Fit for gravel (mostly racing, or at least racy)

[twoangstroms]

How do you adjust your stack and reach range for a gravel bike versus your road bike? My coach and I have been exploring more stack for longer races with climbing, and longer reach to allow for a shorter stem.

Also, hard to find a frame with stack ~560mm (+/- 10mm) and reach ~380mm (+/- 10mm) while keeping standover under 740mm. Enve Mog, sure, but I'd like less boutique options.

[MarkoP]

I went with similar geo as my road bikes but 10mm less stem and (edited) more rise but not a huge difference.

[twoangstroms]

Less rise? Interesting. What difference do you notice? Climbing, descending, cornering?

[MarkoP]

It's really just a slightly less aggressive set up so that I'm not as stretched out. The difference isn't huge but I do find it helpful with climbs on loose gravel due to having to remain seated. My road bike stems are -12 and the gravel is -6 I believe.

[twoangstroms]

Wouldn't that make it more rise? I am feeling dopey today.

[spud]

I set my gravel bike 1 cm shorter stem and 1 cm higher. It gives you more authority over the front end in terms of lifting it over obstacles, shifting center of gravity, as well as being less likely to throw you over the bars on technical descents.

[MarkoP]

Wouldn't that make it more rise? I am feeling dopey today.

Clearly not...I'm dopey today. You're absolutely right. I'll edit my post above too. Rest day brain fog

[hannawald]

I have listened to a podcast with former ex pro Nathan Haas who now rides gravel and his recommendation was:

Handlebars 1cm up
Saddle 5-7mm back
Saddle 1cm down.

This helps with better lifting the bike over obstacles. Btw he was strongly against nowadays popular forward position on the bike (both gravel and road). From my memory it is because it means less stability and while it might give you more short term (2h) power it is also more demanding on certain muscle groups which consume more glykogen so at the end of 5h ride you are actually slower being more tired.

[Tifosiphil]

The forward position does work better in general but you do really have to adapt to the position due it using different muscle groups. I imagine for gravel races which are generally less punchy (and longer) it wouldn't be as effective as road races where the actual racing tends to be much shorter.

On the fit wise, I use a 1cm shorter stem and a -7 rather than a -17 for chunkier and long gravel races and cyclocross. Anything else I normally just use my general road position

[JMeinholdt]

I generally try to mimic my road position as much as possible.

[danunachas]

I found a very nice setup that suits me, shorter stem than on the road bike, with a PRO Pursuit alloy handlebar in 38cm width, hoods tilted inwards quite a bit as I dont plan on riding UCI races. The increased reach of the handlebar allows me to be comfortable resting my elbows on the flat top part, while the angled hoods allow my wrists to sit in a more natural position and keep a good grip on them to avoid getting bounced off on rough roads. The tops of the handlebar are close enough to have a very comfortable climbing position. The 10 degree flare is nice for extra control on rough descents too. The only downside is how stiff the handlebar is compared even to other alloy round bars. It looks dumb (can provide a photo if anyone is interested), but rides too damn good, I can keep a flat back even on singletracks and not worry about getting bounced off.

[Lina]

The main goal of the modern position is to be more aero. Of course you need to train using it just like anything else on the bike, you can't just change your position drastically and expect it to not have any impact on your riding. But the saved energy at the end of a 5h ride can be massive when you're more aero.

[uquality]

I found a very nice setup that suits me, shorter stem than on the road bike, with a PRO Pursuit alloy handlebar in 38cm width, hoods tilted inwards quite a bit as I dont plan on riding UCI races. The increased reach of the handlebar allows me to be comfortable resting my elbows on the flat top part, while the angled hoods allow my wrists to sit in a more natural position and keep a good grip on them to avoid getting bounced off on rough roads. The tops of the handlebar are close enough to have a very comfortable climbing position. The 10 degree flare is nice for extra control on rough descents too. The only downside is how stiff the handlebar is compared even to other alloy round bars. It looks dumb (can provide a photo if anyone is interested), but rides too damn good, I can keep a flat back even on singletracks and not worry about getting bounced off.

I've been looking for a 38cm bar with a 10 degree sweep. Is the clamp area big enough for clip-on aero bars?

I've love to find something like this in carbon that still allows clip-ons, but I can't find anything.

[MAsshole]

I've struggled with the same. I may just run stem clip-on bars like Controltech Falcon Mini Clip-On