Going Gravel

Anyone who keeps up with cycling has probably seen all the recent hype about gravel riding. The same goes for anyone who has followed my riding habits over the last year. Yes, I have jumped in with both feet and have to admit that I'm having a blast.

Exploring the road less traveled.

There seems to be some confusion over what gravel grinding is with some people thinking it is longer cyclocross rides, some thinking it is a road ride with sections of dirt road thrown in and others who are out looking for super long rides on dirt and gravel roads. The great thing about gravel grinding is that it is all of these things with a big dose of fun tossed in the mix.

Anyone who rides a lot has to admit to periods of boredom on the bike. The same old routes get stale and no matter where you live, eventually you run out of options. Enter the gravel grinder. Those who follow my riding have seen that I am always out trying to link MTB trails together using as little pavement as possible. Now to perfectly honest, this often involves a lot of dirt road riding that is hardly worthy of a mountain bike. To be perfectly honest, most of what we ride is long fireroads that lead to short singletrack downhills. Now, I've ridden all these downhill sections hundreds of times so if I'm just looking for mileage, I'm not that worried about skipping a half-mile section of trail in the middle of a 50-mile ride.

Who says you can't throw in a little singletrack.

Another thing I like about the gravel grinding is getting off the pavement. I like road riding. I love the speed and efficiency of a road bike. But, I don't like traffic and pretty much just looking at houses and strip malls most of the time on the bike. Taking the efficiency of the road bike off-road allows you to see places you'd never see on your roadie. It's quiet and you also don't have to worry about being turned into a hood ornament.

I also love to explore and this is where the gravel bike is truly the best. All those dirt roads and trails that you wouldn't bother with on a MTB suddenly become ways to link other areas together.It is also great for those days when you really don't want to drive all the way to the trailhead. While anything over a couple of miles gets tedious on a mountain bike, on the gravel bike, it is just a warm up.

I admit that I was pretty skeptical of the whole gravel grinder hype but like I said before, I'm in now and my grinder bike has quickly become my "lets go exploring" bike.

Finding the roads less traveled.