[Closed] Mtbers Riding Gravel?

I prefer AstroTurf.

Does it have to be 'Gravel' or do loose chippings count?

I did your MTB event last year - great route, but I was surprised at the lack of basic timing, a start, numbers etc. Will this be similar?
Grassroots events are great and all, I just don't expect to pay 20 quid and enter through BC to do them...

Was tempted then , but it's on the same day as dirty reiver????

This sounds good

Noticed in re reading this post you have put the date in this thread but b@gggered if I could find it on the website!!! A per hate of mine! Did eventually find by going to the entry link.....

May be taking daughter back to uni in Leeds that week end so could work

Thanks for the replies. The word gravel seems to get a mixed response, fairly good way to describe the type of riding on the event though.

Gary_Lager- Glad you enjoyed our last event. We did have rider number boards and the start was at the bike shop so I'm not quite sure what you mean there? We decided to exclude timing from the event because we didn't want to encourage racing and if people want to know their times there's widely available tech for that.

Jonny rocky mountain- yes it's on the same day as the Dirty Reiver, but that event was sold out before we even opened ours for entries.

charliemort- sorry you had trouble finding the date. It's in the header but I appreciate it wasn't obvious so I've added it to the text.

Any other questions or comments welcome!

got it!

dodgy 52 year old eyes and phone screen!!

xctom - Member

Gary_Lager- Glad you enjoyed our last event. We did have rider number boards and the start was at the bike shop so I'm not quite sure what you mean there? We decided to exclude timing from the event because we didn't want to encourage racing and if people want to know their times there's widely available tech for that.

I don't really understand what it is?

I am a rider of many surfaces. I find being very specific about the surface I ride on limits the route options. It also mean I need to drive to the surface in question, I prefer to ride from my house.

I don't really understand what it is?

Loose stones, typically bigger than sand, smaller than rocks

It's the kinda riding that roadies will consider as 'offroad'.

In reality, it's dull as ****.

Bump! Looking forward to this on my recently acquired tri-cross ( thanks Lisa!). Anyone got any idea how bad the "less well surfaced bridleway" bits are? Just wondering if this is the excuse I need to swap the slickish tyres on it for proper cross tyres.

Does potato alley count as gravel?

We have a really annoying bit of our drive with those horrible loose stones, i sometimes ride that as i leave the house

its not the best part of my day

The MTBing I do, and have always done*, is basically what is now called Gravel. So yeah, I ride gravel but on an MTB.

[i]* in fact it's what we pretty much all did, back in the day, before the emphasis turned to like, totally shredding the gnarr to the max, dude[/I]

Looks like a great event.

Hate the terms gravel and gravel bike.
Awful American marketing shite that has no relevance in the UK.
Puts me right off.

I ride tracks.
On a bike.

However, here's a song about gravel to cheer up all the fans.
🙂

I do but I do it on a rigid weenie 29er

Here's a little preview of the route. Gives a nice overview of the 'best' and 'worst' surfaced parts of the route too.

I suppose the 'gravel' tag is comparable to the 'mountain bike' one. Plenty of people ride MTBs regularly and never see a mountain! It's just descriptive for the type of riding, not necessarily the surface that you're doing it on.

Anyway, entries close next week on 17th April, go here to enter- https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/160235/Steel-Gravel-Tour

I suppose I vaguely fit this description.

Riding habits

1982-90 - Road bike for everywhere including woods, bridle-ways etc. School, college, transport, light touring, leisure riding.

1991-1994 - All Terrain Bike. Steel. Deore. Same riding as above except now commuting and doing a few trails with jumps.

1994-2016 - Mostly MTB, tyre changes for road/touring. Began driving in 2004. Cycling gradually eroded,bike collecting/swapping inversely proportionate. Added a hybrid and shopper/ute to the stable. Improved things.

2016. Cleared stable (except for shopper) and bought another ATB as a one-bike simple solution. Steel. Deore. Except now with drop bars. Some people call it 'gravel'. May eventually miss a 'pure' MTB bike, may not. Too early to tell.

It looks brilliant.
🙂

I'm seriously tempted tbh, that's just the kind of riding I love these days and it's accessable to pretty much anyone with a bike.

Not sure about 70k tbh!

I suppose the 'gravel' tag is comparable to the 'mountain bike' one. Plenty of people ride MTBs regularly and never see a mountain! It's just descriptive for the type of riding, not necessarily the surface that you're doing it on.

Good point.

I'm just being grumpy.
Sorry.

I hope it goes really well.

Not sure if I can make this one, but would be definitely interested in this type of thing in the future.
Good luck with it.
🙂

I'd be interested in this, if it wasn't the same weekend as the Reiver.

I got a GT Grade last year too and I've done more miles on it now than my mtb. I swap wheels and use it as a road bike, or ride off-road and it handles 90% of the trails I normally ride on my hardtail mtb (including singletrack).
I'm also doing the Dirty Reiver this year.

Good luck with the event, it looks like it'll be a good one.

Great event thank you (and not just because of the world's biggest piece of carrot cake at the feed stop). Could maybe do with a few more signs but a great route.