Is there such thing as a gravel fit?

[TheRich]

Is there such a thing as a CX fit? Or an Endurance Road fit?

Personally I tend to be a little taller in stack than the road bike but still just as low since I'm not incredibly aggressive on the road.

Regarding frame size, it does depend on whta you consider "Gravel" riding. Here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, "Gravel" tends to mean fire road riding and singletrack that is all doable on a rigid MTB. Accordingly, I've built myself a few frames that are longer in reach but run a short stem to get the front wheel out in front of you and to reduce the over-the-bars feeling when descending steep/technical stuff.

If your "gravel" riding ends up being more Dirty Kanza style, then a road fit or any other fit where you are comfortable riding rough roads for extended periods of time would be good enough for what you would be looking for.

Endurance and CX geo are almost identical. But you're spot on, the more often that your dirt rides have sections where a MTB would be more suitable, the more you should be looking at more drop bar MTB style geo/setup (longer reach, shorter stem)....and really, as long as your contact points stay the same, there's no real downside.

[rides4beer]

Just ordered a Giant Revolt Advanced, it has 2mm less reach and 26mm more stack than my road bike. Crank length and seat tube angle are the same, so I plan to run the same seat height. Should give me a slightly more upright position. I have no comfort issues with the fit on my road bike, so I figure it will just be a little more relaxed on the Revolt, which I also plan to ride on the road.

[robertbb]

I just bought a Giant Cross City, which I'm planning to strip and build into a gravel/mixed terrain bike. It's a 2012 model so it's got the fluidformed ALUXX SL frame and a carbon fork, mini v-brakes, threaded BB and external cable routing... standard 27.2 seatpost. Great platform - the years following 2012, they really downgraded the spec.

Anyway, Giant doesn't bother giving reach and stack data but compared to racey road bikes as far as I can tell the reach works out the same with a stack around 2.5cm higher. As was said above, same seat tube angle as most road bikes of the same size: 73deg. Chainstays are slightly longer as is the wheelbase so it should be nice and stable.

[gwerziou]

No, there isn’t a universal gravel fit. Gravel as a marketing genre is extremely diverse, ranging from cyclocross bikes to road bikes that can take big tires, to full-on touring bikes that can take big tires. There’s adventure/bikepacking, racing, commuting, just general rough-road riding, etc etc etc. What your fit needs will be is, as always, based on your body, preferences, and which of these niches or combination of niches you want to explore. Do you want to take immersive, long rides on dirt roads (I’ve never actually seen anything but really short sections of gravel road; it’s really dirt roads that we’re talking about IMHO) or want to just dip your toes into some back-country roads now and then as part of general road riding? Cyclocross, full-on singletrack? All of these will necessitate different design emphases.