vinuneuro

I'm in the fortunate position of currently living a few (paved) miles from a 50 mile long gravel trail, but not sure how long this will last. Road riders can typically leave their driveway and ride around and come back. Gravel cyclists often won't have as many ride location options. So when you ride gravel, do you set out from your doorstep or do you drive to where you'll start the ride?

Facanh

I've built a gravel bike so I can ride more places compared to my road bike. Smooth paved roads, rough paved roads, dirt roads, gravel, singletrack etc. The bike is fun everywhere.

Driving to a gravel road and only riding there seems kind of silly to me. Of course everyone can do what they want, but getting a bike that you can't use "properly" near where you live... Personally I don't see the point.

shelbyfv

Proximity to "gravel" obviously depends on where you live. Mountain bikers have driven to rides for decades. Most road bikers I know regularly drive to club rides. Not something most folks have a choice about.

gda659

both

unterhausen

I'm lucky to have an outstanding mountain biking/gravel road areas very close to my house. Unfortunately, getting there isn't all that easy. I drive occasionally. I don't like to have to ride back to my car unless there is a good reason.

Troy Winter

Less than 5 minutes on my bike and I'm on gravel.

Big Wally

+1.
Mostly out my door since two gravel roads are less than a mile away. But when occasionally meeting up with a riding friend in between where we live I haul the bike to the ride. Ditto road riding on my road bike.

vinuneuro

It's reality for most people living in urban areas. A question of access to gravel, nothing else.

IronM

Since there isn't any gravel where I live, it's at least an hour drive. But that's OK. Within an hour to the NW I have a huge network of forest service roads - great for climbing but very, very rough. An hour to the NE, I have a huge network of county gravel though farmlands - well groomed and fast. But.. go 2 hrs north and the really fun stuff begins! My location: The suburbs north of Atlanta GA

IronM

Nice! For me, it would be a minimum 1.5 hr ride, if not longer. There use to be a lot more of it locally, but over the years the city has crept up and surrounded us

Spoonrobot 

Both.

I have a very short (<3 mile) gravel loop near my apartment. 2 hours west by bike there's above 15 miles or so of gravel roads split into moderate to short segments. 2.5 hours southwest there's about 20 miles of gravel roads split between fairly long segments. Here and there are smaller <1 mile segments but I don't usually plan to to ride those and just take then as I encounter the.

By car, within a two hour drive, I can get to maybe 3-400 miles of gravel or dirt split between 4-5 courses. There's even more gravel and dirt further away but I haven't been much further than 2 hours.

Usually I won't drive to ride gravel unless it's an event, mainly because I don't like driving and if I do drive I like to ride 100+ miles and make a day of it. I can't handle that distance on gravel more than a few times a year so I save them for the the big gravel events I like to do.

BluesDawg

Both. I have access to great dirt roads 2.5 or 6.5 miles from my door and I ride them often. In either direction I can choose rides of 10 to 100 miles or more that are at least half unpaved roads. But I like to ride other areas, too and sometimes I'd rather drive to places to meet people and ride than to spend hours riding to them. No rules. Whatever works.

Marcus_Ti

Most rides are solo, and just ride.

Organized rides generally don't start near enough to want to ride to/from.

iowa mark

The vast majority of my area is a patchwork of gravel roads with the occasional blacktop slicing through them. I can ride the twenty miles to work every day and only cross paving three times and ride hard surfaces the last half mile.

HTupolev

I ride my gravel bike right from my doorstep pretty frequently. Most of those rides aren't particularly gravel-heavy, though. Most of the gravel riding is out in the mountains, getting to it adds lots of miles.

JonathanGennick 

Both, but I'm often pressed for time and it makes sense to drive the five miles to a parking area from where I'm able to make my ride 99% gravel.

Hondo Gravel

Pavement for about 8 miles then gravel. So I just leave and return from my garage.

Seattle Forrest

Most of my rides start and end at the front door, but most of my rides don't involve my tires touching unpaved surfaces.

To ride on (interesting) gravel, I have to drive with my bike.

I don't ride roads because they're not paved, I ride them because they go somewhere I want to be. A lot of roads through a lot of the best places happen to be unpaved here.

But I live in a city on the coast.

motrheadsroadie

only posers drive to the trail head.

mstateglfr 

It isnt about not being able to use the bike properly near where I live though- its about how I want to spend my time when I am going to ride gravel.

I almost always drive to ride gravel. There is no gravel around me for 8mi in any direction. But once the gravel starts, its uninterrupted in all 4 directions for dozens upon dozens(hundreds and hundreds) of miles.

I also ride after work sometimes, so I bring my gravel bike since its just 4 or 5 miles from work before a different swath of hundreds of miles of gravel is available.


I dont want to ride 16miles fo suburban road to get to and from gravel.
Also, driving opens up WAY more. I could spend 30min riding to the same few starting points for gravel, or I could drive 15min and have access to dozens of starting points which then allows for more new riding points.

mstateglfr 

Are you referring to the Des Plaines trail as gravel, or are you in the far NW burbs and have access to gravel roads? Just trying to figure out whats out in the NW burbs that would be gravel. Grew up in that corridor.

rumrunn6

mostly drive, mostly cuz I have found so many really interesting trails around the state. but been having fun on some local trails

it is nice just to run out of the house cuz if you get ready & forget something it's kinda obvious. if I pack my car with what I think I want, I might forget something & not realize it until I rig the bike. been there, done that. disappointing

Craptacular8

My 1/2 mile long driveway is gravel...so from my front door, I'm on gravel for the duration of my ride, unless I choose to hit some intersecting pavement along the route. Low traffic, most of the time a decent ride, but no spectacular scenery. Hoping to load up and hit comparatively nearby forest roads when spring is truly here in the upper midwest.

chas58

I'm all for riding from the doorstep, and think your bike should reflect that.

I have done plenty of mountain biking, but I chafe at spending 50% of my riding time in the car.

Fortunately there is Gravel all around Detroit (and Michigan in general). Even though one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country is here - it is loaded with plenty of gravel routes (I thought it was weird when I moved here that the richest neighborhoods didn't pave their streets).

wheelsmcgee

I’m lucky that I can ride out my door and be in gravel in minutes, basically avoiding pavement (except for a few crossings and so forth) for many miles. Nothing wrong with driving though...if I didn’t ever drive to a start, I’d never get to ride more than a few dozen miles from my house.