Originally Posted by
HTupolev
That's because people are all over the place. Gravel bike use cases are very heavily regional, depending on the geology, geography, and types of right-of-ways. I wouldn't choose a gravel bike based on a global median use case, because such a bike may or may not have anything to do with my surroundings.
What are people around you doing?
Good points, and a good question. My feeling is that most gravel bikes bought locally are carted off on multi-hour drives or flights to get to gravel. TBH, that's half my proposed use case. The other half is back roads in gravel in a few locations near town, one of which claims to be a mountain. The third half (thanks, Click and Clack!) is the allegedly paved roads mentioned in my previous post. These streets feature pavement, most of which surrounds potholes or is broken up into 2" pieces for hundreds of yards. So most of the curiosity deals with the first half, what can I tackle when I hit the road and go to "gravel?"