MTB for first gravel event?

Go for it!

I participated in a number of gravel races last year on this, my 29er XC hardtail with 2.1” tires. Perfectly acceptable. The only place you may suffer is in high pace group settings or long downhills where you need the extra gears.

So if you have some narrower or low-profile type tires on a 29er, you can do pretty well if you have a light-ish bike with either no suspension or a lockout capability. There are advantages to a full gravel bike, but you can make up for a LOT with the right tires and these other factors and then work the peloton correctly. Your biggest disadvantage will likely be aero, when riding alone. As long as you are hanging with a peloton or working with someone, you can minimize these effects. If your tires are a little more meaty, you can do things like take more aggressive corners, cut inside the "ditch" when the route changes roads, keep pedaling and keep speed up when it gets rougher, etc. I've worked these things all down to a science with my fat-bike and either 4 or 3.5" tires to the point where I can finish top 10 overall in the races around 40 miles or so. With a lower profile tire, rolling resistance isn't bad at all on gravel and a lot closer than you'd think. On pavement...it's just as bad as you'd think on a wider tire. Gearing is a challenge, especially in keeping up with the gravel-bike peloton, that's one place where mtbs differ a lot from road bikes, because in mtb we never really travel like this or benefit from such a big reduction in aero drag, so we generally don't have the gearing on mtbs to take advantage of it. For this reason, it keeps my RPM up around 90-100rpm (and more at times) for extended periods which is damn hard. Not everyone is trying to win...or even embarrass a bunch of gravel bikes, so the gearing thing isn't necessarily important for everyone, just that the dynamics of gravel riding are most similar to road riding, so that's a good way to set your expectations.

There are always lots of people that show up on hardtails and FS mountain bikes IME. The more "serious" racers show up on gravel bikes obviously.

Again, it makes a HUGE difference if you can find at least one rider to ride the majority of the race with, switch positions, etc. Aero drag is your main enemy and being able to switch out makes for a nice relief and ability to drink, eat, rest, etc. Low profile tires helps, don't necessarily need super skinny IME, but low-pro tread is good to have.

SingleSpeedSteven said:

I’ve done gravel races where there were people on fat bikes. Go for it.

Click to expand...

That's me. They (the gravel bikes) start ricocheting off my 800mm bars when it gets to narrow doubletrack too...