Gravel - Please help me "get it"

[Roxtar]

From descriptions, it sounds like road riding on crappy roads.
Based on the numbers of people flocking to it, there's gotta be more.
What am I missing?

[Peruvian]

It’s the pickleball of cycling.

[EWG]

A lack of cars whizzing by you as compared to road biking. At least, as I understand it.

[adrenalated]

From descriptions, it sounds like road riding on crappy roads.

No, I think that's about right.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

I think you have to already love road cycling to want to get into gravel. Pure mountain bikers who never owned road bikes I don't think will ever really enjoy gravel at all.

Being able to get some good milage in without seeing a car for 3 hours when all the singletrack is still under snow = why I have a gravel bike. It has a time and place. Once the MTB is dried out I pretty much don't touch the gravel bike.

[Dantheman]

A lack of cars whizzing by you as compared to road biking. At least, as I understand it.

No, I think that's about right.

Pretty much this, plus silly mustaches.

[buttahflake]

There’s like 9,000 miles of dirt roads in Vermont, that’s way more than the paved roads, gravel bike is the best way to enjoy them. The places you see off the beaten paths are incredible.
Oh and then there is the, Spirit of Gravel, the silly mustache part, of which, I do not endorse!

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

A lack of cars whizzing by you as compared to road biking. At least, as I understand it.

Yep. They fix a lot of the "flaws" of road biking. The roads are quiet/sometimes closed to traffic. The bikes are more versatile, so they appeal to a broader market (bikepackers, commuters, racers, etc.), and can go lots and lots of places that a typical road bike can't. And the events grab a big "let's see if I can even finish this race" type of rider vs. road events.

[XXX-er]

I think you gotta have the gravel roads, up here most roads end in gravel/ there is gravel on a circle route so there is a real use

I can't see a gravel bike being of much use in France where they pave EVERYTHING

[skaredshtles]

Pretty much this, plus silly mustaches.

<Whiteroom Guardian has entered the chat>

[bagtagley]

Fresh gravel is crappy. Packed dirt/gravel/sand is awesome and grippy. Way less cars and they're traveling slower and generally seem more courteous. Steep descents are really fun in a terrifying kind of way. There are tons of gravel roads near me and they connect nearly endlessly. If I leave from my house I can hit a couple good, but pretty limited options on the mountain bike, but if I take the gravel bike the only limit is my legs. Not my favorite, but it's a great way to get out, put in some distance, and take in the scenery. It's definitely comparable to road riding, though if you ride gravel with mountain bikers, it's more like really mellow mountain biking than road riding.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

<Whiteroom Guardian has entered the chat>

There's nothing silly about this stache. It's silly when you shave your beard off and have a little chintzy porn stache for a week or two and then get scared and shave it off like 95% of mustaches seen.

[skaredshtles]

There's nothing silly about this stache. It's silly when you shave your beard off and have a little chintzy porn stache for a week or two and then get scared and shave it off like 95% of mustaches seen.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

[plugboots]

I get PTSD when I ride the gravel roads around here as I trained for a few 100 mile races by “training” on them.
Disk brakes kinda allowed them to exist, so they do.

Plus people are scared of cars.
There’s a window of time here where they’ve plowed most of the road but it’s still closed to cars. You should see it, it can be pretty crowded and it’s easily the most boring road bike ride ever. Long gradual climb with no real curves, and the decent is juuuuust steep enough that you spin out a 54X12, and since there aren’t any curves, you just coast down, and get cold. Yes I did it once.

Oh, and I know all about N+1, but my SS is the bike to make the smooth singletrack more interesting, but if I didn’t have that I’d consider a gravel.

[robnow]

What am I missing?

Hahaha, not much.
I work as a coach/strength trainer at a cycling training/shop facility where we focus on road/gravel and some tri bikes. All of our clients are getting gravel bikes but personally, as a MTBer that road bikes for training, I too don't understand the appeal. I spend much more than enough time in the woods on my MTB on MUCH more enjoyable and more importantly "skillful" terrain.

For roadies and others however it seems to be an escape from the traffic and more adventure riding. To me it just seems like endless bouncing in the saddle and constant cleaning of your 'road' bike. To be fair, the local gravel events have drawn large participation numbers and we do have a lot of gravel roads going cool places...although we also have cool quiet paved roads going to cool places too. I would rather focus on having a faster bike that I can do longer and more vert induced rides to pair with my mountain bike than another slower ride.

[JayPowHound]

I've always called them dirt roads.. what's up with the gravel name? Would dirt imply MTB so they just made up something else, or do people actually call them gravel roads in other parts of the country?

[grskier]

I found road bikes too far onto the skinny tire get aero and tolerate 5/8" and 7/8" chip sealed roads and gravel roads....
So I didn't participate.

I ride my gravel bike with 38mm tires on my paved roads, to the gravel road, to the chunky USFS road and it does well enough on it all.
My 160 mm travel mtb is mounted with assegai and dhrii and I'd cry if I tried that ride on that bike.

Gives me a HUGE swath of opportunities with 2 bikes.

[detrusor]

What about do bike shops can sell another bike?

[grskier]

I've always called them dirt roads.. what's up with the gravel name? Would dirt imply MTB so they just made up something else, or do people actually call them gravel roads in other parts of the country?

They do...
Gravel road implies that a county, or other entity has topped it with an engineered aggregate base course... typically called gravel.

There are as many levels of unpaved roads as paved.. sorta.

You have primative, 2 track, dirt (may be maintained from time to time, but is made mostly from native materials), gravel, treated gravel (mag chloride, asphalt just on the surface to seal, soy/corn byproduct treated, etc).

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

There's a big efficiency/variety appeal too. Got 2 hours to kill on a gravel bike? I can ride out the door on some pavement, FS roads, and light singletrack. Got 2 hours to kill on a mountain bike? I'm burning 30 minutes driving round trip to a trail that's a total snoozefest, or I'm riding our town trails/singletrack, which is all faster/more fun/looser on a gravel bike. Of course, YMMV depending on where you live.

[Name Redacted]

We just bought a pair of em. They are basically just cushy road bikes. Our bike paths have hudge frost cracks and our roads suck for road riding, but we have lots of dirt roads that are pretty unused. Also, some of the single track and stuff out our door is so smooth, that a mtb it's really needed, so you can ride it on a GB.

Between my wife and I we own 10 bikes now. Some people think we might have a problem. But we don't. We were gonna sell our road bikes after buying gravel bikes. But then we decided to keep em.

[waxman]

Gravel is the new buzzword in bikes, like "enduro" for the last few years.
Whatever bike you're on is a gravel bike. That being said we've sold everyone we brought in, in about 24 hrs. Plus in the Fernie area road biking is beyond dangerous so they make sense until the actual MTB trail are clear of snow.

[XXX-er]

I have 5 bikes and I don't consider that a probelm, I would gladly trade the Road bike for a gravel bike and I could probably lose the fat bike

[hick]

90’s era mountain biking for me was a lot of “gravel”. In Libby, MT it was sketchy though…constant logging truck traffic, the occasional high speed redneck throwing trash at you or intentionally clipping you. You know…gravel biking!


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[jdadour]

Depends on where you live and what terrain you have near by. I live on the Eastside of Los Angeles, with fire trails in the Verdugos, Cherry Canyon, and San Gabriels about 10-15 miles away. For this, having a gravel bike is perfect, ride 10-15 miles of road to the dirt, climb up to 3000-4000 ft, ride dirt back down, ride road home.

Getting off the road and riding on dirt to avoid cars is a joy.