The 8 Best Comfort Upgrades for Your Gravel Bike

To ride your gravel bike farther, explore rougher terrain, or conquer tough races, you need to be able to endure some pain. From your hands to your back to your butt—if you’re riding a bike off-road for hours at a time, they can all end up hurting! 

Fortunately, there are plenty of upgrades you can add to your gravel bike to enhance its comfort. Here are some of the best comfort upgrades I’d recommend trying if you want to make your gravel bike as plush as possible. I’ve organized them roughly in order from most affordable to most expensive

OBED already offers a couple of these comfort upgrades in our bike builder, but you can also customize your gravel bike more by using the “Component Requests” box at the bottom of the order form. Don’t hesitate to contact us and ask if you can add a specific component to your gravel bike to make it extra comfortable right out of the box!

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1. Lower Tire Pressures 

• Comfort Improvement: ★★★★★ 
• Cost: Free!

Before we get into some more interesting stuff, and before you start spending money upgrading your bike, it’s good to make sure your tire pressures are dialed. 

Tire pressure will affect how comfortable your bike feels more than any component. Lower tire pressures help your bike absorb bumps and vibration, increasing comfort and traction. For gravel riding, you want to set your tire pressures to be set fairly low for maximum comfort, but not so low that you lose efficiency, experience punctures, or damage your rims. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your pressures to find the perfect balance. If you’re experiencing discomfort, you might discover that dropping your tire pressure a few PSI solves everything. 

The best part about this “upgrade” is, as long as you already have a pump with a tire pressure gauge, it’s free! If you want a good starting point, reference the tire pressure charts in our tire pressure guide. 

2. Thick and Comfortable Bar Tape

• Comfort Improvement: ★★★ 
• Cost: $

Standard handlebar tape is usually around 2mm to 2.5mm thick. If you want an easy comfort boost though, one of the cheapest upgrades is simply switching to a thicker bar tape in the 3mm+ range. Thicker handlebar tape will provide extra damping when you’re riding on the tops or the drops of your handlebars and take some of the sting out of bumps, potholes, and washboard roads.

These are the three bar tapes I like to recommend for maximum comfort: 

• Lizard Skins DSP 3.2mm Bar Tape
• Silca Nastro Cuscino 3.75mm Bar Tape
• Wolf Tooth Supple 5mm Bar Tape

I’ve spent a lot of time using all three of these bar tapes and have been very happy with how thick and cushy all three feel. We like using Lizard Skins on our bikes because, along with being comfortable, it’s extremely tough and tacky. Silca’s Nastro Cuscino feels fairly similar to me and it provides some different styles if you’re no into the Lizard Skins look.

If you want maximum plushness though, I don’t think anything beats Wolf Tooth’s 5mm thick Supple bar tape. The silicone texture is similar to an ESI mountain bike grip, so it’s not very tacky, and it also makes your handlebars look ridiculously thick, but if you suffer from hand discomfort, it’s one of the best options. 

3. Wider Gravel Tires

• Comfort Improvement: ★★★★ 
• Cost: $$

After dialing in your tire pressure and maybe your bar tape, using the widest tires your bike can fit is the next comfort upgrade I’d suggest. It’s worth maxing out your tire width before spending money on other components because, again, tires and tire pressure have the biggest impact on how your bike feels and performs. 

Wider tires have more air volume, which allows you to run much lower tire pressures than you can with narrower tires. Going wider will provide a huge increase in comfort, and as an added bonus, it will also improve your traction on loose and rough terrain. The main trade-off is that wider tires may feel heavier and slower on pavement. 

The OBED GVR and Boundary can clear up to 45mm tires, so if comfort is a major concern, then we’d suggest selecting 45mm tires when ordering. Currently, our main 45mm tire option is the Maxxis Rambler, but if you’d prefer something else, let us know! 

4. Gravel Tire Inserts

• Comfort Improvement: ★★★ 
• Cost: $$

If you're willing to deal with a bit of extra weight, tire inserts are a great comfort upgrade. They’re mainly intended to protect the rim from impacts and provide extra support for the tire sidewalls, but this also allows you to ride much lower tire pressures than you can without an insert. The foam of the insert also provides a bit of extra damping on rough and chattery surfaces. 

There are few gravel-specific inserts on the market, but after trying nearly all of them, I keep coming back to the trusty CushCore Gravel.CX insert. They’re one of the heavier options (~110 grams per insert), but in my experience, they provide the most protection and damping of any insert on the market. They’re also much tougher, so they will last thousands of miles and through multiple tire changes. Many of the lighter inserts I’ve tried tend to tear or disintegrate quickly, sometimes only lasting as long as a single set of tires. 

For many home mechanics, the biggest hassle of using inserts is the initial installation. If you let us know you want to add inserts to your build, however, our bike builders will install them for you! 

5. Suspension Stems and Seatposts

• Comfort Improvement: ★★★★  
• Cost: $$$

To smooth out gravel roads, I’ve found suspension stems and seatposts to be extremely effective at cushioning your hands and backside. There are a few good options on the market, but our favorites in this category are Cane Creek’s eeSilk stem and eeSilk+ seatpost. 

The eeSilk stem provides 20mm of travel controlled by an elastomer. It also comes with elastomers of different firmness levels to suit your weight or riding preferences. There are two versions, the SL and the CS. The CS adds a compliance switch that allows you to switch between soft and firm modes to suit your terrain. The eeSilk+ seatpost has 35mm of travel, also controlled by an elastomer. 

The feeling of riding a suspension stem and/or seatpost is interesting. You don’t feel your bars or saddle bounce up and down while you’re riding normally. I only notice them bounce when going all out, sprinting, or spinning at a very high cadence. Otherwise, it just feels like the bike “floats” beneath you while riding over choppy terrain. This adds a lot of comfort, and it also makes it easier to stay on the gas through rough terrain and stay off the brakes in corners. For riders who are really suffering from hand, back, or butt discomfort, I think these suspension products like this are a fantastic solution.

The eeSilk+ seatpost is currently an upgrade option in our bike builder. If you’re interested in the eeSilk+ stem, be sure to message our team. It can be added to the Boundary with little hassle, but with the OBED GVR, it will require us to switch to non-headset cable routing. 

6. Compliant Carbon Handlebars

• Comfort Improvement: ★★ 
• Cost: $$$

If a chunky suspension stem isn’t your style, a carbon handlebar designed with slightly more flex to handle bumps and chatter could be a decent alternative. Carbon bars won’t provide as much compliance or cushion as a suspension stem, or even bat tape, but they do provide a marginal comfort gain that I will happily chase.

Our favorite gravel-focused carbon handlebar is the FSA K-Wing AGX, which we offer as an upgrade option on the OBED GVR and Boundary. It has a gullwing shape that flexes to provide extra damping over bumps and vibration. The tops also have a bit of a curved aero shape, which I find pretty comfortable to hold. 

K-Wing AGX bars also have a "scoop" behind where the shifters mount that provides a nice cradle for your forearms if you like riding in an aero tuck on the hoods. There’s also a cutout along the outside of the drops that helps relieve pressure in your palms when riding in the drops for long periods of time. 

Overall, the K-Wing AGX bar is my favorite handlebar for gravel racing, and I’ve used it in long-distance events like UNBOUND Gravel (200 miles) and SBT GRVL (140 miles) and have been very happy with how it cradles my hands. It also just looks cool! 

7. Gravel Suspension Forks

• Comfort Improvement: ★★★★  
• Cost: $$$$$

Gravel suspension forks like the RockShox Rudy, Fox 32 Taper Cast, and Cane Creek Invert are fantastic for rugged terrain. I find that air forks like these don't have as much small bump sensitivity as a suspension stem, but they’re much better at absorbing harsh impacts from hitting bumps, potholes, or rocks. If you’re riding rough and rocky gravel or singletrack, a suspension fork is one of the best ways to increase the comfort and off-road capability of your gravel bike.

The downside is that suspension forks weigh a lot (~1,100-1,200g). The Cane Creek Invert is the lightest air fork available (990g), but if you want something even lighter, the Lauf Grit (850g) suspension fork is another option. The Grit uses glass fiber leaf springs to provide 30mm of travel. I’ve found the Lauf fork works great on small bumps and chatter, but it tends to bottom out and feel harsh for bigger hits. 

Overall, the Cane Creek Invert is our favorite gravel fork because we think it strikes the best balance between weight, comfort, and overall performance. If requested, we can install an Invert fork on an OBED GVR or Boundary gravel bike. 

Do note, gravel bikes that don’t use a “suspension corrected” fork (which have a longer axle-to-crown length to match the length of a suspension fork), will have their geometry affected when you swap in a suspension fork. The fork will raise the bottom bracket, slacken the head and seat angle, and increase stack height. 

Currently, the OBED GVR and Boundary do not use suspension corrected forks, but they are approved for a suspension fork if desired. It will simply make the bikes feel a bit less agile than stock, but that can be a worthwhile trade off for more comfort and confidence on rough terrain.  

8. A Good Bike Fit

• Comfort Improvement: ★★★★  
• Cost: Free? - $$$$

The last comfort item worth mentioning is your bike fit. Hopefully, your bike is the right size for you (contact us if you need help with sizing!), but even if it is the right size, getting a bike to fit you perfectly usually requires adjusting your position or swapping out key components like the stem or saddle.  

Finding a riding position that feels comfortable for long gravel rides can take some experimentation. It’s possible to arrive at a comfortable position without spending much by using trial and error (and maybe some YouTube videos). If you’re consistently struggling with pain, numbness, or other issues, however, then it may be worth enlisting the help of a professional bike fitter. 

I’ve had a lot of luck with Retul bike fitters, but there are plenty of high-end options so be sure to research fitters local to you. I got a bike fit before I did my first UNBOUND 200 and my fitter was able to help me address some persistent knee pain by increasing my Q-factor with long spindle pedals and spacers. He was able to see the cause quickly with Retul’s motion-tracking tech, which to me, made it worth paying $300-500 dollars for a professional fit. 

My bike fitter also helped me find a perfect cockpit position where my core could support my trunk, so I had less weight on my hands and arms. This has helped me stay fresher deep into long training rides and races. I’ve gone back to my fitter every couple of years ever since, just to keep things dialed as my body, fitness, and flexibility change. 

If you’ve already had a bike fit done and/or you know how you want your cockpit setup to match your ideal measurements, we can help out. OBED’s bike builder lets you choose different length stems, you can contact us to get your steerer cut to a certain height, or you can request to have a specific saddle installed. 

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