Let's Retire the Term "Gravel Grinder"
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Let's Retire the Term "Gravel Grinder"
I guess alliteration is cool, but referring to a bike or an event as a "gravel grinder" just seems so 2010.
Likewise "monster cross."
Likewise "monster cross."
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Yeah the gravel grinder term always made me cock my head a bit since the idea was to sit and spin so weight is on the rear and you don't lose traction.
But I guess more grinding was done 15 years ago before wide range gearing became readily available. At the same time, triples were quite common then so there is that.
Maybe it's just alliteration in the end.
As for monstercross, that pretty much died out after a short life. Sucks, since I have a frame literally called the Monstercross. If you get your way it will be nameless!
But I guess more grinding was done 15 years ago before wide range gearing became readily available. At the same time, triples were quite common then so there is that.
Maybe it's just alliteration in the end.
As for monstercross, that pretty much died out after a short life. Sucks, since I have a frame literally called the Monstercross. If you get your way it will be nameless!
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Other biking terms that can be tossed too..
>That catchall cute little term "kit". Too cute for me. The Brits can keep it.
>"Clipless" pedals. Having ridden the first 2-3 decades of my biking career using leather strap toe-clips and SIDI racing shoes with nylon-slot cleats..I get it. However, the first thing one does with "clipless" pedals is step on them and "clip" in (SPDs at least).
>"Shredding". Lots of drama. It's just riding a bike..no need for excess drama.
Now..one could no longer don some awesome kit, clip into some clipless pedals, and do some serious shredding and grinding on a fav monster cross bike, and still have a great day of riding.
>That catchall cute little term "kit". Too cute for me. The Brits can keep it.
>"Clipless" pedals. Having ridden the first 2-3 decades of my biking career using leather strap toe-clips and SIDI racing shoes with nylon-slot cleats..I get it. However, the first thing one does with "clipless" pedals is step on them and "clip" in (SPDs at least).
>"Shredding". Lots of drama. It's just riding a bike..no need for excess drama.
Now..one could no longer don some awesome kit, clip into some clipless pedals, and do some serious shredding and grinding on a fav monster cross bike, and still have a great day of riding.
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⬆️ But how will you shred the gnar, bruh?
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I didn't know the term even had that much meaning at one point! Just figured "grinder"/"grinding" got borrowed from other kinds of cycling to make it sound more "extreme."
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I always thought grind in Gravel grinder refereed to hard or unpleasant work or preserving through a difficult task not the pedaling style to be employed.
Gravel Grubbing?
Gravel Travel?
Gravel Humping? ( not that kind of humping you pervs)
Gravel Devil?
Gravel Pickle?
Gravel Jackpot? (not the fun kind of jackpot)
Probably none of these are what OP had in mind.
Gravel Grubbing?
Gravel Travel?
Gravel Humping? ( not that kind of humping you pervs)
Gravel Devil?
Gravel Pickle?
Gravel Jackpot? (not the fun kind of jackpot)
Probably none of these are what OP had in mind.
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I'm reading a book written by a WW2 bomber tailgunner. In the chapter I read last night, he talked of donning his "kit" - lots of warm clothes with his air suit over. So "kits " were the thing almost 80 years ago, at least "over there". (Author was English and in the RAF. Book was written during the war and not edited after. He didn't live to see the peace.)
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So, we should be calling these multi-surface or mixed-surface rides instead then? I bet I can guess where that will go if you put it to a vote.
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I like those names better than Gravel anything. I've rarely had my bike on actual gravel. Dirt? Yes. Sand? Yes. Grass? Yes. Lots of pavement. Gravel? Rarely. As I ride it, it is a multi-surface bike.
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Very well could mean this too. This was so decentralized to start with and also very siloed that it could mean one thing locally and a different thing in another region or even a different area of the same state.
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Other biking terms that can be tossed too..
>That catchall cute little term "kit". Too cute for me. The Brits can keep it.
>"Clipless" pedals. Having ridden the first 2-3 decades of my biking career using leather strap toe-clips and SIDI racing shoes with nylon-slot cleats..I get it. However, the first thing one does with "clipless" pedals is step on them and "clip" in (SPDs at least).
>"Shredding". Lots of drama. It's just riding a bike..no need for excess drama.
Now..one could no longer don some awesome kit, clip into some clipless pedals, and do some serious shredding and grinding on a fav monster cross bike, and still have a great day of riding.
>That catchall cute little term "kit". Too cute for me. The Brits can keep it.
>"Clipless" pedals. Having ridden the first 2-3 decades of my biking career using leather strap toe-clips and SIDI racing shoes with nylon-slot cleats..I get it. However, the first thing one does with "clipless" pedals is step on them and "clip" in (SPDs at least).
>"Shredding". Lots of drama. It's just riding a bike..no need for excess drama.
Now..one could no longer don some awesome kit, clip into some clipless pedals, and do some serious shredding and grinding on a fav monster cross bike, and still have a great day of riding.
Thanks for the additions. Kit is particularly irksome. It seems like the "full squish" is passing from the mountain bike lexicon, and that can happen quickly enough.
I call a bicycle seat a bicycle seat. I find it odd when people correct me and say that it's a saddle. Is the piece that connects the seat to the bike called a saddle post? What about the parts of the frame? Do we have saddle stays and saddle tubes? Do we have saddle post binders?
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As long as there are concrete mixers and trucks being used in the world, "gravel grinder" can't be retired.
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A seat is something you sit in/on. A saddle is something you sit atop. Recumbent has a seat, diamond frame has a saddle. Yeah maybe its largely a distinction without a difference, but still...