Are gravel bikes just drop bar, hard-tail mountain bikes? The new Ridley Ignite GTX opens the debate once again

Today, Ridley has announced the release of its latest off-road machine, the Ignite GTX.

Along with a new name, the Ignite GTX also appears to be trailblazing yet another gravel genre, with Ridley referring to the new bike as an ‘alpine gravel bike'. That’s because this is a gravel bike, which is designed from the ground up with mountain bike geometry in mind - and that’s got us thinking: have gravel bikes come full circle to the old 'hardtail with drop bars’ cliche that we’ve been hearing for years?

New Ridley Ignite GTX

First of all, let’s cover the details of the new bike. The usual claims, of course, still stand. The Ignite GTX is lighter, more capable, and more versatile than its predecessors, designed to tackle rocky mountain passes, sandy trails, and everything in between.

So, if the Ignite GTX isn’t a traditional gravel bike or a full-fledged mountain bike, what is it, and who is it for?

Ridley says the new bike is designed for ‘ultra-racing, bikepacking, and extreme adventure riding’. While mountain bikes can handle rough terrain, they lack the speed and efficiency of a gravel bike. On the other hand, gravel bikes struggle with technical off-road conditions. Enter the Ignite GTX, a bike that hopes to blend the two.

In other words, it’s a rugged gravel bike, or some may argue, a drop bar hard tail - more on that later!

At its core, the Ignite GTX is built on mountain bike geometry, taking inspiration from Ridley’s Ignite SLX hardtail. The slacker head angle offers stability, while ‘flex-stays’ are said to introduce additional comfort over rough terrain. And let’s not forget the wide tyre clearance - this bike accommodates up to 29 x 2.3” knobby tyres - that truly is a mountain bike tyre.

The geometry also allows the bike to be used with a suspension fork, though not the 40mm of travel we usually see on aggressive gravel bikes. Instead, the Ignite GTX can be speced with either a rigid carbon fork, or with 100mm of travel - once again the kind of spec you would normally see on an XC hard tail mountain bike.

Now as I mentioned, the Ignite GTX could be construed as a drop bar mountain bike - which is probably why Ridley has opted for just about the ‘flattest’ drop bar you can buy. The Ignite GTX is specced with a Ritchey Venturemax hanldlebar, which features 24 degrees of flare and a short drop for more control on technical terrain.

The bike will be available in four different build options, with three Sram builds - including a mullet setup, and a Shimano GRX 800 mullet build too. For the uninformed, this means a 27.5” rear wheel, and a 29” wheel up front.

Are we back to sqaure one?

I’m not sure any one of us would deny that gravel bikes have come a long way, but that doesn’t stop releases like the Ignite GTX sparking up old debate.

In the early days, before brands rushed to define the category, many riders were simply modifying old hardtail mountain bikes, slapping on drop bars, and heading off into the unknown. The result? A capable, go-anywhere machine that could handle rough terrain while offering the efficiency of a road-style cockpit.

Yet, as gravel bikes evolved into their own distinct breed - lighter, more aerodynamic, and more specialised - there was always a lingering joke among cynics- "Aren't gravel bikes just old hardtails with drop bars?"

Of course, it's not quite that straightforward, but there is certainly an argument that gravel bikes are starting to bleed into the mountain bike realm, with more and more bikes being specced with suspension forks and more aggressive geometry.

So, have we come full circle?

To answer that we really need to have a more detailed look at gravel bike geometry, and how that compares to the cross-country mountain bikes of today and yesteryear.

Let's take the two-time Gravel Bike of the Year-winning Giant Revolt X as an example. We praised this bike for its comfort, and more importantly, handling when we reviewed it, so what do the numbers look like?

In a size small, the Revolt X has 387mm reach, and 560mm stack. A 2010 Specialized Epic hardtail, in the same size, is 13mm longer, and 13mm lower by comparison - so on stack and reach, the Revolt X is shorter and higher. For both bikes, chainstays are at 425mm, however take a look at the head angle, and you'll see that the Epic is still a whole degree slacker at the front end, making it much better suited to steeper terrain. There are certainly similarities in the design, but the intricacies still make for very different handling bikes.

However, with all that said, there is certainly a divergence of the two categories, something which 2023 Australian Gravel Champion, Connor Sens, believes stems from racing.

"Mountain bikes and gravel bikes are definitely merging together. Now you're seeing more aerodynamic, clean dual-suspension and hard-tail mountain bikes used in gravel races. Gravel races are also getting more technical with single track sectors thrown amongst the courses."

Sens went on to describe how the limited increases in rolling resistance seen from running ultra-wide tyres are encouraging their adoption too.

Sens continued, "the improvements in bike technology will change people’s riding styles and where they ride, thanks to less limitations. With people no longer being 'under-biked' this will most likely progress further and you’ll see more and more technical sections in gravel racing as racing evolves because people are going out riding, or training on the trails.

But are gravel bikes just hard tails with drop bars? I don't think so - or at least not quite. What the release of the Ignite GTX, and other bikes like it show, is that the gravel discipline is continuing to grow and diversify.

People are pushing gravel bikes further and further, be that in the direction of technical singletrack, or fast racing, and those new demands provide the direction for bike brands to chase after. However, when's all said and done, it only means one thing: more choice for us consumers, and in my view, that has to be a good thing.