All-road vs gravel bikes – the differences (and similarities) explained

By Katherine Moore

Published: Wednesday, 11 May 2022 at 12:00 am

It’s a term that’s popping up more and more these days: all-road bikes, all-road kit, shoes, and all-road riding. But what exactly does all-road mean?

Here we drill down to exactly what is meant by all-road, what the emergence of the sub-category means for gravel bikes and how it differs (or doesn’t) to what’s already on offer.

What is an all-road bike?

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Broken tarmac and light gravel: the Salsa Warroad is marketed specifically as an all-road bike.
Salsa Cycles

Good question. In reality, the term ‘all-road’, isn’t particularly well defined and in many cases it’s easier to say what it isn’t, rather than what it is.

For some, all-road is an extension of the endurance road bike category: comfortable, wide-tyred road bikes that are capable of heading off tarmac onto hardpack and lighter gravel trails, or rather all ‘road’ types.

For others, all-road describes a subcategory of the gravel genre, leaning towards the lighter, faster and smoother end of terrain, rather than the more techy or steeper side of things. Perhaps an overlap with more gravel racing-specific bikes.

Road plus? Gravel lite? Road adjacent? Or just the perfect winter road bike?

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The Salsa Warroad is one of relatively few bikes that are marketed as an all-road bike.
Salsa Cycles

Relatively few bikes are currently marketed exclusively as all-road bikes, but that’s changing.

The Salsa Warroad was one of the first mainstream bikes marketed as an all-road bike. The brand’s “80% road, 20% whatever” tagline for the model sums up the category quite nicely.

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The Wilier Rave SLR can be built up as you wish for racier or rowdier riding.
Wilier

The aero-shaped Wilier Rave is another example. This can be built up as an all-road or gravel bike setup, depending on your componentry choices.

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Cannondale Synapse Carbon LTD RLE
Cannondale

The ‘LTD’ build of the new Cannondale Synapse is also marketed as an all-road bike, with 30mm WTB Exposure tyres and a 2x Shimano GRX groupset.

In terms of what all-road isn’t, you won’t find features like dropper seatposts or novel suspension designs in this category, and you’re pretty unlikely to see 650b wheels (although framesets are likely to be compatible with both wheel sizes).

All-road bike vs gravel bike: what’s the difference?

Tyres and clearance

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The Washburn is tyre brand Teravail’s take on an all-road offering.
Teravail

Both all-road and gravel bikes feature plump tyres to help deal with rougher road surfaces and trails, though the best gravel tyres tend to be wider, with frame clearances to match.

All-road tyres typically range in size from around 28mm to 38mm, whereas gravel tyres tend to range from 35mm to 57mm.

Tyre brand Teravail offers two ‘all-road’ treads: the near-slick Rampart and the slick-centred and knobbly-shouldered Teravail Washburn, which the brand claims suits “rides that cover everything from rough pavement to fast gravel”. WTB’s semi-slick Byway, Horizon and Exposure tyres fulfil a similar duty.

As you’re more likely to find a greater range of terrain types with gravel or ‘adventure’ riding, for example slippery mud, slick roots and singletrack, the number of different tread designs available for gravel riding is accordingly more diverse than all-road options.

Wheel size

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Forget 650b when it comes to all-road riding.
Dylan VanWeelden/Roval

All-road bikes are mostly likely to be built around faster rolling 700c wheels, as reducing wheel size to 650b in order to fit wider volume tyres isn’t as popular as in the gravel category.

You might still find 650b wheels on smaller-sized frames though, helping to maintain proportional geometry.

Geometry

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Racy gravel or relaxed road: all-road geo tends to fall between road and gravel norms.
Russell Burton / Immediate Media

While you should expect a more comfort-oriented design than an all-out road race bike, the geometry of an all-road bike in reality is not too dissimilar to most gravel bikes.

For example, the head-tube angle of the Salsa Warroad (size 56cm) measures in at 71 degrees, whereas the gravel Warbird is marginally slacker at 70.75 degrees. There’s a greater difference in terms of wheelbase, with the Warroad shaving 18mm off the total length of the bike.

As most gravel bikes are designed to perform both on and off-road, the differences between geometry here are actually not as pronounced as you might expect.

Gears and braking

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You’re more likely to see 2x when it comes to all-road bikes, though not exclusively.
Shimano

While the jury’s out on 1x vs 2x for gravel riding, most all-road bikes feature a 2x drivetrain to give the widest range of gearing with plenty of options at either end, more akin to a road cycling setup.

Less mucky conditions than found when gravel riding means that you’re less likely to run into trouble with a clogged up front derailleur, too.

Hydraulic road disc brakes are almost unanimous on new bikes in this category, favoured for their reliable performance over a range of conditions and good braking modulation.

Suspension, droppers and mounts

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Dropper posts might be a thing on gravel bikes now, but you’re very unlikely to see one on an all-road bike.
Russell Burton / Our Media

As all-road riding tends to favour the pedalier side of gravel rather than rooty, rocky, see-how-far-you-can-get-your-bum-over-the-back trails, you won’t find suspension or dropper posts as standard here.

For all-road bikes with bikepacking capability, you might find more mounts than a typical road bike (think triple boss mounts on the fork blades, under the down tube, top tube), allowing you to carry extra gear for your adventurous long or multi-day rides.

All-road: the perfect winter road bike?

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Most bikes marketed as all-road bikes will let you fit mudguards.
Oli Woodman / Immediate Media

With chunkier tyres to tackle potholes, broken roads and back lanes that appear more like farm tracks than tarmac, plus mounts for mudguards and a geometry that puts comfort over all-out performance, it’s no wonder that some riders are turning to all-road rigs for winter road bikes.

Rather than trash your fanciest road bike through the muck, ice and salty roads, a more robust and winter-friendly all-road alternative certainly isn’t a bad shout. Plus, you’ll really feel the benefit when it comes to swinging a leg back over your best bike in the spring.

All-road vs gravel – what’s right for you?

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The BMC Roadmachine X is another good contender for the all-road category.
David Schultheiss / BMC

If you’re stuck choosing between an all-road bike like a BMC Roadmachine X and a gravel bike, take some time to think about what kind of riding you’d like to tackle.

If you’re predominantly going to stick to the road with some short forays onto well-groomed, light and dry gravel roads, then an all-road bike might be just the ticket.

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From pavement to dirt, and all-road bike can be a real enabler for more adventurous rides.
Salsa Cycles

However, if you’re after something more versatile where you can also fit chunkier tyres and head onto more technical singletrack and route over a greater variety of terrain, a gravel bike will probably be a better idea.

Remember that you can radically change the ride feel of your bike with a switch of tyres: narrower and slicker will rider totally differently to chunkier knobblies, and a gravel bike will be able to fit both.