Gravel has been the biggest shake up in cycling for decades. If you had told a group of cyclists that they would use drop bar bikes on trails in 2005, you would have had some surprised faces. Nobody expected it to turn into a UCI professional discipline and see well-known professionals racing on dusty roads. We got a new discipline in gravel. But it also brought us a huge amount of new technology and parts. One of the biggest surprises was the gravel groupsets.
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What Is A Gravel Bike Groupset?
A gravel bike groupset is a gearing set designed to be used on gravel, road, and mixed terrain surfaces. They are made to offer the best experience possible when changing gear, whether the road is smooth, rough, or even caked in mud.
A gravel bike groupset will consist of a crankset, bottom bracket, derailleurs, shifters, brakes, chain, and all the cables and hoses that bring it together. They typically look a lot like a road bike groupset as they use drop bar shifters and are set up very similarly.
Furthermore, they are designed to run very low ratios and still work properly when shaken by rough terrain. They also require brakes that work in all conditions and stop you quickly on all different terrains.
The main companies putting out gravel groupsets are Shimano, SRAM, Campnolo, and MicroShift. These are generally what most of the bike manufacturers are equipping the bikes with on the current market.
Related Reading: What is a Gravel Bike?
What’s The Difference Between A Gravel Bike Groupset And A Road Bike Groupset?
Many cyclists think a road bikes and gravel bikes have the same groupset, and we can appreciate on the surface, they do look very similar. Well, there’s actually a huge amount of difference between road and gravel bikes groupsets. Here’s what you can expect:
Much More Rugged
Gravel groupsets are designed not just for performance but to be much more durable and rugged. They are made to be able to take a hit, and manufacturers understand that there will probably be times you might fall off. You will also find some offer a better grip compared to a road groupset.
A good example is the Shimano GRX shifters. They have a much gripper surface on the brake levers. They are designed with a different pivot point and offer a flat surface to give you much more contact to stay in control on uneven surfaces.
Much Lower Ratios
Gravel bike groupsets have much lower ratios than road bike groupsets. When we speak about the ratios on a groupset, a high ratio will give you lots of gearing for descending, and a low ratio helps you climb. The lower the ratio the steeper the hill you can conquer.
You can work out ratios by dividing the teeth on the front chainset by the rear cogs. For example, if you have a 38t chainring on the front and a 40t, you get a ratio of 0.95. Road bike groupsets go as low as 1.06, but gravel bike groupsets go as low as 0.90. To work out your gear ratios, check out BikeCalc.
1X Options
When it comes to gravel groupsets, you will also find yourself with a large variety of 1X groupsets. These are where you only have one single smaller chainring on the front and a much larger cassette on the rear.
It means you get fewer ratio options, but you get lower ranges, and it’s much easier to get from your highest gear to your lowest gear very quickly. You also don’t have a front derailleur and do save weight when it comes to cabling.
Disc Brakes
When you are riding on off-road terrain, it’s much harder to stop than if you’re on the road. Good gravel bikes are equipped with disc brakes. These have much better stopping power and are superior on dirty trails and muddy conditions.
Disc brakes come in two different forms. You either get hydraulic or mechanical. The hydraulic brakes use fluid to compress the pads, and they are self-adjusting and incredibly powerful. Mechanical brakes use cables to compress the pads. They need manual adjustment and are not as powerful as their hydraulic competition.
Clutch Mechs
Although many people think the rear derailleurs are identical regarding road and gravel groupsets, that’s not always the case. On most gravel bikes groupset, the rear derailleur comes with a clutch mech.
A clutch mech tightens up the rear derailleur and stops the chain from jumping around too much when it comes to those really lumpy trails. Most work on a switch on the rear derailleur. When it is on, the gears feel much stiffer with the extra tension in the system.
Related Reading: 5 Best Electric Gravel Bikes
Gravel Bike Groupset Options
Now you know all about gravel bike groupsets, you’re probably wondering what one looks like. In this next section, we will show you some of the most popular gravel bike groupsets available and tell you a bit about them. Here are the gravel groupsets we’re going to speak about;
- Shimano GRX
- Campagnolo EKAR
- SRAM Rival
- MicroShift Advent X
Shimano GRX
Shimano is a company from Japan. They make very high-quality goods and have been since 1921. They don’t just make cycling components but also finish gear and rowing components. In modern times pretty much 50% of bikes have Shimano components installed. They offer great performance and reliability, as well as a great gravel bike groupset.
When Shimano released the Shimano GRX, they were well ahead of the competition and offered something very few other brands could. The GRX was ready for adventure on gravel tracks, and it was the groupset to have for mixed off road surfaces.
It offers a rugged finish and combines the technology from MTB and road groupsets. You get 1X and 2X systems and mechanical and electrical versions. The ratios are low, the rear derailleur comes with a clutch mech, the shifters are made with enhanced grip, and they only come in hydraulic disc brakes versions.
Campagnolo EKAR
Campagnolo was started in 1933 by Tullio Campagnolo in Italy. He was fed up with poor-quality racing components, so he started making his own. He was extremely successful, and Campagnolo is known as one of the highest-quality bike component manufacturers ever.
The Campagnolo gravel bike groupset is known as the EKAR. They wanted something that could rival the competition and the EKAR turned out to be something very special that didn’t follow the other company’s ideas.
The EKAR is a 1X groupset with 13 speeds. It offers an incredibly low range and ratios, which could get you up incredibly steep inclines with ease. It’s got a hydraulic clutch inside the rear derailleur, which gives silky smooth shifting no matter how bumpy the road. It’s got disc brakes and weighs less than 2.4kg which is incredible.
Related Reading: What is a Gravel Bike Frame?
SRAM Force
SRAM is an American company, and they were founded in 1987 in Chicago. They have always made high-quality cycling components and show amazing initiative when it comes to design. In modern times you will see a lot of SRAM groupsets on the roads and trails, and they offer an amazing alternative to Campagnolo and Shimano.
SRAM quickly adapted the technology to join in the gravel riding madness. They offer two different groupsets for gravel, the Rival and the Force. The Force is the higher level and is classed as one of the best gravel groupsets available.
The Force comes in both electronic and mechanical versions. It’s a 1×12 system that focuses on low ratios. It comes with an orbit fluid in the rear derailleur, which acts as a dampener on rough ground, and the brakes are incredibly powerful and lightweight. It’s an extremely reliable groupset and offers excellent performance. Many gravel bikes use the SRAM Force as it’s just a great all rounder.
MircoShift Advent X
MicroShift is a Taiwanese company, and they were founded in 1999. Many cyclists might not have heard of them before, but they are consistently growing and making a product good enough that many big brands have turned to them.
MicroShift made a name for itself with the Advent gravel groupset. They released the Advent gravel groupset in 2020. It’s not the highest performance, but as far as a budget groupset goes, it ticks a lot of boxes and boasts some excellent technology.
The Advent comes in both a 9-speed and a 10-speed. The Advent X is the 10-speed and currently their best model. It’s a 1X system and offers an incredible range of gears with a cassette on the rear, which goes all the way from 11-48 teeth, that’s basically mountain biking. It comes with a clutch mech to ensure a smooth ride when gravel riding.
Related Reading: Best Gravel Bikes Under 1000
What Is The Best Mechanical Groupset For Gravel?
It’s very challenging to single one mechanical gravel groupset as the best. It depends on the needs of the individual buying it. Here are our thoughts on each groupset and how we roughly rank them in different categories. This is our own experience from a lot of gravel riders feedback.
| Groupset | GRX | EKAR | FORCE | Advent X |
| Reliability | 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 3/5 |
| Performance | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 |
| Looks | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
| Value for money | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Parts Availability | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
| Total | 23/25 | 21/25 | 20/25 | 19/25 |
If I had to choose, I would invest in the Shimano GRX. It’s good value for money, parts are very easy to get, it performs excellently, and it’s still going to be excellent after years of riding, provided it gets looked after properly.
Final Thoughts
Gravel riding is a great way to get fit, explore new places, and meet new people. No longer do you have to make random parts work together to have off road riding capabilities on a drop bar bike. We hope you enjoyed our article and know exactly what to look for when getting yourself a gravel groupset.
Read More: Gravel Bike vs Road Bike