Gravel Bikes

[Pale Rider]

Hmmmm.. Maybe there are less cyclists? http://road.cc/content/news/239086-new-survey-sport-england-reveals-drop-leisure-cycling

My local bike shop - and my own observation - tell me the number of leisure cyclists is pretty much the same over the last seven or eight years.

If there was a mini-boom following Brad/Olympics 2012, it sharp fizzled out.

London is entirely different - numbers there seem to have risen dramatically.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Bugger, missed the drama...

My most popular ride is on a greenaway nearby, I see people moving faster than me all the time but I've rarely felt aggravated by them.

The only people that have annoyed my are the odd idiot on a scooter or quad bike which are explicitly banned from the greenaway.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Wasn't/isn't 'gravel' a handy name for the do-it-all bikes initially called 'CX' - 'cyclo-cross' - bikes that the brands started promoting in order to sell more bikes in the early noughties?

 

[DRM]

Wasn't/isn't 'gravel' a handy name for the do-it-all bikes initially called 'CX' - 'cyclo-cross' - bikes that the brands started promoting in order to sell more bikes in the early noughties?

No, CX bikes have a more aggressive race oriented geometry, may not have bottle bosses fitted, may not be able to fit much more than a UCI race legal 33mm tyre, gravel bikes are fitted with lots of bosses, usual spot on the down & seat tube, and on the forks/under the down tube, will take much wider tyres and be fitted with flared drop handlebars, initially designed to be used on the unsurfaced gravel roads found in the USA.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

I purchased my ‘gravel’ bike a few years before they became known as such. It was sold as an adventure bike and has the same geometry as the company’s bikes now sold as gravel ones.