You don’t need a gravel bike to join us.
Back in October 2020 when Tom from the Woods was encouraging us to start up a cycling group, we were throwing around some names. Tom suggested avoiding the word ‘gravel’ and to go with ‘off road’. I didn’t really think anything of it at the time and just thought, yeah, New Forest Off Road Club is solid, we’ll go with that.
Fast forward 18 months and 10 NFORC ride leaders are in the Cotswolds for a weekend to practise map reading, trying to include as many different varieties of byways and bridleways as possible, unclogging our tyres from peanut butter mud. It literally stopped our wheels from turning. It was ridiculous and very funny. Leonie admitted she might have had a sense of humour failure had she found herself riding alone.
Side note, bridleways and byways have such rich historical importance in the UK. Muddy or not, I feel like we’re missing something by coining these sections as ‘gravel’ like our North American cousins. It’s not gravel, its “a section of terrain that might have been established as early as 5,000 BC, linking Neolithic, Bronze or Iron Age encampments”. (🤯)I know it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it but 🤷🏼♀️
Whilst I appreciate that for lots of people, chatting about ‘what actually is a gravel bike’ keeps us busy and is great conversation fodder, for loads of people who want to join our rides, this ‘gravel bike’’ term actually makes it sound like you need a specific bike to join us, which is frustrating. Some people already have enough limiting beliefs that stop them from joining us, the ‘I don’t have the right bike’ just adds to the pile ya know? Can we suggest a cultural switch to “go anywhere bike”?
I’m not best placed to say what specifications your bike should have when joining us for a ride but I would say, it’s about how comfortable you want to be. You can ride New Forest Gravel on a road bike. It’ll be bumpy but it can be done. Put some 35mm tryes on your bike and it’s going to feel better.
We had some excellent thoughts shared on a recent instagram reel…
“The variety of uses from everyday commuter to bikepacking shredder is what makes it so awesome and just as he says too, it welcomes so many folks to start and expand their cycling experiences without feeling pressured to perform.
Gravel is a "pumped up" hybrid :). High increase of interest and use in the last years made so many companies pretty much change their wholesale. Sadly the capitalist nature of the society that is also very prominent in the cycling industry also creates some kind of a "bike fashion ", more "must have'' products and components bombarding us from every corner, that might make those who are not in a position to afford them, feel discouraged to be out there and do what they love. I hope we all will keep challenging those ideas and not let it take over the beauty and freedom that cycling holds within.” @gosia_black.
“Gravel is a use-based category label for a grouping of similar bikes that helps to differentiate between (in particular) road bikes and CX bikes. "gravel" helps to identify bikes with longer wheelbases, more comfortable geometry, larger tyres and lower more useable gears (compared to Road bikes). Whilst I agree there is lots of marketing to sell unnecessary bikes and bits in the bike industry this is just a symptom of capitalism, and not a unique bike based phenomenon. Further I'd go to say that gravel bikes are actually the better bike for most people I've sold road bikes to over the last 15 years.
Gravel is one of the few industry-wide categories that isn't focussed on racing or extreme riding and lends itself much more to a wide variety of uses than other bikes, and I fully support the mainstreaming of a longer alt trend towards bigger tyres and wider bars. I think Gravel is a term the industry settled on because it kinda makes sense within the scheme of how bike groupings are named. Gravel falls under "road" so it is thus actually gravel road. Which I think sounds better than all-road or b-road. The modern world loves a snappy 2 syllable word for things. Also gravel makes as much sense as mountain as a bike name. The UK has neither much gravel or much mountain. But still mountain bikes is a nice name.” @harry_major
“It's very difficult to define anything in the UK as gravel. Yes, there are pockets of the good stuff but the majority of us only really have access to byway and bridleway networks and they are more likely to be muddy, rutted dirt tracks than smooth gravel. So calling it "off-road" is a more suitable description. All bike genres, be it gravel, road, CX, MTB are great if it gets you out riding a bike! Some will be easier/more comfortable/faster/slower/or challenging over different kinds of surfaces but it doesn't mean you can't ride whatever you fancy or have at your disposal. Ride bikes and have lots of fun!” @eria277
All excellent points indeed.
We’ll revisit some of the content we put out early doors about what bike you need to join us. But for now, the bike portraits we share of riders helps to demonstrate the wide range of gorgeous 2 wheeled machines that join us out in the forest. I’ll link to some here, here and here.
If we had the funds, we’d be getting a copy of The Rough Stuff Archive sent out to everyone who enquires about what bike is suitable to join us. The beautiful photos serve as a great reminder that 1) we’re not doing anything new, folks have been riding off road for a hot minute. 2) underbiking is a vibe 💥
We’re off to draft a love letter to our New Forest gravel tracks, see you on the flip side ✌🏻
