srode1

62 here and enjoy gravel as well as road riding. The last few years Dirty Kanza 200 has had around 50 in the 60+ age class, and around 50% finish.

jan nikolajsen 

56 here. When I do road races/rides in my region it’s always been full geezer dominance; well fed boomers firmly rooted on the saddle of impeccable S-Works bikes with the bars too high. Top ten is tough but not unattainable when the fitness is there.

Then I went to my first gravel race near SLC a few weeks ago. No age groups and super affordable. Starting line was 150 young, skinny, fit riders in pro kits and bikes that looked business. Maybe a handful of older folks on mountain bikes. I cramped after 5 miles trying to hang with the main bunch, with 3 breakaways already established and 70 miles remaining.

chas58

Wow, you said it better than I could have. I do think the industry can be faddish, and that irritates me sometimes (especially planned obsolescence, and the latest shiny new thing). But then again, it gives us choice and variety.

Zaskar

You may not realize how many of us older guys are out there... 'cause you young guys usually see us from the back. Don't sweat it. We've had years to train. You'll get there. ;-)

chas58

Love it Zaskar!

My initial post was meant to say that older riders seemed to be the first to get it, that in many ways they were "smarter" I see lots of gravel rides around here with mature riders who have relegated their old road bike to the trainer. Its a good way to get out in nature without worrying too much about cars.

It seems that "mature" road bikers (40-60+) tend to gravitate to gravel because they realize that moderately large tires (30-40mm) don't have to be slower, compliance is a good thing - and why deal with traffic?
I see 20 somethings (and older) gravitate to gravel because they love mountain biking too much to get a pure road bike and the gravel genre gives them the versatility they need. Besides, the group rides and races are fun and less uptight compared to a crit.
I see 30-40 somethings gravitate to gravel genre because they want an all terrain bike they can ride from their front door - they just don't have as much time to drive to/from the trailhead when they have a new family

David Scott

50 here. Took up cycling after quitting smoking back in August 2016. My brother races 'cross and he gave me an older Giant Escape as I wanted to get back into shape. Rode that for the rest of the summer and then dove in both feet the next year with first a Revolt and then an Anyroad. Riding on the road feels like 'exercise' whereas riding gravel is fun.

Garfield Cat

And the older rider may have more money to spend on bikes.

sputniky

I think your premise is flawed simply due to the fact that many folks "got it" (riding fat tired drop bar bikes in the dirt) decades ago. These "older riders" were 20, or 30 somethings back then...

chas58

Exactly. You understand.

It does kind of shock me how many people can be in agreement, and still argue. We are all basically saying the same thing.

Either way, there are plenty of gravel riders in their 50's around here.

Zaskar

The funny thing is that lots of older riders have been riding gravel on road bikes for years. I've done a handful of rides in North Georgia connecting the "gaps" (well-known mountains/climbs) using FS roads on 23mm tires at 105 psi and LOVING it... because the gravel bike segment wasn't a trend yet.

But I'm not so old and untrainable that I don't prefer doing those rides on 40s at 50 psi ;-)

Happy Feet

Yep.

I suspect there is a sub set of cyclist who has always been riding mixed surfaces but now the "identity" surrounding gravel biking seems to be closely associated with owneship and talk about new and expensive bikes designated for the genre. Many young people can't afford to plop a couple of K on that bike or see the value of being identified as a member of the genre where as older folk tend to have more disposable income along with increased risk aversion.

You also see a lot of older folk talking up the benefits of nordic walking sticks.

Yes you can ride gravel without the expensive bike but to fit in and enjoy the group experience there is that social pressure to buy up just like road cycling. FWIW most of the cyclists I see are older except for roadies which tend to have the addition of somewhat younger professional types.

Garfield Cat

The older riders have gone through the drill of buying their first road bike, just to see if they like riding, then later, buying the one they really like to ride, the fit, the everything.

It stands to reason that the older gravel rider will skip the drill and go for the frameset and components, right to the top. No sense buying twice.

Hondo Gravel

I started cycling in 1995 after playing years of beer league softball which was fun but as we aged keeping a team together was hard. Started with MTB and would try to ride the most radical trails I could handle but wrecking didn’t hurt that bad then. Then I gave road riding a try and enjoyed that style as well. Gravel riding is the perfect mix for me. I get the feel of MTB and RDB and far less traffic and you can find gravel roads almost anywhere. I like the sturdier bike and the ability to go from road to gravel and back. I see cycling as a sport that can be done at every stage of life and usually the first form of transportation and freedom was learning to ride a bike as a kid.

bitingduck

I'm early 50s and have been riding a gravel bike lately as my main bike. My ancient hardtail MTB is in PDX, and I like the ride on my gravel bike better, anyway. The fire roads out of Pasadena are fine as gravel/dirt roads with the occasional portage over rockfalls. I've even gone down the Mt Wilson toll road a few times on carbon road bikes with 23 mm tires, and up Mt Lowe on the same bikes. I've ridden some worse-surfaced gravel roads up in Oregon recently. The trend the last few years for a lot of MTBers though seems to be to get a ride up with a heavy downhill bike and bomb the downhill, rather than riding up. A nice gravel bike will go up the fire roads a lot faster than most heavy mtbs, though the ride down will be a bit harder.

K R

OK, I'll be 72 in Sept. DW and I both ride Diverge Comp's. Occasionally ride a paved path, often on a rails to trails path in WA, Idaho and OR. Haven't ridden the road bikes in over a year... gravel is way more fun! OK, we just added 27.5 MTB's to the stable, gotta keep movin' so we can keep movin'.

TimothyH

I'm 55 and rode 60 miles gravel today.

zjrog

I'm not planning any serious MTB riding, but my 29er seems perfect for gravel. What little I have ridden remind sof when I didn't know any better. Growing up in the Flint Hills region of Kansas, near Topeka, all I knew was gravel and trails, on my old Sears Free Spirit ten speed...

56 now, and somehow that simpler time seems like it was pretty easy.

79pmooney

I'm 68, have signed up for a fairly crazy gravel ride in a month and just did the pretty civilized Cycle Oregon Gravel last weekend. I wasn't the oldest but in the minority.

I never sought out gravel in my earlier days, but my folks' house, from which I raced and trained my first year had 1/4 mile of dirt road that I rode on sewups. Several races had extended unpaved stretches. (I wasn't a gravel "whiz" but I always liked the race gravel because the pace slowed down and moving up was easy and a "freebie".)

I'll probably never get fully into gravel - too much time spent doing bike cleanup! And Oregon dust is such a bike parts killer. (All volcanic. Incredibly abrasive. My rim-braked road rims go 1 1/2 winters.) But it is fun and there is a lot of it around here. So it is another aspect of riding to add to my commute like rides (I'm retired but ride into town regularly) and road rides, both geared and fix gear.

A poster above mentioned not understanding drop bar gravel bikes. I've never mountain biked so my gravel is all on drop bars. I've been getting serious this past month and studying what works for me and what doesn't. And I have found I love riding the drops. The bike feels like it is on rails but is completely free to move sideways as needed. Like I am on railroad tracks but sometimes a switch has been thrown and the wheels change tracks. Not an issue at all. I love it. I went into last weekend tinking I would be convinced I slould put the interrupter brake levers on for hairy descents. Now, no way. The drops are just too good.

Ben

Seattle Forrest

What does older mean? I'm 41. Feel half my age most of the time. I never let the number be a reason to limit what I do in life.

79pmooney

The difference between 41 and half that age is much smaller than the different between 41 and the same number of years older. 41 yo's are youngsters.

pbass

My post had nothing to do with slowing down with age or anything like that. I was simply observing that where I live and ride, the majority of people I see embracing gravel riding and gravel/adventure bikes are younger riders. Folks my age around here (50's and up) are usually on road bikes or mountain bikes. Obviously from the replies, that phenomenon is not the case in other regions.
Lots of factors of course, but I've come to conclusion that a big part of it is our terrain--we don't have gravel roads so to speak. We have pavement and then steep rocky dirt, which most people see as mountain bike territory (and rightfully so in many cases).

fraba

+1
At 53, I can recognize plusses and minuses of both my gravel bike with its 47mm tires and my road bike with its 25mm tires. Both are FUN for different reasons.

I also recognize that even if science supports wider tires compared to what was pushed by the industry in the past, the gravel/wide tires thing is also becoming a big marketing push by the industry...

chas58

I think all of us can agree on that!!!

The "super stiff" fad the industry was pushing has come and gone. The industry now realizes that a bike that does not beat up the rider is going to make the rider faster in the long run, regardless of discipline. Is this too a fad? We'll see. ;-)


(ok, one exception, our velodrome bikes are still super stiff).

bitingduck

Most fire roads in the San Gabriels are very much roads and gravel bikes do well on them.

I just came back from a 5 day gravel tour in Norcal that had about 30 people on it, and there were plenty of over-50 riders, though most were from the SF Bay area because that's where the organizer is from and that's where the shuttle returned to.

pbass

I hear ya. That's why once I got a gravel bike my mountain bike started collecting dust. Even though as I say the majority of riders I see out there on our fire roads are on mtb's, often full suspension at that, I think a gravel rig is perfect for this riding.