Are all road bikes 'allroad' bikes?

Is the industry trying to sell you the same bike twice?

Bike shop with gravel bikes
(Image credit: Getty Images)

It used to be oh so simple, just road bikes and mountain bikes. In the road category, we were limited to just two faithful options, endurance bikes and race bikes. Cyclocross existed too, in a muddy no-man’s land, but there was little mixing of the on- and off-road riding genres.

Then came gravel. It’s been the buzzword in cycling for the last half-decade, and for good reason. Emphasis on more casual riding, enjoying the outdoors and getting away from traffic resonates with the masses. It’s fair to say that the gravel genre has sculpted the landscape of the cycling industry in recent years.

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