Gravel adventure bike choice….

ugo.santalucia

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

There was bit in Cycling Weekly about a bike industry report that suggests all bike sales in the UK have dropped by over 20% since 2021 but gravel is the only one that has increased by around 8%.

I guess you may have to factor in that gravel sales were fairly low to begin with so an increase would perhaps be easier to achieve.

I would agree that popularity does seem to depend more on location.

Apparently the road bike participation in Open time trial events has gone up a thousand percent in the last 3 years… still, I was the only one on a road bike in the only open TT I did last year

molteni_man

ugo.santalucia said:

joeyhalloran said:

Do you ride much 'gravel'/off road Ugo?

But that is exactly the point... 90% of people live in places where there is no meaningful gravel.
Most counties are relatively flat or rolling, they have a few muddy bridleways, which more often than not get ploughed and cultivated over... woodland is pretty much inexistent... you just need an aerial view to see that it's all cultivated or built up.
I would buy a gravel bike in Oregon, maybe even in Fort William, at a push in Llangollen...
I had CX bikes when I lived in Surrey... yes, I could head to Esher common when it wasn't too muddy and do the same couple of miles over and over... it was no different than lapping Richmond park, with more washing involved.
Pointless...

Live and let live! Everyone is allowed to make their choices. As per others a Gravel bike can be a super versatile piece of equipment and mine doubles as a winter bike too.
The other weekend and on the spur of the moment a friend and I deviated onto the old Wickham to West Meon railway line here in Hampshire for 10 miles. It had been dry and it was great fun to ‘ mix up’ the ride with a mixture of road and gravel.
I love road riding but trips onto the South Downs are great too as is the New Forest with its brilliant network of gravel. If I ride with my wife it’s a good leveller as I’m not desperate to always be going fast.
It’s not pointless for sure and ultimately we all have one love which is riding in whatever format appeals to the individual!

thegreatdivide

35 miles yesterday and a baw hair shy of 1000m climbing, on the gravel bike, with the vast majority off road (fire tracks, farm tracks, mud tracks, forest tracks). All accessed without a car from a city in Scotland.

ugo.santalucia

thegreatdivide said:

35 miles yesterday and a baw hair shy of 1000m climbing, on the gravel bike, with the vast majority off road (fire tracks, farm tracks, mud tracks, forest tracks). All accessed without a car from a city in Scotland.

As I said, if I lived in Fort William I would get one… chiefly because road cycling truly sucks round there… I was glad I had my CX bike with Vittoria XN tyres on, when I visited

mudsucker

I was speaking to the owner of my local bike shop about gravel bikes and he said the same thing. Unless you live in somewhere like Colorado where there are thousands of miles of gravel tracks, gravel bikes are pretty pointless.

thegreatdivide

mudsucker said:

I was speaking to the owner of my local bike shop about gravel bikes and he said the same thing. Unless you live in somewhere like Colorado where there are thousands of miles of gravel tracks, gravel bikes are pretty pointless.

I'd better sell mine then.

daniel_b

Personally I think they will probably overall reduce the number of bikes sold.

It's another bike of course, but I suspect a lot of people (Me not really included, although my current winter bike will be sold) will end up selling other bikes and not replacing them.

For me it works well as:

Commuter (With mudguards and rack)
Light tourer (as above)
Winter bike
Family ride bike (Slower, comfortable, food/clothing carrying option with rackbag/panniers)
Audax distance bike (I like to be self sufficient, can fit 5 bottles on this bike should I fancy it.
Some light off road duties, without having to put the mtb in the van to get there.

I'm not even sure why this has taken over the thread to be honest
Poor OP.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

molteni_man said:

ugo.santalucia said:

joeyhalloran said:

Do you ride much 'gravel'/off road Ugo?

But that is exactly the point... 90% of people live in places where there is no meaningful gravel.
Most counties are relatively flat or rolling, they have a few muddy bridleways, which more often than not get ploughed and cultivated over... woodland is pretty much inexistent... you just need an aerial view to see that it's all cultivated or built up.
I would buy a gravel bike in Oregon, maybe even in Fort William, at a push in Llangollen...
I had CX bikes when I lived in Surrey... yes, I could head to Esher common when it wasn't too muddy and do the same couple of miles over and over... it was no different than lapping Richmond park, with more washing involved.
Pointless...

Live and let live! Everyone is allowed to make their choices. As per others a Gravel bike can be a super versatile piece of equipment and mine doubles as a winter bike too.
The other weekend and on the spur of the moment a friend and I deviated onto the old Wickham to West Meon railway line here in Hampshire for 10 miles. It had been dry and it was great fun to ‘ mix up’ the ride with a mixture of road and gravel.
I love road riding but trips onto the South Downs are great too as is the New Forest with its brilliant network of gravel. If I ride with my wife it’s a good leveller as I’m not desperate to always be going fast.
It’s not pointless for sure and ultimately we all have one love which is riding in whatever format appeals to the individual!

I keep meaning to ride the Meon Valley Trail again, not done it for a few years now, back when my fatbike was functioning (driveside crank sheared on way to work summer '20).

I've only ridden the South Downs lanes since summer '17, but I swear they have massively degraded over the last five years. I usually ride my road bike with a 32mm on the rear at least for some comfort, but I keep wondering if I ought to be using a gravel bike up there like the ADV 8.9, rather than looking at a more aggressive geometry road bike than my Cube Attain and the crazy amounts of aero drag from a stack of 610mm combined with 388mm reach!

joeyhalloran

mudsucker said:

I was speaking to the owner of my local bike shop about gravel bikes and he said the same thing. Unless you live in somewhere like Colorado where there are thousands of miles of gravel tracks, gravel bikes are pretty pointless.

I thought the point was to be fun and enjoyable while getting out away from traffic?

Do I have this wrong?

ugo.santalucia

joeyhalloran said:

mudsucker said:

I was speaking to the owner of my local bike shop about gravel bikes and he said the same thing. Unless you live in somewhere like Colorado where there are thousands of miles of gravel tracks, gravel bikes are pretty pointless.

I thought the point was to be fun and enjoyable while getting out away from traffic?

Do I have this wrong?

the other day, using an OS map that shows bridleways and other roads that you can access by bicycle, I was trying to figure out a route from Kenilworth, going somewhere… it is remarkable how little progress I made… found a few short section, but I really had to make an effort to join them together, and in the end it did look the kind of route cobbled together, just to hit those off road sections…
and that bearing in mind that I have not cycled most of them, so I have no idea whether they are enjoyable, or just infested by weeds and bramble. The canal paths are a more direct route to go somewhere, but they are obviously very flat and very samey…
In the end I gave up…

joeyhalloran

ugo.santalucia said:

joeyhalloran said:

mudsucker said:

I was speaking to the owner of my local bike shop about gravel bikes and he said the same thing. Unless you live in somewhere like Colorado where there are thousands of miles of gravel tracks, gravel bikes are pretty pointless.

I thought the point was to be fun and enjoyable while getting out away from traffic?

Do I have this wrong?

the other day, using an OS map that shows bridleways and other roads that you can access by bicycle, I was trying to figure out a route from Kenilworth, going somewhere… it is remarkable how little progress I made… found a few short section, but I really had to make an effort to join them together, and in the end it did look the kind of route cobbled together, just to hit those off road sections…
and that bearing in mind that I have not cycled most of them, so I have no idea whether they are enjoyable, or just infested by weeds and bramble. The canal paths are a more direct route to go somewhere, but they are obviously very flat and very samey…
In the end I gave up…

My point was someone saying MY bike which I spend most of my time enjoying was pointless. I wanted to provide an alternative view.

ugo.santalucia

joeyhalloran said:

ugo.santalucia said:

joeyhalloran said:

mudsucker said:

I was speaking to the owner of my local bike shop about gravel bikes and he said the same thing. Unless you live in somewhere like Colorado where there are thousands of miles of gravel tracks, gravel bikes are pretty pointless.

I thought the point was to be fun and enjoyable while getting out away from traffic?

Do I have this wrong?

the other day, using an OS map that shows bridleways and other roads that you can access by bicycle, I was trying to figure out a route from Kenilworth, going somewhere… it is remarkable how little progress I made… found a few short section, but I really had to make an effort to join them together, and in the end it did look the kind of route cobbled together, just to hit those off road sections…
and that bearing in mind that I have not cycled most of them, so I have no idea whether they are enjoyable, or just infested by weeds and bramble. The canal paths are a more direct route to go somewhere, but they are obviously very flat and very samey…
In the end I gave up…

My point was someone saying MY bike which I spend most of my time enjoying was pointless. I wanted to provide an alternative view.

Probably someone owning a shop in the Midlands...

molteni_man

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

molteni_man said:

ugo.santalucia said:

joeyhalloran said:

Do you ride much 'gravel'/off road Ugo?

But that is exactly the point... 90% of people live in places where there is no meaningful gravel.
Most counties are relatively flat or rolling, they have a few muddy bridleways, which more often than not get ploughed and cultivated over... woodland is pretty much inexistent... you just need an aerial view to see that it's all cultivated or built up.
I would buy a gravel bike in Oregon, maybe even in Fort William, at a push in Llangollen...
I had CX bikes when I lived in Surrey... yes, I could head to Esher common when it wasn't too muddy and do the same couple of miles over and over... it was no different than lapping Richmond park, with more washing involved.
Pointless...

Live and let live! Everyone is allowed to make their choices. As per others a Gravel bike can be a super versatile piece of equipment and mine doubles as a winter bike too.
The other weekend and on the spur of the moment a friend and I deviated onto the old Wickham to West Meon railway line here in Hampshire for 10 miles. It had been dry and it was great fun to ‘ mix up’ the ride with a mixture of road and gravel.
I love road riding but trips onto the South Downs are great too as is the New Forest with its brilliant network of gravel. If I ride with my wife it’s a good leveller as I’m not desperate to always be going fast.
It’s not pointless for sure and ultimately we all have one love which is riding in whatever format appeals to the individual!

I keep meaning to ride the Meon Valley Trail again, not done it for a few years now, back when my fatbike was functioning (driveside crank sheared on way to work summer '20).

I've only ridden the South Downs lanes since summer '17, but I swear they have massively degraded over the last five years. I usually ride my road bike with a 32mm on the rear at least for some comfort, but I keep wondering if I ought to be using a gravel bike up there like the ADV 8.9, rather than looking at a more aggressive geometry road bike than my Cube Attain and the crazy amounts of aero drag from a stack of 610mm combined with 388mm reach!

I ride out from Warsash and love the network of Hampshire lanes once North over the M27. Can often ride for some time without seeing traffic- the lane going North from Upham up towards the Milburys is a particular favourite! But you’re right Oxoman the lanes have definitely got worse and a gravel bike can make a lot of sense… and there’s a fab bridleway which branches off up to Cheesefoot Head if you want to do some off road.