As of yesterday I can now call this my gravel grinder:
I took it out yesterday on the
Oregon's Perry Roubaix route. I didn't really get the whole gravel grinder scene before, but now that I've done it I do see. It was a blast.
My 700x35 Schwalbe Marathon Supremes worked great for this route, even when the gravel turned chunky with no bare strips in the road. I'm not sure they're the kind of tire I would recommend, but they worked.
My rear shift cable snapped 32 miles into the ride and I ended up limping back to the start with the chain on the 14T rear cog. I was
really glad to have a triple at that point.