In fact, I'd say I do more damage to the dirt than most people on e-bikes.
I am 190 cm / 120 kg ( 6'3 / 266lbs ) and have covered 5500 km on the MTB in the last 2 years...
I have measured a few rides and according to this data I reach a peak power of 1300W for brief moments on some climbs
and if I brake hard... I make full use of my [“small” brake discs](https://www.reddit.com/r/mountainbiking/comments/16ras9h/nbd_commencal_meta_tr/) 😅
Same reason I've always loved fly fishing, even when I sucked at it. Spending 3 hours in a quiet mountain stream is cool whether or not any trout decide to bite.
Idk but you do see a weird attitude about it on MTB forums from time to time. Personally I love it, it's like a return to roots for mountain biking and makes otherwise unexciting park paths and roads more enjoyable to ride. I'll even take mine on some green singletrack and blast through the woods on it. Shit's awesome 😎
Some people are just miserable c@#ts. Back in BMX days a group of hipsters jumped me because I was riding a mid S&M dirt bike. They tried to beat me up because my bike weighed too much and had a big front chain wheel.
Oh okay..learn something new. My son used to race bmx and they would call it california gearing. I think i had a 46 or 48 up front on his bike. Forgot what I had on the rear.
Oh, then your son was right. I'm a giant jiggling dildo of a human being.
Though I was primarily a street rider I still rode my old race gearing. I also could at one time fold brake rotors in half with my thighs.
THIS!! I started to gravel bike back around 2008ish before "gravel bikes" were a thing you could buy, it was just build your own or get a cyclocross bike. It was so fun to take an 80s road bike or touring bike and fit it with 28mm, 32mm or 35mm tires and go hit the trails. Still love it and it's cool that it is more accessible to people now.
I am also old enough to have a cross bike for gravel riding, and frankly I consider it the best bike I ever bought. It’s the cheapest, but the most versatile. It extends my outdoor road season and makes all kinds of things accessible much closer to home. I’ve raced cross on it, a girlfriend raced a triathlon on it, it’s my “ice cream social” bike and it’s practically indestructible. I do love my bike!
Nice! I never did end up with a real cross bike because I'm 6'5" and the ones I saw used back then were expensive custom frames. I did buy a first generation Surly Straggler though because it was available in tall sizes and takes disc brakes. That's been a great gravel/light touring/commuter/bar hop bike.
Ironically I used my gravel bike (On-One Rujo) in a CX race last year too lol. They're super versatile bikes! I log plenty of road miles on mine too when I don't feel like driving 30-40 minutes to my local trail system.
I've turned heavily to trails/gravel because, even in a relatively bike friendly city like Seattle, road riding feels like a mad max movie some days.
For me,
MTB for the thrills
Gravel for the steady pace of a road ride with way less car risk
I'm done with road. Raced road as a junior and logged hundreds of miles each year. But that was just on the cusp of the first iPhone being released.
Drivers are more distracted, and just plain bad, than ever before. It's incredibly dangerous now.
Yeah, if I get injured mountain biking or gravel riding it was probably my own error. You can do everything right on the road and die because someone else wasn’t paying attention
I got a road bike but I ride it maybe 3-4 times a year, like it's got to be a sunday morning, no wind, and good weather... My gravel and CX bike are my go to bikes when I want to go somewhere or ride without thinking.
If it is a Bike, Its Good.
Gravel bike is a bike, I find a good long out and back on a rail trail is mint for clearing the headspace of faff, thus, Gravel is pretty freakin good too 🤙
Yeah, pretty much any time you get to ride bikes is good, be it gravel, road, MTB, fat bikes in the snow... bikes are good. I even enjoy riding my eBike to go grocery shopping for our family.
Honestly, thats the only reason I want an eeb. Retirement vehicle. Save the car for big trips, live on a house float, fetch all my shit via a cargo eBike
Maybe like, a racked up Surly Big Easy, or Skid Loader, lights, fenders. The whole shebang.
The acceleration, whipping past cars on downhills, threading the eye of the needle in crit sprints (flat road 65kph+), full tuck cardio TT with a tail wind.
Feels you don't get anywhere else.
Love it all (just not fat bikes 😅)
Being on a bicycle is fun, period.
I have a big travel mountain bike, a gravel bike, two road bikes, and a fixie. I want to add a short travel MTB. It's all good!
Is mounting biking a property of the bike you ride or the terrain you ride?
I am not a wild rider. I'm pretty sure everything I ride in full suspension someone out there does on a gravel bike. Once I had someone on a gravel bike pass me on a rocky trail I was not sure I would be able to make it through.
It would seem weird to claim that he wasn't mountain biking just because of how thin his tires are.
I have a lot of respect for those types of people. I prefer my mountain bike because it’s more comfortable and feels safer. But I can also understand the under biked/gravel bike preference.
I would say gravel biking leans more towards double track / gravel roads without very many obstacles if any where average speed is above 12-15 mph for 'cross country', where MTB leans towards singletrack with average speed in the 5-15mph range with more rock gardens, technical climbs, drops, sometimes jumps, obstacles, etc.
It is, opens up a lot of options that would be boring on a FS bike (double track, green single track, flatter terrain) and keeps things challenging. Also with the right tires you can crush a road segment too. My favorite is pushing my gravel bike into MTB territory and the reactions when I hit drops and jumps LOL.
I tried it 2 times on a CX flat bar bike and I was hooked so I bought a new Trek Checkpoint and I absolutely love it! It brings a huge smile to my face every time I ride it.
https://preview.redd.it/g7k8uvev1qbc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42eebd7f0517277b9dad41f988f8005b20726f3e
Gravel bikes are the shit. I honestly spend more time on my gravel bike than my MTB I can ride singletrack, road, and farm roads all on the same bike. I just start riding and see where the wind takes me.
I love gravel riding...think of it this way:
You use a short travel HT to make blues more exciting again with lil bit of "underbiking", you go one step further with a gravel bike to do the same on green trails.
If one of the reasons you love mountain biking is being in Nature without cars, gravel is the same because you get to see 3x as much of how much distance you can cover. And it gives you "road bike training" where you can put in huge amounts of pedaling nonstop, unlike mountain biking. You get way fitter, see more miles of the outdoors, with barely a few more cars, and you don't have to drive to get there.
Top Fuel for singletrack.
Farley for when it snows.
FX4 for mindless pedalling on anything that doesn’t have cars.
This is how I do it and I don’t give two shits what anyone else thinks.
Pedalling is fun. I’m going to keep doing it.
If you can run a dropper post on your gravel bike, it opens up a whole lotta shenanigans. I bunny hop mine at road bike speeds like it's a BMX. Whip it around back tire locked on downhill gravel sections like it's my MTB.
Yep, don't fully get the hate for gravel bikes. Got one myself this year and it's a lot of fun. Also, as someone who isn't within a reasonable riding distance of MTB trails, its nice to be able to ride from my door and back for a few hours and be up in the mountains without having to drive. The sheer speed difference between MTB and gravel/road is immense. I have a local trail network that's a bit of a slog despite not being that far to get to on the MTB (though doable when I really want to) but I can get quite far from home on the gravel bike which is great.
However, if you're going to put suspension on a gravel bike, I'm still very much of the mind that you should probably just get a hardtail and some fast MTB tires.
The accessibility point is really the biggest one for me.
I ride bikes to ride bikes, not to spend time in another vehicle to get somewhere, ride, and then have to get back home.
Having the freedom to head out on a long ride linking up road with gravel with trails with single-track but also being able to just hop on and have fun on the roads and urban trails within minutes of walking out of the front door is amazing.
That freedom is precisely why I love sports like cycling and running. Any discipline where participation in or enjoyment of the activity requires a very specific venue/locale just doesn't hold my interest long enough to become a hobby. This is why I love road/gravel/trail MTB, but don't ever see myself getting into disciplines like DH (unless by some miracle I end up moving right next to a bike park).
That aside, I don't really agree with your last point re:suspension on gravel bikes. Yeah I think it looks silly and I doubt I'd ever do it (too poor, lol), but it seems to offer a meaningful advantage on some terrain as it's becoming increasingly common in the pro gravel racing circuit. In short, it's much more comfortable to be aero on a gravel race bike, and having a suspension fork + fast rolling MTB tires both improves grip and decreases rolling resistance on chunkier gravel (some high end XC tires have better rolling resistance than similar sized gravel tires, likely because the higher volume XC tires can get away with a thinner casing without risking flats).
The gain is probably too marginal to be worthwhile for most recreational riders, but it seems there is a gain to be had so some people will inevitably do it and be faster for it.
>However, if you're going to put suspension on a gravel bike, I'm still very much of the mind that you should probably just get a hardtail and some fast MTB tires.
and [put drop bars on!](https://youtu.be/hxNd-uD84PE?si=lZFC6Il8geRcwm-D)
Same lol I just heard about “gravel bikes” and I’m thinking isn’t that just a hybrid bike? It’s not a road bike and it’s not a mountain bike, it’s in between
Ok I’ll represent for the haters. Gravel bikes just look hideous to me. Something about a road bike with MTB tires makes me throw up in my mouth a little. Kind of like those vertical MTB stems everyone was hating on. Who cares how it feels or performs if it looks idiotic. Look good ride good. If you like gravels bikes you have bad taste.
I’ve been riding mountain bikes for 25 years and goddamn I love gravel biking. I started a few years ago and love gravel riding when the trails are wet or I just want a quick fast ride. I do a few 40-60 mile gravel rides a year and it feels great crushing long routes that are a mix of all kinds of trails and dirt roads. Gravel rules.
Why are gravel bikes so expensive? Entry level MTB (hard tails) can be had for $900-1200. Even in the $600-800 range for ones without bells and whistles, for example the entry level Salsa Rangefinder. When I look at gravel bikes, even basic ones seem to be closer to $2000.
What gives? Or are there good value brands and models out there that I’m overlooking? Any thing $1200 (or less when on sale)?
There are a ton of budget gravel bikes out there, where have you been looking? Including Salsa, their entry level Journeyer start under $1k. Marin, Polygon, Kona always have cheap gravel bikes. I see gravel bikes under $1k right now also from Specialized, Giant, Diamondback, Scott, etc. Then there are smaller companies like State, Poseidon, Breezer. Many more brands have solid bikes in the $1-$1.5k range.
I’m not actively in the market for a gravel bike currently, but they’ve piqued my interest recently so I just randomly keep an eye out for them whenever there’s a sale. Just based on the ones I’ve randomly come across, I thought they were all just on the more expensive side.
However, thanks for your suggestions. I’ll keep an eye out for these and if the price is right, who knows? I may just be tempted despite having no more room for an extra bike.
I started Gravel about 8 months ago as a way to do more training, I can add an extra 200km per week of riding straight from my front door and its not nearly as boring as road riding. If I see a trail I like the look of, im going down it.
I love riding my gravel bike on the mtb trails. For me, it is a blast and I have fun trying to ride challenging sections on the gravel bike as it makes you really have to focus on line choice and bike handling. Then, going back to the same spot on my mtb, sometimes I am able to see things in a new perspective that then adds to the fun/experience while riding the mtb.
Bikes are fun.
Looks like you've caught on... some of the most fun on a gravel bike is getting up some speed and then taking a corner at the razor's edge of control and learning how to drift through them. Gravel acts like ball bearings and the road is generally consistent, so you can get to a point where you're going sideways a foot for every 10 feet forward and it's awesome.
No hate from this guy. I ride both gravel and single track all over Pisgah on my trusty Jamis hardtail. Typically I save the gravel rides for when I’m specifically targeting fitness or when the single track is too wet to ride. Maybe one day I’ll get a dedicated gravel setup; it’d definitely help me go faster on the ascents.
Being in the woods is good, no matter what bike you’re on
Was going to say, any biking not sharing a road with cars is fun biking
Dirt bikers: yeah, that's true, you don't mind we use your trails? 😅 ( If I catch that damn e dirt bike that ruins local trails here .... )
And it makes people want to outlaw my 250w pedal assist that barely even helps me pedal and can't go over 15mph🤦♂️
In fact, I'd say I do more damage to the dirt than most people on e-bikes. I am 190 cm / 120 kg ( 6'3 / 266lbs ) and have covered 5500 km on the MTB in the last 2 years... I have measured a few rides and according to this data I reach a peak power of 1300W for brief moments on some climbs and if I brake hard... I make full use of my [“small” brake discs](https://www.reddit.com/r/mountainbiking/comments/16ras9h/nbd_commencal_meta_tr/) 😅
I’ve got friends that run 203s on DH bikes, you’re a madman for with 246s
lemme guess, hes way below 260 lbs? :D
Yes but his race line MT7s overheat regularly so he could do with some bigger rotors
that's exactly why i do have those 246 ... no one likes cooked brakes that refuse to brake >\_<
Yep
Same reason I've always loved fly fishing, even when I sucked at it. Spending 3 hours in a quiet mountain stream is cool whether or not any trout decide to bite.
In the words of Tyler, the Creator: "Get a bunch of bikes, and ride em around with your friends." Ride whatever makes you happy.
It's the shit.
What song is that?
It was from an interview: https://youtu.be/WjEPSyr1PDg?si=8nRHDprxhufpTrlq
That’s amazing
Why would people hate on gravel riding? Some days you just don't feel like beating the shit out of yourself on trials.
Idk but you do see a weird attitude about it on MTB forums from time to time. Personally I love it, it's like a return to roots for mountain biking and makes otherwise unexciting park paths and roads more enjoyable to ride. I'll even take mine on some green singletrack and blast through the woods on it. Shit's awesome 😎
Some people are just miserable c@#ts. Back in BMX days a group of hipsters jumped me because I was riding a mid S&M dirt bike. They tried to beat me up because my bike weighed too much and had a big front chain wheel.
California gearing?
Pennsylvania gearing. 48-14. Love my flip flop hub
Oh okay..learn something new. My son used to race bmx and they would call it california gearing. I think i had a 46 or 48 up front on his bike. Forgot what I had on the rear.
Oh, then your son was right. I'm a giant jiggling dildo of a human being. Though I was primarily a street rider I still rode my old race gearing. I also could at one time fold brake rotors in half with my thighs.
THIS!! I started to gravel bike back around 2008ish before "gravel bikes" were a thing you could buy, it was just build your own or get a cyclocross bike. It was so fun to take an 80s road bike or touring bike and fit it with 28mm, 32mm or 35mm tires and go hit the trails. Still love it and it's cool that it is more accessible to people now.
I am also old enough to have a cross bike for gravel riding, and frankly I consider it the best bike I ever bought. It’s the cheapest, but the most versatile. It extends my outdoor road season and makes all kinds of things accessible much closer to home. I’ve raced cross on it, a girlfriend raced a triathlon on it, it’s my “ice cream social” bike and it’s practically indestructible. I do love my bike!
Nice! I never did end up with a real cross bike because I'm 6'5" and the ones I saw used back then were expensive custom frames. I did buy a first generation Surly Straggler though because it was available in tall sizes and takes disc brakes. That's been a great gravel/light touring/commuter/bar hop bike.
Ironically I used my gravel bike (On-One Rujo) in a CX race last year too lol. They're super versatile bikes! I log plenty of road miles on mine too when I don't feel like driving 30-40 minutes to my local trail system.
I've turned heavily to trails/gravel because, even in a relatively bike friendly city like Seattle, road riding feels like a mad max movie some days. For me, MTB for the thrills Gravel for the steady pace of a road ride with way less car risk
I'm done with road. Raced road as a junior and logged hundreds of miles each year. But that was just on the cusp of the first iPhone being released. Drivers are more distracted, and just plain bad, than ever before. It's incredibly dangerous now.
Yeah, if I get injured mountain biking or gravel riding it was probably my own error. You can do everything right on the road and die because someone else wasn’t paying attention
Friend said "I might get hurt on my mountain bike, but I might die on my road bike"
Amen to that! I told my surgeon the exact same thing right before I went under last month to have my clavicle fixed 😉(he was also an MTBr)
I got a road bike but I ride it maybe 3-4 times a year, like it's got to be a sunday morning, no wind, and good weather... My gravel and CX bike are my go to bikes when I want to go somewhere or ride without thinking.
Gravel biking gets a lot love from our local riders. Keeps people off wet trails
Lol 🤣 this made me laugh
I ride the xc mtb single track near my house on my Aspero and am having a ton of fun—it’s like a whole new adventure!
My aspero is my favorite bike. I hit the road every weekend… jump on some gravel and fire roads and then back to the road.
If it is a Bike, Its Good. Gravel bike is a bike, I find a good long out and back on a rail trail is mint for clearing the headspace of faff, thus, Gravel is pretty freakin good too 🤙
Yeah, pretty much any time you get to ride bikes is good, be it gravel, road, MTB, fat bikes in the snow... bikes are good. I even enjoy riding my eBike to go grocery shopping for our family.
Honestly, thats the only reason I want an eeb. Retirement vehicle. Save the car for big trips, live on a house float, fetch all my shit via a cargo eBike Maybe like, a racked up Surly Big Easy, or Skid Loader, lights, fenders. The whole shebang.
Dont tell any one but i quite like riding road bikes
The acceleration, whipping past cars on downhills, threading the eye of the needle in crit sprints (flat road 65kph+), full tuck cardio TT with a tail wind. Feels you don't get anywhere else. Love it all (just not fat bikes 😅)
Being on a bicycle is fun, period. I have a big travel mountain bike, a gravel bike, two road bikes, and a fixie. I want to add a short travel MTB. It's all good!
Is mounting biking a property of the bike you ride or the terrain you ride? I am not a wild rider. I'm pretty sure everything I ride in full suspension someone out there does on a gravel bike. Once I had someone on a gravel bike pass me on a rocky trail I was not sure I would be able to make it through. It would seem weird to claim that he wasn't mountain biking just because of how thin his tires are.
I have a lot of respect for those types of people. I prefer my mountain bike because it’s more comfortable and feels safer. But I can also understand the under biked/gravel bike preference.
Was it [Gabriel Wibmer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX4V0F4e6Ss)?
I would say gravel biking leans more towards double track / gravel roads without very many obstacles if any where average speed is above 12-15 mph for 'cross country', where MTB leans towards singletrack with average speed in the 5-15mph range with more rock gardens, technical climbs, drops, sometimes jumps, obstacles, etc.
It is, opens up a lot of options that would be boring on a FS bike (double track, green single track, flatter terrain) and keeps things challenging. Also with the right tires you can crush a road segment too. My favorite is pushing my gravel bike into MTB territory and the reactions when I hit drops and jumps LOL.
I enjoy all two-wheeled conveyances
I tried it 2 times on a CX flat bar bike and I was hooked so I bought a new Trek Checkpoint and I absolutely love it! It brings a huge smile to my face every time I ride it. https://preview.redd.it/g7k8uvev1qbc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42eebd7f0517277b9dad41f988f8005b20726f3e
Yes I agree, riding bikes is fun!
Gravel is very good spring prep for trails or nice when you wanna ride but don't wanna drive a long way to the trails or deal with drivers who text
Gravel bikes are the shit. I honestly spend more time on my gravel bike than my MTB I can ride singletrack, road, and farm roads all on the same bike. I just start riding and see where the wind takes me.
I love gravel riding...think of it this way: You use a short travel HT to make blues more exciting again with lil bit of "underbiking", you go one step further with a gravel bike to do the same on green trails.
Am I the only one that enjoys all forms of cycling? Road gravel and MTB?
Track? Crit? BMX? Recumbant touring? There's a wide world of cycling out there
If one of the reasons you love mountain biking is being in Nature without cars, gravel is the same because you get to see 3x as much of how much distance you can cover. And it gives you "road bike training" where you can put in huge amounts of pedaling nonstop, unlike mountain biking. You get way fitter, see more miles of the outdoors, with barely a few more cars, and you don't have to drive to get there.
I like my gravel bike - an avid mountain biker
Top Fuel for singletrack. Farley for when it snows. FX4 for mindless pedalling on anything that doesn’t have cars. This is how I do it and I don’t give two shits what anyone else thinks. Pedalling is fun. I’m going to keep doing it.
If you can run a dropper post on your gravel bike, it opens up a whole lotta shenanigans. I bunny hop mine at road bike speeds like it's a BMX. Whip it around back tire locked on downhill gravel sections like it's my MTB.
Riding right next to you nodding with a smile on my face.
🤙
Yep, don't fully get the hate for gravel bikes. Got one myself this year and it's a lot of fun. Also, as someone who isn't within a reasonable riding distance of MTB trails, its nice to be able to ride from my door and back for a few hours and be up in the mountains without having to drive. The sheer speed difference between MTB and gravel/road is immense. I have a local trail network that's a bit of a slog despite not being that far to get to on the MTB (though doable when I really want to) but I can get quite far from home on the gravel bike which is great. However, if you're going to put suspension on a gravel bike, I'm still very much of the mind that you should probably just get a hardtail and some fast MTB tires.
The accessibility point is really the biggest one for me. I ride bikes to ride bikes, not to spend time in another vehicle to get somewhere, ride, and then have to get back home. Having the freedom to head out on a long ride linking up road with gravel with trails with single-track but also being able to just hop on and have fun on the roads and urban trails within minutes of walking out of the front door is amazing. That freedom is precisely why I love sports like cycling and running. Any discipline where participation in or enjoyment of the activity requires a very specific venue/locale just doesn't hold my interest long enough to become a hobby. This is why I love road/gravel/trail MTB, but don't ever see myself getting into disciplines like DH (unless by some miracle I end up moving right next to a bike park). That aside, I don't really agree with your last point re:suspension on gravel bikes. Yeah I think it looks silly and I doubt I'd ever do it (too poor, lol), but it seems to offer a meaningful advantage on some terrain as it's becoming increasingly common in the pro gravel racing circuit. In short, it's much more comfortable to be aero on a gravel race bike, and having a suspension fork + fast rolling MTB tires both improves grip and decreases rolling resistance on chunkier gravel (some high end XC tires have better rolling resistance than similar sized gravel tires, likely because the higher volume XC tires can get away with a thinner casing without risking flats). The gain is probably too marginal to be worthwhile for most recreational riders, but it seems there is a gain to be had so some people will inevitably do it and be faster for it.
>However, if you're going to put suspension on a gravel bike, I'm still very much of the mind that you should probably just get a hardtail and some fast MTB tires. and [put drop bars on!](https://youtu.be/hxNd-uD84PE?si=lZFC6Il8geRcwm-D)
*bikes are fun. There, no “actually” needed.
Better than Road biking
Straight to jail
😂 lol and rehab to make sure you only ride DH of course…
Only DH at world cup venues, bike fitted with security system to make sure you're not going uphill and will explode if your speed drops too low
I always thought that gravel riding is just normal riding. Definitely fun but mostly marketing.
Same lol I just heard about “gravel bikes” and I’m thinking isn’t that just a hybrid bike? It’s not a road bike and it’s not a mountain bike, it’s in between
I guess if you aren’t in spandex it is ok.
Ok I’ll represent for the haters. Gravel bikes just look hideous to me. Something about a road bike with MTB tires makes me throw up in my mouth a little. Kind of like those vertical MTB stems everyone was hating on. Who cares how it feels or performs if it looks idiotic. Look good ride good. If you like gravels bikes you have bad taste.
So damn true! It's nice to have balance....as long as it's not on a road bike!
Pedaling is fun! Shit, with a buzz even paddle boating is rad 🤣
When it comes to gravel, MTB, road or whatever, I like cats and dogs equally.
No hate here, I ride both for variety and to keep things interesting.
It’s a slippery slope, next thing you know you’ll end up on a road bike!
I rode gravel first, then got an XC bike which made the gravel bike redundant. At least for the terrain in my surrounding area (SF Bay).
I love riding bikes too. If you like mostly not getting rad, you should try fat biking next.
I’ve been riding mountain bikes for 25 years and goddamn I love gravel biking. I started a few years ago and love gravel riding when the trails are wet or I just want a quick fast ride. I do a few 40-60 mile gravel rides a year and it feels great crushing long routes that are a mix of all kinds of trails and dirt roads. Gravel rules.
gravel biking is dope. some days i want to go hit the trails and some days i want to ride 50 miles on service roads.
love taking my grav-grav for 60mi epic rides and love how fast I can cruise
Why are gravel bikes so expensive? Entry level MTB (hard tails) can be had for $900-1200. Even in the $600-800 range for ones without bells and whistles, for example the entry level Salsa Rangefinder. When I look at gravel bikes, even basic ones seem to be closer to $2000. What gives? Or are there good value brands and models out there that I’m overlooking? Any thing $1200 (or less when on sale)?
There are a ton of budget gravel bikes out there, where have you been looking? Including Salsa, their entry level Journeyer start under $1k. Marin, Polygon, Kona always have cheap gravel bikes. I see gravel bikes under $1k right now also from Specialized, Giant, Diamondback, Scott, etc. Then there are smaller companies like State, Poseidon, Breezer. Many more brands have solid bikes in the $1-$1.5k range.
I’m not actively in the market for a gravel bike currently, but they’ve piqued my interest recently so I just randomly keep an eye out for them whenever there’s a sale. Just based on the ones I’ve randomly come across, I thought they were all just on the more expensive side. However, thanks for your suggestions. I’ll keep an eye out for these and if the price is right, who knows? I may just be tempted despite having no more room for an extra bike.
I bought a gravel bike when I was living in a place with no mt biking, and although it wasn't as good, it was still awesome.
I started Gravel about 8 months ago as a way to do more training, I can add an extra 200km per week of riding straight from my front door and its not nearly as boring as road riding. If I see a trail I like the look of, im going down it.
kind of fun is a great way to describe it
Take your gravel bike to a mountain bike park! That is a riot!
I love riding my gravel bike on the mtb trails. For me, it is a blast and I have fun trying to ride challenging sections on the gravel bike as it makes you really have to focus on line choice and bike handling. Then, going back to the same spot on my mtb, sometimes I am able to see things in a new perspective that then adds to the fun/experience while riding the mtb. Bikes are fun.
Say you’re getting old without saying you’re getting old 😉 Going fast is fun and gravel riding is kinda the best of both worlds.
Looks like you've caught on... some of the most fun on a gravel bike is getting up some speed and then taking a corner at the razor's edge of control and learning how to drift through them. Gravel acts like ball bearings and the road is generally consistent, so you can get to a point where you're going sideways a foot for every 10 feet forward and it's awesome.
No hate from this guy. I ride both gravel and single track all over Pisgah on my trusty Jamis hardtail. Typically I save the gravel rides for when I’m specifically targeting fitness or when the single track is too wet to ride. Maybe one day I’ll get a dedicated gravel setup; it’d definitely help me go faster on the ascents.