BMC RoadMachine02 as a gravel bike?

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TonyM
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Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:11 pm

by TonyM

Hi,

I would like to bike some gravel roads with my friends and I am debatting using my BMC RoadMachine02 with 30mm tires (some are rreporting that some slim 32s are ok also) instead of my 26" MTB with Schwalbe Thunder Burt 2.1 (https://www.schwalbe.com/en/offroad-rea ... -burt.html). My friends will be riding on gravel bikes and CX bike so that I suppose that I would be slower on a 26" MTB.

What do you think? Would the BMC RoadMachine02 with some 30 tires be enough for gravel?? Or should I ride my 26" MTB with some narrow and fast tires? if yes which one would you recommend as 26" gravel tires?

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jemima
Posts: 270
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 12:36 am
Location: Perth

by jemima

Really depends on how rough the gravel is. If things are fairly mild/smooth then I'd go for it, as the road bike will feel light and nimble.

I had 32s on my road bike for a bit; trying out riding on gravel/rougher surfaces. Got a few too many snake bite punctures for my liking (setup with tubes only) though, but that could have been due to not having quite enough pressure, and going a bit too hard.
Curve Grovel ti.

Marin
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Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:48 am
Location: Vienna Austria

by Marin

Tubeless 30s work if it's not too rough.

trainergav
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Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2018 10:36 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC

by trainergav

jemima wrote:
Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:29 am
Really depends on how rough the gravel is. If things are fairly mild/smooth then I'd go for it, as the road bike will feel light and nimble.

I had 32s on my road bike for a bit; trying out riding on gravel/rougher surfaces. Got a few too many snake bite punctures for my liking (setup with tubes only) though, but that could have been due to not having quite enough pressure, and going a bit too hard.
I agree, it would really depend on the surface. I rode a gravel fondo on my RM02 with 25mm GP4k2 tires and had no issues and have ridden other stuff as well with those and it's been great. But if it's more technical I would rather ride my gravel bike with my 35mm Schwalbe G-One's. I find that climbing is not really an issue with the road tires but descending is where the bigger tires make a big difference.

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mattyNor
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by mattyNor

Get some compass rat trap passes and never look back!!!!

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Ettore
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Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:44 am

by Ettore

Trade it in for a Roadmachine X :)

Finx
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Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2016 1:14 am

by Finx

I have an RM-01. One of my wheelsets is a HED Belgium Plus (20mm internal) with 30mm Schwalbe G-One Speed tires.

These tires cleared the frame on both sides at the chain stays with about 2mm clearance, but for gravel, I wouldn't want to try to squeeze in anything bigger. You are risking too much in the way of finish/frame damage doing that. Especially if there is mud or sharp rocks involved.

If you can run a nice set of 30 Tubeless tires on it, you can ride some decent double track/fire roads. Single track, rock gardens, super fast bombing decents of any kind are probably out of the comfort zone here.

Here is a picture showing the clearance between the tire and the drive side chain stay. I don't think you want to go any closer than this...

Image

vanmatthew
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by vanmatthew

Like everyone has said, it just depends on what type of surface you're riding on. I've used 30mm on my Canyon Endurance on fire roads with no issue. There's really no gravel or anything too gnarly. I guess the only way you'll know is by trying haha.

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TonyM
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Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:11 pm

by TonyM

So I rode with 2 friends a route which is called a gravel bike route and I eventually took my 26" MTB (Scott Scale) with 2.1 Thunder Burt Schwalbe tires.
Some gravel yes but mostly for me too tough even with a hardtail MTB. If I would do it again I would most porbably take my full suspension (like one friend of mine did).
On the side note however the other friend rode a gravel bike (Trek Checkpoint ALR5) with 37mm tires and he did not complain!

As a summary I found that it really depends on the surface and on your aptitude to ride with more or less damping.

I could however see that 27.5" (or 650B) and 700C wheelsets are much much faster than my 26" wheels....

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