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Not much, you just go a bit slower overall. Gear differs a bit - wider tires, wider gearing. Position on bike is the same, maybe run the bars 5-10mm taller or a hair shorter total reach.
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Tires too narrow. Tires overfilled. Run the widest tire that clears your frame safely and run the pressure as low as you can without burping. Silca and Enve both have PSI calculators that will get you started, but don’t be afraid to try a bit lower, especially if you’re lightweight and easy on wheels.
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Around here (near DC, USA), the gravel roads tend to have short punchy hills. That can make longer intervals hard to do properly - think 400W+ for a minute up the hill, then zero watts for 30 seconds down (because it’s too steep/loose to pedal). Not a big deal for long JRA days, but I try to do my prescribed intervals on pavement.
I took my steel tourer over stuff like all four of those this week. No mudguards or rack, Vittoria randonneur on the rear - high rolling resistance and puncture protection but definitely a road tyre. Swapped power pedals for MTB flats but given the kind of riding HR may be more useful. Whole bike seemed to come alive!
A bit of rain meant some heavy mud but no watery lakes. Heavily rooted sections also pretty sketchy but I survived.
Got lost and found a castle I’d never heard of but got to the pub an hour later than planned 
If you know the Green Chain Walk in London I found part of that.
All in all I’m thinking my Cinelli can handle most of the stuff near me. The slipping wheels and awful gradients do focus my attention on getting better suited tyres and groupset. I think I can maybe get away with road pedals too but flats if I going wild.
Groupset
I’ve got some old Veloce I’ve been meaning to put on it, maybe I can get some smaller chain rings though.
Saddle/post
Brooks, leather and alu - I can swap in a carbon post and Selle Italia road saddle
Bars
I can raise them about 10mm iirc
Wheels/tyres
They’re some kind of cheap alu, the Vittoria Randonneur is good for road/winter but I’m looking at Pathfinder 35s with tubes. Not sure it’s worth buying another wheelset for tubeless?
I’ve a few weeks to decide whether this is good enough or whether a super light carbon/GRX gravel bike is worthwhile…
I’ve taken my Tarmac SL7 with mid-aero wheels and GP5000 All Season TR 32c tires:
on local trails like you’ve shown, and a couple gravel events that featured steep 1.5 mile gravel road descents averaging -9%.
The next day people were riding vintage pre-1989 bikes like this:
on the same route.
Its more fun and faster with a modern bike that can run 38-50c tires.
My recommendation is you prioritize larger tires and see how that goes. The 35c Pathfinders with tubes sound like a good start. I’ve been running the 42c S-Works version which are lighter, and after 1800 miles they have more showing on the tread wear indicator (rear tire) than the 32c All Season TRs with 100 fewer miles.
Ignore most information from anyone outside of the UK as the “gravel” is not gravel here.
Wide tires, low pressure, go slow on technical terrain and get mudguards.
Enjoy!
I’m going round and round in my head on options.
Just watched a YouTube video saying the Giant gravel bike is basically as fast as their road race for most users, and when I race I’m on a tri bike.
I got all of my bikes and bits out at the weekend, still think I can get a lot out of my steel tourer. Maybe get a gravel bike next year if I hit the limits of 35c and 14kg bike.
On the other hand if a gravel bike is basically as good on the road then maybe get one now….Lord, I hate these decisions.
Just start riding the steel tourer and see how it goes!
I have a Giant Revolt Advanced gravel bike built up with Force AXS 1x and 700x50 tires, and I think it’d be a great all-road type bike. It’s pretty close to conventional endurance geometry and my bike as set up is about 20.5 lbs, not including saddle or top tube bags.
My single complaint with the bike is that it won’t fit larger than 700x53c tires, which would be great for some pretty chunky riding here that’s basically 90’s mountain biking. So my plan in the next year or two is to get a second gravel bike that fits fatter tires and more progressive geometry (maybe a Lauf Seigla or we’ll see what comes out) and convert the Giant to more of a dirt road/some pavement focused bike with 700x44 or 45c tires and maybe a slightly bigger chainring to make it more all-road-y.
So much this. Decision for next year once you’ve established what you want.
And until then, if you ever feel the steel touring bike isn’t upto the job, dip into some RSF content… Rough Stuff Archive
Have you tried it beyond the official spec? I put my 42mm Pathfinder Pros which expanded to 46mm in the Revolt’s short wheelbase option which officially supports 45mm. I feel I could get to 50mm without issues (though not considering mud clearance yet) and thinking the spec may be conservative on the long wheelbase option as well.
Yeah, I’ve got it in the extended wheelbase setting and the 700x50c has plenty of room. I could probably run 700x53c (which is within spec) and have plenty of clearance for mud, rocks, etc.
I have a lot of Class IV roads near my house, so it would be more for something like the below pic (and events like VT Overland), where it would be fast enough on pavement but able to handle some real off-road stuff. It ends up being a bunch of gravel riding with some 90’s mountain biking thrown in for extra fun.
My road is a TCR and my Gravel a Revolt. I love doing endurance rides on the Revolt. 50/50 gravel tarmac.
When I started riding a lot of gravel coming from road/crit racing, I felt like I was doing something wrong being afraid to take turns quickly and really lean into loose gravel/dirt corners. I’d take them super cautiously at speed and assume that more experienced gravel riders would take them more aggressively and faster.
Once I started riding/racing gravel with others I realized that more skilled riders did corner better than I, but not to the degree I expected. It turns out fast cornering on loose surfaces is limited as much by physics as by technique and experience—you can only corner so fast if the surface is loose. This can make speed and traction management through corners an interesting variable in a way that’s familiar to riders with a MTB or Cyclocross background, but may come as something of a surprise or adjustment if you’ve primarily ridden pavement.
Tire choice can also make a pretty big difference on how your bike handles on loose surfaces.
This is how I feel, I don’t know how fast I can go when there is loose stuff on the ground. I don’t want to find out by falling. I have no experience on the dirt.
I’m new to off road riding as well. My typical commute to work includes about 10 miles on a smooth paved MUP through a state park. Most of my riding will be on the road I think and no races or group rides.
I tried a couple of the trails along my route with 40 Gravelking SK’s tires. This is what the trail looks like;
Then a little later on this…
I didn’t feel unsafe or out of control, the tires seemed fine for how fast I was riding (not very). It appears that most places around me are like this with narrow trails, I worry about the rocks tearing the sides of the tires up. I won’t be riding in mud. My bike is only rated for 42’s.
I’m thinking my riding will be about 80/20 road/off-road. Stick with Gravelkings or is there something else I should consider?
I own a Revolt Advanced Pro. I love the bike, but it’s not “basically as fast” as my SL6 Tarmac. Even with slicks it not only performs slower, but it “feels” MUCH slower. It’s fine for the occasional road ride, but I would definitely not want it to be the bike I ride in a race on smooth tarmac.
Totally agree. Even with the TCR’s wheels the Revolt feels, and it is, slower, way slower.
For me the biggest things are
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Find out how to ‘float’ on your handlebars, in both the tops and drops. When I started riding gravel I would death grip my bars once it got rocky and it would cause hand pain. Basically your hands should be around the bars, but not really gripping them. I started doing this subconsciously at some point after a lot of gravel riding.
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When descending or going really fast, go into the drops.
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Spend your entire day obsessing over tyres and tyre pressures (only kind of joking here). I like the Pirelli Cintauro M’s, but this is an insanely deep rabbit hole. In most cases just go as wide as your frame allows.
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Look where you’re going to be, not where you are.
Regarding workouts, I wouldn’t do workouts on gravel unless you have a good route that matches your specific workout. I have a hill that I do 4 to 8 minute intervals on, then descend without pedaling and challenge myself to use the brakes as little possible (really helps with getting confident going fast on gravel).
I’d use the steel tourer, until you’ve figured out if you actually like riding offroad and what bike you’d like.
I’d get mildly knobbly tyres, especially with some edge knobs. UK “gravel” paths are often just dirt, and turn into mud quickly (at least in the north). If you only ride nice trails, gravel and tow path etc, mudguards might be usuful for when it’s wet, but otherwise I’d be carefull with mudguards off-road - you tend to get twigs, grass, etc stuck, and you want a decent gap between the tyre and the mudguards for when the tyre picks up mud.
If you can get a tubeless wheelset, do that. It means that you don’t need to worry much about brambles, hedge cuttings, broken glass in the path etc. Also you can ride much lower pressures which helps a lot with ride feel and grip.
Be a bit careful about the description of “gravel”. It an mean anything from those pictures above, which you could ride on a road bike, as long as its dry, to chunky rock trails that wouldn’t look outof place in an enduro race. Actual gravel paths are usual either “unadopted” roads or multi-use ex-railway trails (nice to ride, but usually busy with families and dog walkers).
With regards to doing intervals off-road - it really depends on the trail. I find they are usually either too rough, and you need to pay too much attention to your line, or they are too busy with walkers. But it really depends what you find.
The best bit about riding a gravel-ish bike is that you can just ride anywhere. Go explore
I have the exact same two bikes. I’ve used the Revolt when traveling on a road group ride (with road tires and wheels) and it felt tangibly slower than the tarmac—frustratingly so, in fact.