Gravel Grinder

There's a new trend in cycling called gravel riding, and like most things its an evolution and specification of some other style of riding.

Road cycling lead to cyclocross, cyclocross led to gravel. Bikes with wider clearances for bigger tires but not quite a full on mountain bike. But essentially you are taking a bike off paved roads. Another related trend is the "1x" drive train where the front gears affixed to the cranks only have one as opposed to the double or triple gear set you might be familiar with on your usual road or mountain bike.

This just seems like the purest form of riding like you did as a kid.

This is from a little short track near where I work, but transport back in time to mid-90s Houston, Texas and you'd be hard pressed to see a difference (Maybe less mosquitoes). Out behind my neighborhood was a portion of the buffalo bayou and from the years of people riding back there a dirt/gravel trail had been established. In recent years its been paved over so its a "proper" bike path, but for me I'd take an undeveloped path any day.

My only complaint is there aren't too many areas like this I can cycle too easily.