Hi all, as you know, our club has a big group of road riders, a smaller group of dedicated mountain bike riders and folks that regularly ride both road and mountain bikes. So that got me wondering, where does that put some of us that like to ride on paved surfaces as well as on gravel roads? Gravel riding seems to be very different than what is considered tradition mountain bike riding and as a result gravel mountain bikes are normally quite different beasts.
You have probably noticed the trend in recent years for dedicated road riders to start to include the possibility of riding on roads that are not paved. Hence the popularity of “gravel” or “all-road” segment of the bike market. A all-road or gravel bike is essentially just a road bike that can take wider tires may have a somewhat more relaxed frame geometry. Cyndy and I got new all-road bikes recently that replaced an older carbon road bike and a steel touring bike for us respectively. I think both of us got them primarily for road riding, but Salsa Warbirds are very versatile bikes that seem equally at home on paved or unpaved surfaces https://salsacycles.com/bikes/warbird/2019_warbird_carbon_105_700.
I do enjoy the lack of traffic found on most of the gravel roads I ride. Unlike the 5x normal riding speed seen in the timelapse Gopro videos I have been making, the pace on gravel roads lends itself to being more relaxed, giving you a chance to enjoy the scenery and not worry about traffic as much. I got out this morning and did a little longer ride, at least for me these days: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/47910424 that went up the winding road in Apache Canyon. But unlike when the club rides out there and turns around when the pavement ends, I kept riding along the unpaved section of Highway 51 which runs about 20 miles along Rowe Mesa. I saw one car along the 8 miles of the gravel road on the way out and none on the way back, fun stuff
Highway 51 Part-1 5x Timewarp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AyGNzvkG1U&t=1s
Highway 51 Part-2 5x Timewarp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXY7-NUb5ks
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