Where is the gravel?

[mhespenheide]

I prefer the terminology of "road-plus" because I'm semantically picky.

But on to the more important question, I first picked up a cyclocross bike about 8 years ago because there were two spur roads up into the hills near where I was living that I could ride, connect with 15-20 minutes of rough dirt road, and turn the whole ride into a loop. So, for that ride, 90% pavement 10% dirt. I suspect that most people are riding things like that, with a minority or riders having good access to dirt and gravel close enough to their front door to ride most of the time.

When I lived in Seattle, I would take a "gravel" bike with me when I left the city for the weekend and ride some of the massive network of forest service roads in the foothills of the Cascades.

Now that I've moved north of Santa Barbara, it's similar: if I want to do a real gravel ride with a majority of time on dirt/gravel, I need to drive to the start. So I'm back to riding a road bike with 32's and enjoying short segments of dirt.

[enr1co]

Originally Posted by spoonrobot

it's mostly just a fat-tire road bike

"gravel' = yesteday's marketing schtick.
"adventure", "expedtion"= latest marketing schtick.

[chiasticon]

Originally Posted by blindwilly

Is it regional?

YES. take a look at Michigan versus Indiana and Western Ohio (give it a minute to load all the segments): https://gravelmap.com/#@42.625877139...72931,7,hybrid

I live in the Akron/Cleveland area and we don't have a ton of dirt/gravel (other than a 100+ mile limestone canal path). but if I go an hour East or Southwest, there's a whole lot of it. enough that there are gravel races in these regions. but I don't see much of these roads because I prefer just riding out of my front door.

still, I think an all-road bike is a great thing, given the infrastructure that's literally crumbling around us. and it encourages you to just have fun, explore new roads, ride places you would otherwise never consider (doesn't just have to to be a gravel/dirt road).

[jtbadge]

When I lived in Kansas, once you hit the edge of town, hundreds and hundreds of miles of gravel roads going every direction. Big chunky stuff with endless rolling hills.

[dsimon]

If you have to ask you obviously cant afford it......................

[FlashUNC]

Komoot is pretty great to linking routes together too.

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by jtbadge

When I lived in Kansas, once you hit the edge of town, hundreds and hundreds of miles of gravel roads going every direction. Big chunky stuff with endless rolling hills.

Spaces Ride always includes at least 100 yards of gravel. When that increases to 150, I'll get an Opens 6fiddy with tractor tires!

[Cornfed]

Gravel biking was born in the Midwest, where gravel roads often make up the majority of the public road system. My home state of Iowa, for example, has ~40K miles of paved roads and ~70K miles of gravel roads. When I showed up at college in Ames with my Schwinn High Sierra all my buddies thought I was crazy -- a mountain bike in the middle of the plains -- but then I started riding the farm roads (the B roads), and riding them year round, and by the next year every one of them had a mountain bike. Fun times.

[jtbadge]

Originally Posted by beeatnik

Spaces Ride always includes at least 100 yards of gravel. When that increases to 150, I'll get an Opens 6fiddy with tractor tires!

How else are you going to #rideEverything ?

[Clean39T]

Sittin' in the kitchen, a house in Ojai
Bon Iver's singing on the radio
Smell of coffee, veg and tofu
Bike wheels on a gravel road

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by blindwilly

I'm sure the more rural you get the more gravel roads you will find but for those of us living in or near major metropolitan areas where are we finding these roads?

Are folks putting their bikes on racks and driving to the country? I guess in short what i am saying is that the amount of gravel talk and gravel bikes i see online seem to be completely disproportionate to the amount of gravel roads i see in life. Is it regional? what am i missing?

Someone asked a similar question, just the other day ...

"I'm sure the more mountainous you get the more singletrack you will find but for those of us living in or near major metropolitan areas where are we finding these trails?

Are folks putting their mountain bikes on racks and driving to the mountains? I guess in short what i am saying is that the amount of singletrack talk and mountain bikes i see online seem to be completely disproportionate to the amount of singletrack i see in life. Is it regional? what am i missing?"

[blindwilly]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

someone asked a similar question, just the other day ...

"i'm sure the more mountainous you get the more singletrack you will find but for those of us living in or near major metropolitan areas where are we finding these trails?

Are folks putting their mountain bikes on racks and driving to the mountains? I guess in short what i am saying is that the amount of singletrack talk and mountain bikes i see online seem to be completely disproportionate to the amount of singletrack i see in life. Is it regional? What am i missing?"

nice one

[EricChanning]

Loudoun Country, Virginia is worth the drive from DC to enjoy the gravel roads there. It has become a local destination for folks living in and around the DC area and while the roads could be experienced carefully on a road bike with 25mm/28mm tires, a proper gravel bike provides a much better experience.

The ability to escape car traffic and take in terrific scenery on 300+ gravel roads that climb, descend twist and turn has motivated folks to buy a gravel bike and be perfectly fine with the drive to get there.

For those who have become hooked, it hasn't replaced road cycling in the area but it has become a once or twice a month addition to overall experience of riding locally.

When we want longer, steeper climbs and tad more of a remote experience, we drive about an hour and a half west into West Virginia.

[OldCrank]

D2R2 just went by... never done it myself, but some parts sound pretty bumpy.
And climbing OH the climbing! Some parts of that may be suitable.

Anyhoo, I'm in North - Eastern Mass, and there's an 11-mile railtrail 6 miles away, in Danvers. It's been raked / rolled / smoothed lately, and that has actually made it kind of boringly easy. Still a nice low-key cruise.

Otherwise I gravitate to not-very-technical trails in state forests.

On 38mm MTBs. On my `cross bike.

[Clean39T]

Drive to play is looking more and more like my future regardless road, MTB, or grevil.

Good think I got a plug-in hybrid :|

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