Originally Posted by Spoonrobot

I think the market is going to be self-limited in the future anyway. With the economy as good as it is there's going to be less gravel in the short-term as pavement replaces dirt and long-term sprawl, even with slower economic growth, is driving disconnected suburban growth further into what were once isolated country areas. Locally, from Atlanta, GA, there's about 50ish miles of (very disconnected) gravel that one could conceivably ride to (makes about a 100 mile round trip) near Dallas, Pine Mountain, Chatthoochee Hills and Lawrenceville. In the past 3 years between 8-10 miles were lost to pavement due to development. There's no replacement of this and barring any new land leased as WMA land this will continue to decline as development moves outward from the urban center. People will buy gravel bikes right up until they realize there's no where to ride their unnecessarily heavy and stiff "road" bike and then just go back to regular road race bikes while routing around the short sections of gravel.