by FlatlandClimber on Thu Jan 06, 2022 7:53 pm
Singular wrote: ↑Thu Jan 06, 2022 5:19 pm
What often contributes to gravel bikes being slower is that power gets lost in the drivetrain (due to single/smaller chainrings).
Like how many watts do you think the smaller chainrings make up? 3W at 300W? Hard to imagine it's more than that.
It's not like Gravel bike chainrings are that tiny compared to a climbing set up on an RB (46/30 or 48/31 vs 50/34 or in SRAM 43/30 vs 46/33).
For 1X the difference is probably even less. You have smaller Chainrings, but larger sprockets.
There are many reasons why a gravel bike is slower (geometry, tires, weight, usually no focus on aero), but I don't think chainring size is a noticeable factor really.
Cervelo P5 Disc (2021) 9.1kg
Factor Ostro Gravel (2023) 8.0kg
S-Works SL8 (2023) 6.3kg
*weights are race ready, size 58/L.
Sold: Venge, S5 Disc, Roubaix Team, Open WI.DE, Émonda, Shiv TT, Crux, Aethos, SL7