Well Known Gravel Rides

[beeatnik]

I've had my Cielo for a few months and the pictures of the ride below have reallly inspired me. Are these rides open to the public? The roads here in SoCal dont have much variety. Definitely no farms.

http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/f2/ballers-ride-2013-v3-its-like-donkey-kong-33064-41.html#post513530

[JAGI410]

That doesn't look like gravel! Almanzo, Dirty Kanza, Dekalb Gravel Metric, and Trans Iowa are the big ones that come to mind. They seem to be popping up everywhere. There's a couple of really cool ones here near Fargo coming up soon. The Innuendo Gravel Grinder in June, and the Woodchipper 100 in September.

[coylifut]

this is an area standard. there's many more around here. too many to list

http://www.rapha.cc/part-6--map

[false_Aest]

I've had my Cielo for a few months and the pictures of the ride below have reallly inspired me. Are these rides open to the public? The roads here in SoCal dont have much variety. Definitely no farms.

http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/f2/ballers-ride-2013-v3-its-like-donkey-kong-33064-41.html#post513530

Where in SoCal are you riding?

[beeatnik]

^Born and raised here. Lived in the Bay Area for a minute. Spent a lot of time in Seattle for business and fun. That said, the scenery here is mind numbing. I love chaparral and you can't beat a Mediterranean climate for riding, but I like "real" trees as well. I also like clean roads. Kinda sucks that to get good riding in I need to head to the ocean, risk my life on PCH or ride in a neighborhood where the average home is 5 mil plus.

Mt. Diablo > Mt. Baldy or Wilson or the Santa Monicas...IMO.

[gavingould]

The Midwest seems to have the big concentration of these. Did Gravel Metric yesterday. Ben Berden and Caroline Mani kicked my ass.

[joosttx]

Just North of you in SLO and Santa Maria area there are excellent gravel/dirt road riding.

Although not as bucolic as the NE probably just as or more fun. You have to remember that there are more miles of unpaved roads than paved roads in VT.

If you are looking for rides in the Bay Area, the SF group of RUSA has some awesome cues sheets for mixed rides on their website.

[Louis]

If you're looking for a multiple-day ride and you like flat, zero traffic, and fairly scenic, here in MO we have the Katy Trail State Park, (http://www.mostateparks.com/park/katy-trail-state-park) which is a 240 mile long rail-to-trail route.

Edit: 99.999% of the route is not as busy as that picture suggests. Most of the time it's just you, and depending on the time of year, crickets.

http://www.katytrail.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/katy_trail.jpg

[charliedid]

The Midwest seems to have the big concentration of these. Did Gravel Metric yesterday. Ben Berden and Caroline Mani kicked my ass.

No kidding...I was just happy to finish and ride every inch and more of it, except the track crossing.

Now I see why people like Garmins

[holliscx]

D2R2 would love to accommodate your Cielo

[redir]

Where are those pics? Looks a lot like where I am in Virginia. I really don't know why people like gravel roads so much? I can't hardly have a good ride without some stretches of gravel and I could do without it :confused:

[gone]

. I really don't know why people like gravel roads so much? I can't hardly have a good ride without some stretches of gravel and I could do without it :confused:

Probably the biggest reason (aside from the challenge of riding a different terrain) is little to no traffic.

[54ny77]

who the hell invented "gravel riding" as its own genre?

i believe the european term for it is, "riding on crap roads."

and somehow, along came rapha.

:p

[Steve in SLO]

Just North of you in SLO and Santa Maria area there are excellent gravel/dirt road riding.

Although not as bucolic as the NE probably just as or more fun. You have to remember that there are more miles of unpaved roads than paved roads in VT.

If you are looking for rides in the Bay Area, the SF group of RUSA has some awesome cues sheets for mixed rides on their website.

There are some nice ones near SLO for sure. What are your favorites? There might be something I don't know about and I'm always up for somewhere new.

[redir]

Probably the biggest reason (aside from the challenge of riding a different terrain) is little to no traffic.

That's a good point but last week I did a stretch of paved road that was 42 miles long and I counted 13 cars that passed me :)

When cars do pass on a gravel road you are left to breath dust. Nothing worse then blowing dust buggers out the rest of the day :eek:

[zap]

I've had my Cielo for a few months and the pictures of the ride below have reallly inspired me. Are these rides open to the public? The roads here in SoCal dont have much variety. Definitely no farms.

http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/f2/ballers-ride-2013-v3-its-like-donkey-kong-33064-41.html#post513530

For the specific weekend event linked you would need to contact TooTall.

Otherwise.

These rides start at the Acorn Inn in Nellysford, VA. The inn keeper (Martin) is a former pro cyclist and has all the routes. I've ridden some of the dirt roads featured. Conditions vary due too heavy rains and if they have been maintained recently.

[Brucer]

Gravel's a pretty good test of your bike handling skills, and you have to concentrate. And you can always pretend that you're riding the Strade Bianche.
(http://www.steephill.tv/classics/strade-bianche/)

[false_Aest]

^Born and raised here. Lived in the Bay Area for a minute. Spent a lot of time in Seattle for business and fun. That said, the scenery here is mind numbing. I love chaparral and you can't beat a Mediterranean climate for riding, but I like "real" trees as well. I also like clean roads. Kinda sucks that to get good riding in I need to head to the ocean, risk my life on PCH or ride in a neighborhood where the average home is 5 mil plus.

Mt. Diablo > Mt. Baldy or Wilson or the Santa Monicas...IMO.

Brah,

Have you hit the fire roads? Little rougher than gravel little less than CX. A year or 2 ago I was doing with 27mm tires with little issues... better on a CX rig though.

[beeatnik]

Brah,

Have you hit the fire roads? Little rougher than gravel little less than CX. A year or 2 ago I was doing with 27mm tires with little issues... better on a CX rig though.

On the agenda. What's your favorite loop in the Santa Monicas/Mulholland?

[KidWok]

Well...not well known but I was trying to get one off the ground this last year in Sun Valley, Idaho. It seems that the gravel ride is the next big thing and I was hoping to get ahead of the trend. We were going to do a two-day ride covering about 50 miles each day. At 6,000+ ft. elevation, that probably would have felt like back to back centuries. My train of thought was that most gravel rides are competitive events, but that there would eventually be a demand for recreational "century" style events.

Unfortunately we had to pull the plug because our organization is in a deficit year and can't afford to lose money to start an event. We couldn't find suitable sponsors to get us a bit of start-up funding like we did for the Oregon coast event I launched back in 2010. Initially, the thought was to just pull off a small event in 2013 to show momentum to potential sponsors. The organization sadly made the decision to pull the event just as the marketing hit the ground.

I do still think that gravel rides are coming in a big way. My boss didn't get it at all...told me not to use the word GRAVEL because it didn't sound pleasant...so I used DIRT.

Tai

[FastVegan]

Leland Kermesse, now that was a real gravel race. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_5FKhg4NOM

[redir]

As I sit down now and enjoy a Devil's Backbone Congo IPA I remember the Devils Backbone Mountain Cross ride in Virginia. Lots of gravel roads. # flat tires later and I give up on that kind of thing for fun :p