What is Gravel Style?

Gravel bike frame geometry can be Racy, Relaxed, or Rowdy

It’s common to read from company websites or from bike influencers on YouTube that gravel bikes come in two flavors: race and off-road. 2D scatter plots suggest three classes:

1. Racy. Effectively, these have cyclocross bike geometry
2. Relaxed. Compared to Racy: More upright, longer rearends, and longer trail – this is the direction of endurance road bikes compared to race road bikes.
3. Rowdy. Compared to Racy: Longer, slacker front ends, and steeper seat tubes – this is the direction of XC mountain bikes compared to road bikes.

Note

Classification of gravel bikes is based on a frame size that fits a 176 cm (5’ 9.3”) high rider, according to manufacturer’s charts.