Gravel Bikes - what exactly are you supposed to do with one?

[oddball1313]

Another magazine bought and half of it dedicated to gravel bikes. I’m completely lost on what, why and where with these things. I get it if you live in Oregon etc and there’s 100 miles of tracks through woodlands the size of Wales but I’m clueless where these are in the UK? I’ve got Rutland water on my door step which is 26 miles if you factor in the peninsula but after that it’s footpaths and bridleways over the fields which look hopeless on a bike. They seem to me to be the biggest fad/con going on to get people to buy a product that is basically pointless as there’s nowhere to actually use them?

[oddball1313]

I get the concept, just not where in the UK all these amazing gravel trails are?

America and Canada I imagine are not short of them and maybe France and Italy in and around the mountains but I genuinely have no idea where there is enough of the stuff (certainly in my patch) to justify a specialist bike