Even events are all over the place with this. So, I thought I'd dive into this mess and see if maybe there could be some sense made of it all. It doesn't help that the term "gravel" is the wrong term, but it is what we got stuck with early on. So, it is what I have to work with here.
For the record, I would have preferred "all-road" for these bikes and riding style. I just wanted to get that out there up front.
So, as with any good research project, it is good to know what the word means you are working on. I headed over to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary for the definition of "gravel" and this is what I found.....
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| Cut from the webpage for "gravel" on Merriam Webster's site |
So, now it all makes sense. All these variations have gravelled me into a state of confusion. Who knew "gravel" could be a verb? Do not let it be said that Guitar Ted Productions is not educational. Ha!
Obviously, we're most interested in the "loose rounded fragments of rock", and "a stratum or deposit of gravel - a surface covered with gravel, ie: a gravel road".
I know, it makes so much sense when you see the definition. It also points out how far off the rails "Gravel™" has gone. It has made the original term defined here meaningless, or maybe a different definition is now required. I don't know...... I think words should be attached to specific meanings, and in terms of cycling, words seem to be pretty fluid. At least in this case it seems that way.
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| Extreme gravel. Maybe even epic. |
I know this might offend many people, but most cyclists who think they are riding gravel are not really riding gravel. This is not their fault. The term should never have been used. Because look - most people don't have crushed rock roads near them. And even if they did, they probably wouldn't want to ride a bicycle down them. Especially if the road looked like the image above! Which, I should point out, is a rare size of rock in Iowa.
Then you have this situation in most areas where dirt, maybe crushed rock roads too, are not capable of being strung together into a continuous course. You have this pesky surface which we call "pavement". You sometimes will see courses which utilize this surface to string together the "good stuff".
Besides, you sometimes will be going through towns and villages. It seems most civilized places in the USA want pavement. Not always, but generally - yes. So, pavement is on the menu in small doses, hopefully just small doses. Too much and we'd have to go by the name "roadie", don't cha know? Can't have that, now can we? .
Look, this article is an exercise in futility,I understand this, but I also think you might get the point here. "Gravel™" is just the wrong name. I was going to use a stronger wording here and say the name we ended up with is "stupid", but back in 2010 or so most of the folks running roads unpaved were doing so on actual crushed rock. So I can forgive those folks who saddled this style of riding with the term gravel. However; I was also saying at that time we shouldn't use the term "gravel" and I really wish we wouldn't have landed on that term.
But like I said, it is futile to think we would ditch "gravel" for what we do and use something much more sensible and easily defined like "all-road". So, I just hope everyone who reads this comes to the understanding of what the shortcomings are when we say gravel-this, or gravel-that, and see how vague and open-ended the results are for using this terminology. It is why you shouldn't be surprised to see a full-suspension MTB with drop bars called a "gravel bike" and why you also see road bikes doing gravel bike things at the other extreme, (but those are "endurance road bikes")
As always, thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions.
12 comments:
Man, it's tough to be a rock star when the road is nothing but dirt... Perhaps we should just call it all "playing in the dirt". Sounds appropriate to me.
@MG - There is a long-running gravel race in Minnesota called the Dirt Bag. I always though that was a clever name. We could all just be "dirt-baggers"!
I get your point, but these types of things are all over our language.
I mountain bike all the time, but defy you to name a mountain range in Illinois where I live.
It isn't the worst name. When I tell someone who doesn't know much about bike riding that I went on a gravel ride or race, they can picture what that means. If I told them I went on an all-road ride, they would likely be more confused, without additional explanation.
Mark...I don't know the full history but I suspect it stuck because the alliteration of "gravel grinder" was used early and it caught on. The grinder part was really was what it was all about, but "all-road grinder" doesn't quite roll off the lips.
@Black26 - Hmmm........ Good point. This very well could be. But I will also point out that I received a LOT of push back for using the term "gravel grinder" back then.
Many accused me of making the term up! I heard it first from roadies in the 1990's. The stories I heard were that Winter time and early Spring training rides were done on garvel roads in the Mid-West because these roads were less apt to have been cut into hills and followed the terrain more closely. Also, the surface was harder to ride, providing resistance. Finally, the winds of early Spring were also cited for resistance training.
My old co-worker and co-founder of Trans Iowa, Jeff Kerkove, used to famously say "The wind is our Mountains" when referring to training on the open prairies of Iowa.
And those rides were referred to as "gravel grinders" by those old roadies.
It still doesn't make the term "gravel" the correct one for this niche of cycling though. At least this is what I believe.
Just here to say I can feel that first picture all through my body... : )
Have any of you experienced a suspension hub? I ran across an ebay ad for a Bianchi with them.
This bike has suspension hubs. Never heard of this Pantour suspension hub ever. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186844646239
I have long preferred to use “unpaved” because of the wide variety of surfaces I encounter.
If we really want to get into the nuances of “gravel” definitions, natural gravel is that small round water-worn rock. Not what you would want use to harden a roadway as it will always move and not pack down. You do want it for landscaping and drains. AKA river-run gravel, which may have been run through a crusher to create a more uniform size. Has some sharp edges as well as rounded ones. Dug from river areas.
The more expensive “gravel” favored for road construction is quarry-run. Mined from hillsides and crushed to sizes from (about) 1/4”-minus to more than 4” (think railroad ballast). 3/4” is fairly common for topping “good” gravel roads in the PNW (dry-side).
I have seen rock like in your pic used for muddy areas, or just roads used by heavy vehicles. On the wet-side logging roads may use 6” crushed rock.
The definitely-not-gravel gravel I ride most is the loess soil of the wheat fields that is wet cement in the spring, a concrete sidewall early summer, and deep moon dust late summer.
I can’t remember if I actually rode one of those suspension hubs, though I did see them. There were several available in the ‘90s. At the time most mtbers were running 45+psi in their 1.95-2.2” tires. You would notice more difference dropping the tire pressure than using the suspension hubs. Plus we were all using rim brakes so if (IF) the hub compressed it affected brake pad alignment on the rim sidewall
@ teamdarb - I also recall those hubs. Weren't they an elastomeric based deal? Also agree with shiggy on their failing as a rim brake based solution.
@ shiggy person
You are right about the rim brake. I went down the rabbit hole and found the user manual. It specified a rim with a wide brake track.
@Guitar Ted
That is correct. I did find an old blog that has some good photos of it apart. It oddly seem like the suspension stem was it's influence
I'm down with being a 'bagger. Sounds way cooler, doesn't it?
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