For clarity, I was referring to both 'cross bikes and endurance road bikes as showing their influence across the spectrum of what we now know as gravel bikes and noting that despite both cyclocross and endurance road bikes having curly bars, they are dramatically different from each other - naturally, as both influenced what we vaguely consider to be gravel bikes these days, you can find examples of 'gravel' bikes that take more after one than the other.
_However_, I'd also argue that like Cooper has said, true cross bikes are a narrow category - narrower now more than ever as things like all-road and gravel bikes have spun off from cyclocross race bikes. It wasn't that long ago that if you wanted a "gravel" bike, you got to pick from a racey cyclocross bike (that probably didn't have the tire clearance you'd want), an endurance road bike (that almost certainly didn't have the tire clearance you'd want), or a touring bike. Now that gravel bikes exist in their own right and are kind of good, cross bikes get to be even more focused than before.
Or perhaps a more accurate statement is that many companies no longer make true cross bikes. They make bikes for other disciplines that they pass off as race bikes, because true cross race bikes don't sell like gravel bikes.
April 18, 2024, 10:16 a.m. - Lu Kz
For clarity, I was referring to both 'cross bikes and endurance road bikes as showing their influence across the spectrum of what we now know as gravel bikes and noting that despite both cyclocross and endurance road bikes having curly bars, they are dramatically different from each other - naturally, as both influenced what we vaguely consider to be gravel bikes these days, you can find examples of 'gravel' bikes that take more after one than the other. _However_, I'd also argue that like Cooper has said, true cross bikes are a narrow category - narrower now more than ever as things like all-road and gravel bikes have spun off from cyclocross race bikes. It wasn't that long ago that if you wanted a "gravel" bike, you got to pick from a racey cyclocross bike (that probably didn't have the tire clearance you'd want), an endurance road bike (that almost certainly didn't have the tire clearance you'd want), or a touring bike. Now that gravel bikes exist in their own right and are kind of good, cross bikes get to be even more focused than before. Or perhaps a more accurate statement is that many companies no longer make true cross bikes. They make bikes for other disciplines that they pass off as race bikes, because true cross race bikes don't sell like gravel bikes.