Love Gravel Bikes / Not Gravel

Noonievut wrote:

After years of playing around on the gravel roads near where I live, I’ve come to realize that riding on gravel roads is not for me.  But the bikes sure are!

I live in a small city an hour away from a large one, and I border on pretty low traffic (mostly paved) rural roads: farms, few traffic lights, small communities sprinkled here and there.  There are some gravel roads, but the paved ones are more comfortable on the body and when I ride, there isn’t much traffic.

I love my road bike and ride it regularly.  Though my gravel bike; with its wider tires, more relaxed geometry, and with the confidence that I can ride over bad pavement, hop up on the sidewalk as needed, take a small section of dirt, grass or gravel whenever I want is for me, so appealing, so fun and more adventurous.  And I do these mainly paved rides regularly and have fun, and it has nothing to do with ‘gravel’.  It is probably where bikes should have went years ago from a marketing perspective, had it not been for wanting to be like tour pros.

They did go there years ago and called them hybrids.

fwiw: I have 3 (three!) gravel bikes.  One for riding the way you describe, one for racing in events such as Unbound, and one for serious chonk bikepacking torture.

I find even chonk gravel can be as comfortable as a rugged tarmac when the correct geometry is being used so that the tires and psi can be dialed in. 

Noonievut wrote:

After years of playing around on the gravel roads near where I live, I’ve come to realize that riding on gravel roads is not for me.  But the bikes sure are!

I live in a small city an hour away from a large one, and I border on pretty low traffic (mostly paved) rural roads: farms, few traffic lights, small communities sprinkled here and there.  There are some gravel roads, but the paved ones are more comfortable on the body and when I ride, there isn’t much traffic.

I love my road bike and ride it regularly.  Though my gravel bike; with its wider tires, more relaxed geometry, and with the confidence that I can ride over bad pavement, hop up on the sidewalk as needed, take a small section of dirt, grass or gravel whenever I want is for me, so appealing, so fun and more adventurous.  And I do these mainly paved rides regularly and have fun, and it has nothing to do with ‘gravel’.  It is probably where bikes should have went years ago from a marketing perspective, had it not been for wanting to be like tour pros.

stu wrote:I'm thinking about putting together a single-speed for riding around town.  Most of those are track bikes with tiny tires and twitchy handling but I've seen a few frames which have more relaxed geometry and accommodate wider tires.  A few could be made into gearless gravel bikes.

Volsung wrote:

Every time I think of doing this I remember that my insurance covers my bikes and I could just replace my any stolen bike with one that isn't such a hodgepodge of parts that mostly work fine together.

Angstrom wrote:I keep seeing reviews referring to gravel bikes as having "sluggish" handling.  I suspect it's because the reviewers are used to riding race bikes.  Me, I call the way my gravel bike handles "stable" and "reassuring".   Has anyone actually had trouble getting their bike around a corner?   I've ridden bikes with sneeze-and-you're-in-the-ditch responsiveness, and thank you, no.