Originally Posted by
CouchTo1200K
I guess I'm late to the party but I tried gravel riding (Rollins Pass, CO) last year and it was absolutely miserable. If I wanted to go 6mph and get beat up I'd get back into running. The cars are still there, they're mostly our "friends" in pickup trucks, and it's usually just one at a time so there are no witnesses in the event that one of them decides to be hostile. I'd rather Zwift forever than do that kind of ride again. The gravel bike (aluminum Niner) was pretty cool though. I do enjoy some mild dirt/gravel (Gold Hill, CO) but my road bike with racing tires can handle that kind of terrain just fine.
Darren Alf, the Bicycle Touring Pro, has a video of a Colorado loop that included Rollins Pass. He did this on is Co-Motion fully loaded touring bike. I wondered why he didn't use his bikepacking bike, which is a rigid mt bike with 3" tires, but the bulk of the loop (south from Estes Park, then north from Winter Park and thru RMNP) was all pavement, thus the touring bike. He didn't seem to have issues on Rollins, but I could see that a suspension system would have been useful.