When Is A Gravel Bike Not A Gravel Bike?

Which bike would you opt in for? Blake's Orbea or Hank's Canyon? 🔥

Hank and Blake back on the screen together again 🥳

I want a Part 2 where Hank and Blake swap bikes :)

I love specialty bikes. I have 26 different bikes, because I believe all the hype and don't need to plan for my retirement. I have 8 different road bikes. Some built for hills and smooth pavement, some built for flat roads and rough pavement. A few built for flat roads with small hills but dry conditions, then others that are built for lots of climbing on wet roads but only at dusk. Then come the mountain bikes. I have 14 of these. Some are meant for riding at night in humidity less than 40% on downhill trails. A few that are built for early morning riding on trails where the gravel is never more than .05" in diameter and the wildlife will kill you if you fall. Then there's my top of the line mountain bike, made of vibranium and powered by the tesseract. On this bike I can ride in any dimension and it's also pretty good on actual dirt. Now then, about my gravel bikes...

Very ballsy of Hank going down that trail in his gravel bike. Great skill

Well I live in a majority flat area with tons of pavment ant gravel paths .. And 90% of my riding is local training rides for 1-2 hours after work So I ride a Gravel bike.. For me its the perfect mix of Road and gravel gives me the freedom to ride where ever I feel like on the day. And if i join my friends on a 100mile road ride I have a set of Rims with Road tyes ready..

With Blake and Hank together on screen again, I’m surprised that my iPad didn’t implode due to the amount of energy from those two. Love watching these guys have a blast!

flat bar + gravel bike = mtb drop bar + mtb = gravel bike Ouroboros Cycle...

Love these combo videos with both Hank and Blake, they are both so fun to watch and filled with energy.

Honestly, I don't want gravel bikes to be as good in terrain as mountain bikes. If they would be, what for the distinction? What I love about gravel bikes (and I tend to lump them together with allroad and some endurance bikes) is the versatility they provide. They still have that roady DNA and can be really fast on tarmac, but allow us to explore comfortably also gravel and hardpack roads or even some single tracks. For me, this is great, because in cycling I seek mostly the compromise between speed/efficiency and adventure/exploration/touring. If I can avoid heavy traffic this is also brilliant. But when it comes to really technical trails and challenging terrain or gravity-oriented sports this is not what I'm looking for and I believe this should stay an MTB's territory. Said all this, I think an XC MTB could fulfil the role I'm interested in reasonably well, apart from speed on the tarmac, perhaps.

Blake's head unit is making me anxious 🫣

Blank make a great duo, similar levels of energy.

The gravel bikers are about to invent the mountain bike...

I am 100% sure these 2 are brothers. Always love seeing them both together in a video.

great vid guys - would like to see the same dude trying both bikes , you're both different levels of fitness / skill :)

Love those crossovers. Great bike choice! Thanks Hank&Blake!

Increasingly, one of the best bits of the GCN videos is great rock n roll guitar riffs as music filler! Rock on!

Forget the old school MTB or gravel bike gubbins...the boys are back in town!!! When these two are together, it's impossible not to chuckle..maybe they're the new chuckle brothers!!!

That was the best challenge! Great job!

I own a gravel bike because - I leave my house and ride the road for 10 miles, hit 8 miles of single track and ride home. The gravel bike allows me to have fun on single track and take longer rides on the road. I have two sets of wheels, one with 35mm road tires and the other with 42mm off road tires. Yes I'm not as fast off road or on road as a dedicated bike but I'm 60 and just ride for fun and exercise. If I did buy a MTB again it would be steel frame hard tail with 120mm fork.