can comfortably take you over. The bigger the clearance above and to the side of the tyres, the wider the tyre that you can fit. This is the space in the frame and fork for tyres. The bike’s seat tube appears to be a conventional round profile and looks to accept a standard round Seatpost, but Felt says that there's "an innovative device in the seat tube to tackle high-frequency vibrations".First up, we have the most easily identifiable difference. ![]() It’s a feature which improves compliance – which, along with the wide tyre clearance, we’d guess is where the “smooth is fast” bit comes in. The current model VR has bento box mounts on its top tube, which look to be absent from its replacement.Īt the rear, the seat stays are dropped significantly. The current model VR is designed as an allroad bike, with clearance for wider tyres for light gravel excursions, and Felt says that the new model extends that to 38mm. The bars seem to be a new aero profile model from Zipp, judging by the large Z on their tops. The hoses look to be externally run under the bar tops though, rather than using Deda’s full internal routing system. This bike looks to have a squared-off downtube profile along with deep section bars and a separate chunky stem.Īgain, there’s some front-end integration, which looks to come from a Deda Superbox stem, with the brake hoses running through a channel on its underside, then internally into the frame. The second bike is a new VR, with the tagline “Smooth is Fast”. New model VR endurance bike looks to continue the allroad theme of its predecessor (Image credit: Felt)
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