I have a full sus XC bike with remote lockout front and rear, and to me it's the best of both worlds. I can go fast when I want to, I can go full sus when I need to.

This is a case of overcomplicating things. I rode from North Herts to Thetford(73 miles) on an 11.5 kg aluminium hardtail mtb. So not much heavier than many gravel bikes. 2.2" tyres inflated to 60psi as max stated. Following day dropped tyre pressure to 25psi and rode Peddars Way to Hunstanton then roads back to kings Lynn Station 70 mile day 2. With locked out suspension and max tyre pressure the mtb was easy to knock along at 15mph. My gravel bike would be marginally faster on road but infinitely more sketchy on 2" deep sandy tracks. All a compromise

The biggest change for me when I switched from mtb to gravel was the brakes. Gravel/road disc brakes are slightly weaker and are harder to fully squeeze due to the hand position.

My Speacilzed Chisel Comp with carbon bars and seat post comes in at just under 12kg. I happily sit at an average 15mph on the road on a still day and it's faster than a gravel bike on anything more than hard pack trails. I have a gravel bike but it's now a shed ornament/ pub bike. If I want more of a road focus, I can just pump up the tyres and upsize the chain ring.

As someone who also lives at the bottom of Cragg Vale and has both a gravel bike and XC mtb you will have a much better time in the valley on an XC bike (hardtail) than a grav bike. It’ll open up loads more local trails and climbing Cragg on an XC bike is absolutely fine, enjoyable even.

Just to play up the other side of things (XC bike for commuting), inner bar ends are a very nice option for giving yourself another hand position very alike to riding on the hoods of a drop bar. You then have the option to be on the inners or the outer grips depending on your terrain, as opposed to the choice of being on the hoods or the drops. Less accessibility to the brakes while on the inners, though with hydraulic brakes and the levers in the right spot, you can still reach them from the inner bar ends, same as you can squeeze the brakes on the hoods though the latter will pretty much always be easier. I ride a hardtail with XC tires myself and _do_ find myself wishing I had a gravel bike for some of the commutes near me; easier to maneuver a lighter, narrower bike around, the ability to drop down when pushing it on some of the long descents I have near me, my inner bar ends give me the arm position but not an easy way to tuck in fully. Buuut I also have a lot of rough potholey roads (some of which are also descents, weee) and a bunch of not-so-refined shared trails, so the hardtail is - for now - the slightly better option, but it's probably extremely close and with a gravel bike I'd also maybe take some different routes to suit it.

Both of course!

I have a 1993 Cannondale f1000 with a very low bar - the position is so close (as used back in the day) is very close to my road bike. Its shortcoming are 26" tyres, v-brakes and grip shifters. Its still in its original spec

A spin up & down the lane on my mate's road bike was all the research i needed before buying my xc. Curly bars & brifters are just too strange!

Just made the move from my 10 year old hardtail MTB to a drop bar gravel bike. It’s night and day and all my insecurities about leaving the nice wide bars behind disappeared within 10 Minutes. It’s so much faster and easier due to the way I’m positioned over the pedals. I went for a high specked alloy bike as I would rather have the better quality components. Also loving the 1/11 SRAM.

I use drop bars all the time on my gravel bike. Way more stable and secure on rough descents. Plus better braking leverage. I also find them useful on tricky climbs as is gets you right over the front wheel. It helps I have quite wide flared bars with a shallow drop.

Most mountains bikes are heavier. I have a flat bar (steel) gravel bike with MTB one by gearing. The brand I chose had MTB frames and road style frames and was torn, in the end the extra weight persuaded me to choose the slightly lighter road/gravel frame.

Are aluminium framed gravel bikes not an option ?

XC mtb with Rigid Fork and tubeless tyres.....❤ Gravelbike for commuting wintertraining and traveling....

How about an XC Mountain Bike with AeroBars? Given how I'm almost always on the AeroBars on my Dropbar-Mountainbike I'm really thinking about this for my next bike 🤔

I'm a experienced DH,freeride,enduro rider who is looking for a second bike to do cardio/fun ride around my home (i only have a yt capra at the moment) i ride mostly on old road or easy dirt trail/gravel trail and I'm hesitating between a xc bike or a gravel. Wich one would be the most comfortable for my lowerback? I was thinking on a gravel bike with bigger tyres, lower air pressure to compensate the lack of suspension. Thanks in advance

I think the question is really the terrain you intend on riding the most. If you're not going to ride super technical and rough stuff that requires a suspension fork and flat bar then a gravel will probably be perfect. And of course there are gravel bikes that are much closer to an XC bike than others

Flatbar gravel bike ?

Cyclocross bike: "Gravel bikes? I've been around for decades. Am I a joke to you?"

I'm riding in the drops of my gravel bike all the time... That said, I also have a somewhat heavy full-sus trail bike. The trails I ride are not that technical; I wish this was a lighter XC bike.

Don't totally rule out chinese Titanium manufacturers. XACD and Waltly manufacture for many western brands and can produce very nice frames that are an absolute delight to be ridden. In fact the people who try one of those usually end up with a collection of frames from them. I can send you some pics and details of my recently finished frame, I wouldn't change it for a Steel frame from a big brand (even if those are nice too).

Yes

I struggled with this as well until I had both😬

Fact check, Pishill is the longest climb in UK not Cragg vale, 7.2 Vs 6.6 miles. Cycling uphill (a great website) confirms this.

I also found that riding to the trail and back through a city on a XC bike is quite tiresome. Especially, that I had CX before, so I sold it and bought a gravel - and I did more kilometers on that gravel in one month, than I did on a XC in two years.

for what it’s worth one of the ways up Mt Tam outside San Francisco is over 2300ft of climbing over 10 miles and you almost as many mtb riding it as gravel people

I vote for an XC bike. XD I'm fat (100kg) and XC bike enabled me to climb hills that I don't see myself climbing with road bike gearing. My setup. 60k Philippine Pesos. Specs: 32T chainring 10-51Tcogs Full 12 speed deore (exept hubs) Hardtail M 16 TA 12x142 SRSuntour Raidon32 27.5 TA 15x100 (total weight 12.7KG including multitool, bottlecage, bell, headlight 1000 lumens, tail light brake sensing) You could build a 500 usd xc hardtail with rigid fork and 2by 12 slx(front mech and deore the rest of the groupset, mt200 brakes and still gonna give you pretty nice bike.

Well some XC Tires are significant faster than gravel tires even with big 29er

I just bought a full-sus Specialized Epic Evo Comp, which is currently on sale for $3000, list $4750. I mounted up a set of 700x47 Specialized Pathfinder Pro's. That's my Gravel bike.

If you want to know what makes a modern XC tire roll faster check out (www.youtube.com/@DylanJohnsonCycling) it is the sidewall and the rubber used in the tread more than the actual tread. I have an older gravel bike, but I'm thinking of building a very light 29r hard tail, maybe even a ridged Niner and running 2.1 XC tires, but I'll keep my Crux too. :)

RE steel v titanium - have you considered the chap is thinking “new steel” v “2nd hand titanium”?

LOL, 968 feet climbing is considered big in England. 😂

Titanium is as good as the person welding it. There can be no oxygen anywhere near the area being welded or the the welded joint will be weakened to the point that it will certainly fail! I would stay away from cheap titanium bikes. A catastrophic failure could cause injury. There’s no warranty for that. Steel is much more forgiving in the area. If there are budget concerns then steel is the way to go!

Both 😂

Both, the answer is both

Ugh… the slog of MTB on tarmac. 🥵 I have switched to *driving* to the trailhead, I couldn’t bear those 5-6 miles before and after. 😮‍💨 Any significant time on asphalt, go with the gravel bike.

If u r riding more than 50% off road get a xc, if u r riding more than 50% on road/hardpack get a gravel bike

😂 the position. Ha ha. Both roadies, no shame in it. You have no idea how to ride MTB. There are things you just cannot do on drop bars. Wide flat bars provide more control and leverage at speed. Check Joe Nations clip of his shake down ride on his channel and you will understand why he rode an MTB on the tour divide when others rode drop bar gravel rigs. Yes a gravel bike won the tour divide but pretty sure Joe had more fun getting on the podium.

Gravel is the biggest scam in the bike industry. aIf I want to ride off road i get my spark xc bike and do everything I want. If I fell like riding on normal road, I take my addict rc for a ride :)

Gravel bike is better end of discussion