| Right, that confirms it. I'm sorry but you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. > I guess you've not ridden the Great Divide? Long distance mountain bike touring. That is the most easy going barely off road biking on earth. Thousands of miles of fire and access roads, with a few miles of zero difficulty single track. > You could do it on a gravel bike, but it would be much more comfortable on a mountain bike. "A mountain bike". The overwhelming majority of mountain bikes are unsuitable for this. You wouldn't use any of the most popular types: trail, downhill, enduro. Gravel biking and mountain biking are world's apart. The closest thing to gravel biking or other long distance off road biking in mountain biking is cross country - but even then xc is _way_ more demanding than gravel. You can't ride gravel bikes on xc routes. Gravel biking is not a form of mountain biking. There does not need to be any elevation change of any kind to gravel bike. There are no features on a gravel trail. Anyway, sure, a hard tail xc bike is probably the best bike for that trip just due to the comfort of the larger tires. I bet you'd actually be just as happy with a fatty gravel bike though. You know, I just went and searched to see what people ride on that trail to confirm my suspicion about big tire gravel bikes. Would you look at that - I'm right. Hard tail xc / gravel bikes with fat tires. Additionally, the vast majority of them are running 1x front chainrings. Surprise surprise, I know what I'm talking about, and the people that seriously ride the trail you're trying to use to one up me made the same choices I recommend. What a "fad". https://bikepacking.com/bikes/tour-divide-rigs-2019/ > Gravel biking ... mountain biking ... the difference is mostly in the eye (or saddle) of the beholder. Absolutely clueless. The difference is stark. |