Trace Velo - Pushing My Cheap Gravel Bike Too Far: The MTB Test

Will a cheap Chinese gravel bike with suspension and chunky tyres rival a mountain bike? Let’s hit some MTB trails and find out!

SIROKO CLOTHING – 10% off (automatically applied via link below):
https://srko.co/tracevelo

Since building a gravel bike a few years ago, I have been upgrading it with various parts from AliExpress to make it more capable off-road. When I first built it up, it was great fun. It was fast and nimble on tarmac, and rode well on some gentle forest paths, but on anything that could be considered “off-road”, the ride was too stiff and I was shaken to pieces.

As a result, I made a bunch of upgrades. Namely fitting some chunky 29x2.0 mountain bike tyres (which equate to 700x50c), and slapping on a gravel suspension fork. It instantly became a much more capable bike off-road, but just how capable was it, and could it now rival a legit mountain bike? In this episode, I set out to answer that question.

I took the bike out to Spain, and rode it on some MTB trails just outside Madrid. The bike did well on the more gentle rocky tracks, but on the really rough stuff, it definitely struggled, and so did I…

But are these upgrades even necessary on a regular gravel bike, and should I have just taken a mountain bike like everyone else?

Gravel suspension video:
https://youtu.be/5DHiPd3ROMo?si=C9uRF8UTZH9_ksYb

Gravel suspension fork:
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEn...

Timestamps:
00:00 – Upgrading my gravel bike
01:23 – Flying to spain
03:06 – Day 1 MTB route
05:12 – Concerns with the bike
06:41 – Hitting the rough stuff
11:19 – First crash
13:27 – Bike discussion
17:34 – Day 2 MTB route
19:31 – Rocky mountain path
21:57 – Siroko sponsor
22:26 – The final climb and decent
24:02 – Is this a mountain bike?
28:15 – Bonus cost and parts list

Intro roll:
Created by Dev Joshi - http://www.go2dev.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracevelo/
Email: tracevelouk@gmail.com

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