The history of “gravel riding”...

[BobbyJones]

...according to Specialized.

“Born in the American Midwest, gravel riding is one of the fastest–growing styles of cycling. The sense of adventure, conquering new challenges, and simply experiencing a new style of riding are some of its big selling points, but doing so without the proper tires makes the difference between having fun and cursing and hollering on the side of the road”

I’m relieved that we can finally put to rest WHERE this new style of adventure started. I’m hoping the next email promo will tell me WHO “invented” it.;)

[Joe Remi]

Has Specialized sued anybody for calling it gravel yet?

[93KgBike]

gråvel

[Waldo]

I thought it started about 130 years ago, but what the hell do I know...

[MattTuck]

The one statement of fact in that excerpt is that bigger tires are pretty much all you need.

Assuming your frame has the clearance, throw on some gravelking 32s for $30 a pop from Excel, and go enjoy some gravel "style" riding... There, now you have a gravel bike, for $60.

You don't need a new frame, you don't need new geometry, you don't need new brakes, you don't need a new drive train.

And honestly, even tires are only really important for recreational riders' comfort. You can ride smaller tires on pretty gnarly roads without anything exploding.

[wallymann]

I thought it started about 130 years ago, but what the hell do I know...

...back when gravel was *all* there was!

https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/20110713022004bicycle-smithsonian-list.jpg

[El Chaba]

This doesn't look like the Midwest....

[Joe Remi]

The one statement of fact in that excerpt is that bigger tires are pretty much all you need.

Assuming your frame has the clearance, throw on some gravelking 32s for $30 a pop from Excel, and go enjoy some gravel "style" riding... There, now you have a gravel bike, for $60.

You don't need a new frame, you don't need new geometry, you don't need new brakes, you don't need a new drive train.

And honestly, even tires are only really important for recreational riders' comfort. You can ride smaller tires on pretty gnarly roads without anything exploding.

Underbiking! (h/t to Chris Kostman on his RB-1 28 years ago).

[colker]

This doesn't look like the Midwest....

Tour de France was invented in Kansas by Specialized and Gary Fisher. I just read it on INstagram.
Is this what they call education?

[goonster]

Kostman did not advocate for wider tires. He said the skinny tires would dig down through the gravel to firmer ground below . . .

[Joe Remi]

Kostman did not advocate for wider tires. He said the skinny tires would dig down through the gravel to firmer ground below . . .

Yes, I was responding to the comment that wide tires aren't necessary. Hence, "underbiking".

[colker]

Now seriously... this kind of misinformation from Specialized borders intellectual dishonesty. There must be some law being broken here.

[NYCfixie]

Who hasn't Specialized sued for calling it gravel yet?

fixed it for you.

They are probably still on a high for stealing the "roubaix" trademark at the nashbar/performance/whatever fire sale.

[Joe Remi]

fixed it for you.

They are probably still on a high for stealing the "roubaix" trademark at the nashbar/performance/whatever fire sale.

"You can't call it gravel cuz it's on a GLOBE."

[KJMUNC]

Sinyard invented it all....he just hasn't got enough attorneys to sue us all....yet.

[kingpin75s]

Seems all they are really inferring is that the modern trend of gravel taking off as a specific and significant marketing segment has its recent roots in races like the Almanzo 100 and the Dirty Kanza 200.

Regardless of whether people have been riding off road since the bike was first built, seems like a fair inflection point to note as related to the current market.

[kingpin75s]

I’m relieved that we can finally put to rest WHERE this new style of adventure started. I’m hoping the next email promo will tell me WHO “invented” it.;)

Based on their WHERE comment I would assume the WHO would be Jim Cummins and/or Chris Skogen.

[gdw]

A lot of the rural roads in this country are actually dirt without gravel so we need to come up with a catchy new phase to discribe the act of riding on them. We also need to design a special bike optimized for that type of adventure.

PS - I invented dirt road riding in Upstate New York back when Nixon was President.

[Joe Remi]

Seems all they are really inferring is that the modern trend of gravel taking off as a specific and significant marketing segment has its recent roots in races like the Almanzo 100 and the Dirty Kanza 200.

Regardless of whether people have been riding off road since the bike was first built, seems like a fair inflection point to note as related to the current market.

Yes, but that's not as much fun as giving Sinyard crap ;)

[MattTuck]

Seems all they are really inferring is that the modern trend of gravel taking off as a specific and significant marketing segment has its recent roots in races like the Almanzo 100 and the Dirty Kanza 200.

Regardless of whether people have been riding off road since the bike was first built, seems like a fair inflection point to note as related to the current market.

Weren't Tour of the Battenkill and D2R2 started before those two, and also featured off pavement sections?

Seems like an attempt at myth making. Which is all fine and good for marketing, but as informed consumers we don't have to believe everything we are told.

[Joe Remi]

Weren't Tour of the Battenkill and D2R2 started before those two, and also featured off pavement sections?

Seems like an attempt at myth making. Which is all fine and good for marketing, but as informed consumers we don't have to believe everything we are told.

Maybe Specialized can invent the cobble bike.

[kingpin75s]

Yes, but that's not as much fun as giving Sinyard crap ;)

Agreed

[kingpin75s]

Weren't Tour of the Battenkill and D2R2 started before those two, and also featured off pavement sections?

Seems like an attempt at myth making. Which is all fine and good for marketing, but as informed consumers we don't have to believe everything we are told.

Sure. D2R2 started in the 90s.

However, the Almanzo and DK are reasonably considered the modern catalysts for what gravel has become. Again a key inflection point.

Heck. I get the idea of everything has been done before. I spent much of my riding time on my Willits Scorcher this past year. Looks about the same as the 1890s bike in Jan Heine's Competition Bicycle. All dirt then. I personally give a ton of credit to guys like Bruce Gordon and Wes Williams of Willits again for the Rock-n-Road bikes and tires as well as the Willits 28 Incher. Charlie Cunningham another pioneer who was ahead of everybody in so many ways including bikes that look a lot like a modern gravel bike, all things considered.

[unterhausen]

my guess is that mountain bikers really deserve the credit for the modern resurgence of gravel riding since the early '80s. Mtb'ers do a lot of gravel road riding.

[owly]

Didn't it start with the Australian goldrush in the late 1800s?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_Australia#/media/File:Cycling_goldminer_1895.jpg

This guy was Benedict before Benedict.

[MattTuck]

Sure. D2R2 started in the 90s.

However, the Almanzo and DK are reasonably considered the modern catalysts for what gravel has become. Again a key inflection point.

Heck. I get the idea of everything has been done before. I spent much of my riding time on my Willits Scorcher this past year. Looks about the same as the 1890s bike in Jan Heine's Competition Bicycle. All dirt then. I personally give a ton of credit to guys like Bruce Gordon and Wes Williams of Willits again for the Rock-n-Road bikes and tires as well as the Willits 28 Incher. Charlie Cunningham another pioneer who was ahead of everybody in so many ways including bikes that look a lot like a modern gravel bike, all things considered.

For sure. My point was just that there is little room for nuance in the kind of sweeping generalizations about the American Midwest in the OP.

The rise of off pavement riding in general (and off pavement racing in particular) was not something the big guys saw coming -- and kind of threw the "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" philosophy a curve ball. These were not races that were being broadcast, they were driven by participation.

That the industry saw the chance to create a new "gravel bike" bike category to sell N + 1 bikes is not something that I hold against them - they are businesses trying to make money. But to your point, the guys that made it happen on the technical level were the small guys. The bike industry was still trying to sell bikes with 23mm tires.

[saab2000]

I love that my home state of Wisconsin is crisscrossed with endless, quiet, winding paved roads. No need for a gravel bike there. There aren’t very many unpaved roads, at least in the southern 2/3 of the state.

[kingpin75s]

For sure. My point was just that there is little room for nuance in the kind of sweeping generalizations about the American Midwest in the OP.

The rise of off pavement riding in general (and off pavement racing in particular) was not something the big guys saw coming -- and kind of threw the "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" philosophy a curve ball. These were not races that were being broadcast, they were driven by participation.

That the industry saw the chance to create a new "gravel bike" bike category to sell N + 1 bikes is not something that I hold against them - they are businesses trying to make money. But to your point, the guys that made it happen on the technical level were the small guys. The bike industry was still trying to sell bikes with 23mm tires.

Generally agreed with the added thought. There seems to be some history of the little-big guy being in tune with a roots movement and having the ability to bring it to market.

Specifically, QBP is a big company. Local to me. It owns Surly and Salsa among many other brands. Each of these brands has been instrumental to taking a niche movement and bridging it to the masses. Surly and the Fat bike. Salsa and the Adventure and Gravel. I have known a couple generations of these guys through my local shop and I think that has helped the big guys I assume you are referring to the ability to jump in with more confidence. They can see it develop and the many arms of QBP does have influence.

[93KgBike]

Generally agreed with the added thought. There seems to be some history of the little-big guy being in tune with a roots movement and having the ability to bring it to market.

Specifically, QBP is a big company. Local to me. It owns Surly and Salsa among many other brands. Each of these brands has been instrumental to taking a niche movement and bridging it to the masses. Surly and the Fat bike. Salsa and the Adventure and Gravel. I have known a couple generations of these guys through my local shop and I think that has helped the big guys I assume you are referring to the ability to jump in with more confidence. They can see it develop and the many arms of QBP does have influence.

100% agree. And QBP continues to expand brand identification in their niche - I'm thinking about All-City, which has that big little-guy vibe; and they make quality interesting bikes (I really don't need it, but definitely yearn for a Gorilla Monsoon).

[happycampyer]

Weren't Tour of the Battenkill and D2R2 started before those two, and also featured off pavement sections?

Seems like an attempt at myth making. Which is all fine and good for marketing, but as informed consumers we don't have to believe everything we are told.

The unpaved roads around Battenkill and Deerfield (and the northeast in general. in my experience) are more hard-packed dirt than gravel, and those are the nicest roads to ride on. Riding on long stretches of crushed gravel sounds miserable—like a cyclocross course that is mostly one long sand pit, or skiing on ice. Are the roads in the midwest more gravel than dirt? If so, maybe it’s fair to say that “gravel grinding” is more of a midwest thing. If the unpaved roads around me (and in Litchfield, CT, western MA, VT, etc.) were mostly gravel, I’m with saab—I’m staying on the pavement.

[saab2000]

Riding on long stretches of crushed gravel sounds miserable—like a cyclocross course that is mostly one long sand pit, or skiing on ice. Are the roads in the midwest more gravel than dirt? If so, maybe it’s fair to say that “gravel grinding” is more of a midwest thing. If the unpaved roads around me (and in Litchfield, CT, western MA, VT, etc.) were mostly gravel, I’m with saab—I’m staying on the pavement.

Riding on long stretches of crushed gravel is indeed miserable. I don't see the appeal other than the reduction of automotive traffic by 95%. That is appealing. But it's fatiguing riding wonder every foot of the way what your front wheel is going to do when it sinks into a hidden pothole that's filled with sand or loose gravel. Not my thing.

Hardpacked unpaved roads are nice. Loose gravel roads suck.

[colker]

" “Born in the American Midwest, gravel riding is one of the fastest–growing styles of cycling"

Unless Specialized is talking about cycling over a specific terrain that only exists in the US, this sentence crossed the line into ignorant statements territory.

In Brasil most of the bikes have big fat balloon tires on big wheels. Hundreds of thousands bicycles are just like that. That´s how most of everybody rides: on gravel roads. We have one of the biggest cycling companies in the world, Caloi, turning those bikes every year and it´s been like this for the last 70yrs. Lance A rode for Caloi btw. Caloi had a partnership w/ E Merckx.

[joosttx]

" “Born in the American Midwest, gravel riding is one of the fastest–growing styles of cycling"

Unless Specialized is talking about cycling over a specific terrain that only exists in the US, this sentence crossed the line into ignorant statements territory.

In Brasil most of the bikes have big fat balloon tires on big wheels. Hundreds of thousands bicycles are just like that. That´s how most of everybody rides: on gravel roads. We have one of the biggest cycling companies in the world, Caloi, turning those bikes every year and it´s been like this for the last 70yrs. Lance A rode for Caloi btw. Caloi had a partnership w/ E Merckx.

Once again Brazil has missed out to capitalize on their vast natural resources. :banana:

[William]

I invented it in the forests of Washington State riding logging, fire, and meandering backcountry roads when I was a kid. Wildcat, Scrambler, Varsity, Monte Carlo, wide tire, skinny tire, yada, yada, yada...I rode it all. :bike:

Hey Sinyard, come at me bro!:D






W.

[colker]

Once again Brazil has missed out to capitalize on their vast natural resources. :banana:

Maybe.... Specilized is still looking stupid w/ that statement but you could capitalize on this wonderfull sense of humour:
Picking on other nationalities. Borderline ethnic prejudice. Awesome Joost. .. as usual.

[colker]

I invented it in the forests of Washington State riding logging, fire, and meandering backcountry roads when I was a kid. Wildcat, Scrambler, Varsity, Monte Carlo, wide tire, skinny tire, yada, yada, yada...I rode it all. :bike:

Hey Sinyard, come at me bro!:D






W.

Exactly.

[El Chaba]

Riding on long stretches of crushed gravel is indeed miserable. I don't see the appeal other than the reduction of automotive traffic by 95%. That is appealing. But it's fatiguing riding wonder every foot of the way what your front wheel is going to do when it sinks into a hidden pothole that's filled with sand or loose gravel. Not my thing.

Hardpacked unpaved roads are nice. Loose gravel roads suck.

It's another case of the romance of the notion being far greater than the reality. My county has no unpaved public roads. An adjacent county has about 100 miles of them. Like you wrote, hard pack is one thing, but our unpaved roads have a very high sand content. In summer it is like riding on a dry beach. When things are wet the wheels function as an abrasive distribution system for the various parts of the bike. In short, it sucks. There are times that I ride over these roads, but I look at it as something to be negotiated and not an end in itself or an epic reenactment of some sort.

[Dasarbule]

Gravel riding loses a lot of its romance the first time a huge Dodge "Dually" rips past, throwing a wake of deadly projectiles in every direction as it slews around you at 90km/h. It's a great day if they aren't shouting obscenities at you as they make their way past.

[unterhausen]

I would say my main complaint about the local gravel is that it's too well maintained. It's just about perfect by hunting season, but then riding on it isn't prudent and the snow starts then too.

I have ridden on well-maintained gravel in Iowa, and I'm not a fan of that. Around here, the interesting roads are gravel, the entirety of happy valley has been overrun by sprawl and there are very few roads that don't just go past one crappy little house after another. And the bulk of the inhabitants are nasty little people that take out their frustration with their poor life choices on cyclists.

[coolplanetbikes]

Here in Vermont we have more dirt than pavement and most of the time the dirt roads are in better shape than the paved ones (pot holes and deteriorating shoulders with no bike lanes in most places). I also routinely ride my 25s on the packed dirt and maintain averages very close to those on the pavement. They suck on loose stuff and washboard but I'd rather have the efficiency than the comfort. My cobbled together "gravel bike" is essentially a 700c road frame with disc brakes and mountain gears with 34c semi-slicks. I built it 10 years ago...

[choke]

My cobbled together "gravel bike" is essentially a 700c road frame with disc brakes and mountain gears with 34c semi-slicks. I built it 10 years ago...You have to satisfy my curiosity....what road frame had discs 10 years ago?

[coolplanetbikes]

Yeah the frameset is a 2008 Scott Sub 10 - nothing fancy. Originally designed to be a commuter but it's got long and low geo (like a road frame) with 700c wheels, discs, and big tire capacity. Ahead of it's time I suppose. Pic here: https://www.rei.com/product/766794/scott-sub-10-classic-bike-2008

[kingpin75s]

The unpaved roads around Battenkill and Deerfield (and the northeast in general. in my experience) are more hard-packed dirt than gravel, and those are the nicest roads to ride on. Riding on long stretches of crushed gravel sounds miserable—like a cyclocross course that is mostly one long sand pit, or skiing on ice. Are the roads in the midwest more gravel than dirt? If so, maybe it’s fair to say that “gravel grinding” is more of a midwest thing. If the unpaved roads around me (and in Litchfield, CT, western MA, VT, etc.) were mostly gravel, I’m with saab—I’m staying on the pavement.

Probably a fair statement. My Aunt lives in southern NH and started the Rose Mountain Rumble after joining me in MN for the Almanzo 100 in 2014. She was surprised at the difference between NH gravel and MN gravel. She equated Almanzo gravel to ball bearings on concrete and found it in great contrast to what she was used to. 2014 was not even near the brutal course that 2012 and 2013 were. 50-80 miles of deep edge to edge those years.

Most of my NE gravel riding is like what we call "hero gravel" in MN. Good, fast hard pack.

Each region has their own. Have not been to the DK region but hear that stuff is pretty rough flint, limestone and shale. Even some of the counties in western MN, where they contract cheap gravel, provides a very different experience. I take my mountain bike or Fat with me to train when I head that way.

All semantics in the end.