chaadster

This is a concept that has been causing me some distress, as I've been unable to reconcile my kind of "gravel riding" with what has emerged as the dominant paradigm for the genre. Specifically, as a roadie whose local dirt roads are amenable to a roadie approach, the whole "adventure bike" thing just isn't appealing. All I need, really, is room to mount a larger tire to handle the irregular, but mostly hardpack, dirt surface, and to provide the necessary float when I run across the freshly graded and loose road.

I don't really have gravel surfaces specifically, even if I were inclined to dip off road. SoEast Michigan has lots of sand, areas of clay, but nothing much like the gravel fire roads I've ridden in places like Tennessee and California. On top of that, riding the dirt roads here also involves lots of pavement time, either getting to the dirt roads or connect them up, so pavement performance is important for a "gravel bike" to have for me.

So where does someone like me, or more importantly, a "gravel bike" such as would suit me fit in the gravel scene? I don't want or need a tall, lazy handling "adventure" bike with a bash guard or designed to carry 15 different luggage bags; I want a fast road bike with bigger tires, and maybe a little extra wheelbase and frame mass to improve climbing traction on loose stuff and reduce road chatter. That's about it.

The UK scene is full of bikes that make sense to me, their "winter trainer" and "audax" bikes, to which the UP seems more closely related in terms of traditional road geometry and fit, if really more extreme in many other ways, like the thru-axles, which add a level of stability only really of benefit if going single tracking.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts I've been having as I sit on the fringes of the "gravel biking" thing.