Over the years, my level of participation in cycling, in general, has waxed and waned. When it's nice weather I ride more than when it's not. With exception reading stuff from the folks at Rivendell Cycles, an occasional glance through a Bicycling mag in some waiting room or pouring over a bicycle parts catalog (none of which had been done for a while), exposure to "new trends" in the bicycle world were absent until finding this forum. Even then, a full time job kept me from wasting (I mean spending 😉
too much time coming up to speed. Semi retirement and COVID-19 have provided me with way too much time 😬.
I learned of the "gravel" bike right here on this forum!
While I'm sure those in the business of designing, manufacturing and most importantly selling "gravel bikes" will defend their position that these bike do have characteristics that warrant a separate class, I'm going to believe otherwise.
I just loved the very first reply "Riding on gravel"!
I don't have a bike that was "designed, manufactured and sold" as a gravel bike but have one that I do call my gravel bike. It's essentially a road bike from the previous millennium with 27" rims and a frame that's able accept a larger 27x1 1/4" (32-650) tire. I will say that the rear tire is a really tight fit but it does fit without rubbing! I generally run them with pressures around 80-85 psi. It has a wide range of gearing 29" low and 108" high. The steel frame is a tad large for me by currently standards. The ride tho, is comfortable and stable. It rides quite well on gravel and as expected handles hard surface roads too. Would be a piss poor mountain or single track bike. I would like to have better brakes but there's no chance of me upgrading this bike Tom disk brakes. Perhaps some good center pulls 🤔.
Bottom line, to me, is larger tires and a frame that accepts them.