Where is the gravel?

[CMiller]

Gravel's a bad name for bikes that are, on the whole, way better suited for the road riding everywhere I've lived than traditional road race bikes. Long live the trend! (By whatever name they pick next).

[GregL]

I make the point to exclude very smooth, multi-use trails from gravel/dirt road discussions. The Erie Canal trail here in CNY and the carriage roads in Acadia National Park are smoother than some of the paved roads I ride...

Gravel/dirt roads are definitely a regional thing. To me, gravel/dirt roads are either currently used by or were formerly used by cars. From my home in CNY, I have to ride an hour or more to get to dirt roads greater than a mile or two in length. It's another story altogether at the family camp on Great Sacandaga Lake. I only have to ride a mile or two from the camp before hitting roads with miles of gravel/dirt as well as some longer climbs. I built up my gravel bike with those roads in mind. The gravel bike rides just fine on pavement, but it really shines once the road surface becomes loose and lumpy.

Greg

[SeanScott]

Speaking of gravel, does anyone else avoid gravel when riging on a road to go ride gravel? I do and it cracks me up. I'm riding along and am like "oh no, gravel and dirt, must avoid!"

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by SeanScott

Speaking of gravel, does anyone else avoid gravel when riging on a road to go ride gravel? I do and it cracks me up. I'm riding along and am like "oh no, gravel and dirt, must avoid!"

#cat3memes

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[weiwentg]

Originally Posted by 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.

...

To my knowledge, things are a bit like this for Minneapolis/St. Paul. A lot of the proper gravel requires a 30-90 minute drive from the city. I can ride to the Luce Line, but it's more a dirt road for the first stretch. I'd have to ride maybe 2-3 hours one way before it's impassable on my road bike with 25s/28s. There are some MTB trails in the cities proper that are fine for gravel bikes, e.g. the River Bottoms.

So, back to the original question. If you are in a large city proper or in its first ring suburbs, then maybe you'll usually need to drive some distance to get real gravel. Exceptions exist. It depends on how big a city we're talking about.

Oh, and a lot of dirt roads are definitely passable on most modern road bikes. Heck, if anyone's heard of the Cone Azalia road race in southeast Michigan - I did that in 2003 on my aluminum Giant TCR with 23c tires. A lot of the dirt road training rides that the Ann Arbor Velo Club did (I assume still do) on CX bikes to prep for CX season are completely fine on many modern road bikes. And yep, I did one of them on my TCR, although I wound up washing out and going over the bars (low speed). So if you count dirt roads as gravel, then the travel time goes down. I'm excluding them from my answer.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by CMiller

Gravel's a bad name for bikes that are, on the whole, way better suited for the road riding everywhere I've lived than traditional road race bikes. Long live the trend! (By whatever name they pick next).

Yes.

[alessandro]

Originally Posted by 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

for the Lucinda Williams takeoff

[benb]

Here in Massachusetts I've noticed Seven likes to call it "Mixed Terrain" instead of "Gravel".

Gravel bikes or "Mixed Terrain" bikes work great on easier MTB trails where a bike with 25c tires will have trouble. When you add those into the mix you can build "Mixed terrain rides" that string together trails, dirt roads, and paved roads into really great rides that road bikes would not be fun on.

It's definitely not the same thing here as the midwest/west or something where gravel is marketed as this thing where you can go out and ride your bike 100 miles on public gravel roads without seeing any pavement or forest.

[2metalhips]

Mountain bike is the accepted term for that style of riding though very few actually are ridden in the mountains. Gravel bike is also the accepted term. Get over it and ride, yeesh.

[Andy sti]

I can be on gravel within 3-5 miles of my house. I can also be on single track that soon. 63 mile MTB ride Saturday with 50+ miles of single track all from my house. I can be nordic skiing on 50km of trails after a 25 min drive and another 55km of trails just a further 10 min up the road. I can be downhill skiing after a 30 min drive.

Not bragging or anything...

[Mzilliox]

i reread the initial post. most people with gravel bikes dont need a gravel bike or even fat tires for what they are doing. theyd be fine with a bike that clears a good 28 or 30. they just have it anyway. like most people dont need an suv for their 4 person family, a wagon would be so much better for the job, but well, its available and loan rates are just so good right now and somehow fuel prices remain constant.

i have been spouting long and hard about 700cc 40mm tires. i find them awful. i find i can do 98 percent of what a 40 can do with 33s. some people cant, and thats ok, they get dedicated gravel bikes with the fattest tires one can ride without floating away.

would you say your little dirt roads would be better ridden with 33s? could you go faster or climb easier? i was able to ride some of the dirt around me on 25s and 28s, but most i couldnt. Its not that 25mm tires cant ride on dirt or gravel from a durability perspective, its traction i was missing. trust me, you cant ride up my roads on your 25s. you just cant.
33 knobbies or 35 file treads get me up those bits. 38 might go up even easier, but it turds on the pavement, and i dont ride slow on pavement. anything more hectic than what i can do on my 33-35s and id probably want a mtn bike.

now get off my lawn

[Seramount]

they're putting new chip-seal on my most commonly used in-town route, so I can find lots of loose, deep gravel pretty easily at the moment...

it blows hard.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by 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.

I ride out there all the time (well, often). The paved roads are great, and I'd think there are a lot of gravel/dirt roads out there, but I look at the gravel site in this thread & it didn't look like that much to me. A lot of short segments & one 30 mile almost loop. Are there a lot of other connected roads? The idea of doing 15 miles of pavement to hop off on a 2 mile bit of dirt seems crazy, to me.

[theboucher]

It’s more of a state of mind.

[adhumston]

Being in central Nebeaska, gravel is virtually all i ride. I've used everything ftom 23c on a Trek Madone (when it was my only bike), to the 29x3.0 that are on my Salsa Deadwood.

While I certainly appreciate the advancenents the industry has provided the gravel riders, i often times find myself shaking my head as well. "I can't ride gravel with you, i dont have a gravel bike"...

Gravel riding may be the only thing i can say i was doing before it was considered cool!