Originally Posted by
joesch
My Surley Straggler is fine for most of the gravel I biked in the DFW area but found I could use some extra suspension for the trails that are really more for mtn bikes, like Northshore Grapevine. I was ok with Gateway Park FW. Where were you riding ?
We ride here and there. I am on a cross bike - I have a 38 on the front, but the rear clearance is quite limited; I have a 33 on it. The west side at gateway is definitely manageable - I did the Martin House time trials out there. While I wasn't too fast on the trails, I was top 10 on the trinity trail portion; drop bar bikes have their advantage. A friend of mine who mountain bikes a fair bit took me over to gateway east on our cross bikes. That was a little more difficult.
Most of the gravel around here is fine. I've done a few spinistry events up in the Sanger area, and find that gravel to be very fast and easy to navigate. The worst we've ridden was the hell of the north ride in Paris, TX. Some of those roads were pretty rough. We were in Meridian yesterday for a 100km loosely organized event. Lots of hills, including some steep sections. The downhills were manageable, but a little suspension would have been nice. I have access to some trails west of here that are pretty rough / technical in parts.
As I've discussed with my wife, I can do these roads / events / races on my cross bike, but it would be better on a dedicated gravel rig :-). The cross bike, FWIW, is fantastic in cross races.