3 Gravel Bike Fit Tips: How to Adjust your OBED's Fit for Gravel Riding

Congrats, you’ve taken an unknown road. You've left civilization behind. You’re fine with getting a bit dirty. Maybe you’ve got grit in your teeth after your ride. 

That’s right, you’ve gone gravel. Maybe you came from road riding. Maybe you’re a mountain biker. Maybe gravel is your first entry into the world of cycling. Whatever the case, riding a gravel bike is a slightly different experience from other disciplines. That means a few changes in your bike fit may be in order.

First off, be sure you're riding the right size frame. If you need help determining the right size, don't hesitate to reach out to our team for advice. 

So how does a gravel bike fit—and ride—differently from its closest dropbar cousins, the road and/or cyclo-cross bike? On its face, your new Boundary may look like your road bike or your cyclo-cross machine. The differences are subtle—but important. Both road bikes and cyclo-cross bikes are engineered for quick handling in tight quarters—think crit races with tight cornering or cross races with hairpin u-turns and barrier jumps where slight steering inputs can change your line in an instant. A gravel bike, on the other hand, is designed for more relaxed handling and greater control on (generally speaking) gravel, dirt, and unpaved roads.

OBED designer, certified bike fitter, and gravel rider Brad DeVaney designed our gravel range with all of this in mind and provided his input:

“On the road, fit specialists often set us near our stack minimum and reach the maximum in order to ‘optimize’ us. We sometimes find fitters can be a bit extreme, and adjust from his or her recommendations." DeVaney says. "With gravel, I’ve personally found a new norm that I wish I’d found decades ago. Gravel is teaching fitters to become better 'position coaches' and helping cyclists to ride with more degrees of bend at the elbow. I’d love to drop a magic formula or correction factor to adjust from an existing setup, but I feel position and fit always deserve a fresh look at a cyclist in their current situation, and not reflect on who we used to be."

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DeVaney has three key considerations when setting up your new OBED... 

1. Find a Neutral Body Position

It all starts with body position—how you are set and balanced atop the bike. “The setup should mimic road, yet allow you to hinge slightly more at the elbow,” DeVaney says. “This provides massive gains in comfort and shock absorption while maintaining our personal ranges of optimized hip angle within our window of position.”

2. Set Up Your Cockpit for Comfort and Control

Your road bike, with the long and low stem? You won’t need it for gravel. Instead, lean toward using a standard stem that’s 10 to 20mm shorter than what you typically run on your road bike and a bar stack (height) anywhere from 1 to 4 cm higher than what you run on the road.

Why? With a slightly taller, shorter position, you’re better equipped for quick steering inputs and weight shifts that come about when, say, a front wheel wants to wash out, or a big rock is in your path at high speed. You're also allowing your body to relax more and stay upright and loose when riding on the bumpy undulations of dirt roads for a prolonged period. In short, your lower back will thank you.

You may also notice the proliferation of "flared" handlebars, which feature a drop section that flares out from a vertical to an angled position. Why is this the trend? While traditional bars have been engineered for aerodynamic efficiency, the flare in the drops of gravel bars provides a bit of a wider stance when riding in the drops. That, plus a position that rotates the wrist slightly, provides more comfort and control for gravel riders tackling rough or technical terrain, especially during longer rides.

3. High(er) Bars + Short(er) stem + Low(er) saddle = More(er) control

OK, that’s too many ‘er’s… but you get the drift. With a shorter, slightly higher cockpit, you're set to do bigger miles with less low back strain, as we mentioned. But you're also better able to access a more sustainable riding position in the handlebar drops.

In fact, many gravel pros will set their bars up with a few centimeters of spacers under the stem, or with a positive-angled stem, so they can spend more time riding in the drops, which helps them maintain control and quickly access the brakes while navigating tricky, rocky sections. That extra stack also gives you a bit more control and confidence on steep descents. 

Many of us will find riding on the tops or in the hoods more relaxing, but when racing, the drops have greater steering control and provide more leverage on the brake levers for more stopping power. Bringing the bars a bit closer to you in both stack and reach makes things less of a strain when doing long stints in the drops, whether in training or a race. 

But isn't a higher cockpit position less aero? Not necessarily, says DeVaney, who has some wind tunnel experience on the subject.

"As far as the aero efficiency of my gravel position goes, my head and torso are in the same plane," DeVaney says. "My hands are higher and less of my arm is catching the wind. Hard data will come soon. I know, from plenty of saddle time, that I’m not losing any watts based on 'sitting higher'—because I’m not." 

A slightly lower saddle height than on your road bike means you have the clearance for quick dismounts when needed (watch out for that rock garden ahead!) along with a bit of clearance from the saddle when negotiating steep drops when you have to shift your body weight way off the back of the saddle. A dropper post would certainly help there as well, but absent that, a slightly lower saddle helps provide enough clearance to slide back and prevent from going over the bars.

While your stack and reach changes from road to gravel are fairly benign, always be careful to not lower your saddle too much, in order to prevent the introduction of pedaling load changes that can cause knee issues. 

"Having been a diehard deep-drop x 130mm stem advocate for many years, I’ve found that maintaining the same to 1.5cm lower saddle height, along with a set of shallow drop, open bend gravel bars attached to a two-centimeter shorter stem, allows me to stay comfy for more than double the amount of time," DeVaney says. 

With a bit of thought and only a little change, your gravel bike can deliver a whole new experience, with a lot more comfort and fun.

If making equipment and fit changes seems a bit beyond your scope of expertise, be sure to reach out to your local fitter for advice or an in-person fit on your gravel bike. You can always call the OBED team as well for fit advice on your own OBED. We're always ready to help!

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