You can use either an MTB or gravel bike for any of our events; none of our rides are exclusively one or the other. All that matters is that your bike is suitable for riding off road. The question of which bike you should choose is harder to answer, as it will vary from person to person and ride to ride, but we've tried to give you some guidance here. While our events that open to any off road bike, each event may lean slightly more towards one than the other. So our MTB branded events will typically be shorter distances and may use some more rougher or more technical sections and places, while our Gravel branded events will generally be longer distances, with typically less technical surfaces involved. But the emphasis for all rides is off road - our Gravel events are not intended to be road rides with just a few bits of dirt track here and there; they are created to give you plenty of good, varied open hill riding. 

In our videos you’ll see us riding gravel bikes on most courses, regardless of whether it’s for a Gravel or MTB event, but really only because that’s our personal preference here in the Trail Break office these days. For individual riders though, that choice will vary. It will depend on your abilities and preferences; how happy you are to push the limits of where you can take a gravel bike for example, or whether you prefer to have the benefits of an MTB under you when the going gets rougher. The terrain, distance and weather/ground conditions may make a difference too. We try and guide you as best we can - you’ll see here a guide showing a suitability rating for different kinds of bikes, plus a physical and technical severity rating for the courses, and we’re going too add that information for all events as we go into the new season. But at the end of the day, that is only a guide, and the best choice is going to be different for every rider.