For many people the entry point into mountain biking can be overwhelming and even downright intimidating. They might’ve caught highlights from the Red Bull Rampage on social media and think or naively assume that a lot of mountain biking looks like that. And then there’s the whole bike issue. As we all know … it’s not cheap. We take for granted that an “entry level” mountain bike can easily cost $2,000. But for the outsider to mountain biking? They’re thinking that’s how much their car cost.
Like a typical parent I love to share my passions, interests, and hobbies with my children. From a very early age that included taking them mountain biking. Interestingly, it never stuck for any of them. I wasn’t concerned nor felt like a failure as a parent since they picked up other active sports and hobbies like skateboarding. I am not that parent to ever push them in the direction of something like mountain biking even though they were around it their whole lives. They do love bikes (and coffee) but not as much the mountain biking part.
On occasion I will take one of my sons (who’s college age) mountain biking. Each time he’s “meh” about it when we’re done. We do have a great time together, but he doesn’t dig the actual mountain biking part that much. It doesn’t help that once in a while I’ll not pay attention and take him down a black diamond trail … which ended in him doing an endo not too long ago. I felt horrible …
But last weekend something clicked and we tried something new. I have a gravel bike. Interestingly so does one of my sons. We’ll ride throughout the city together at times and even venture onto dirt or gravel paths in the city. But this time we decided to do a “legit” or “true” gravel ride. I found a route on Dirt Freehub and without much thought or planning we simply went for it.
Of course I happened to pick a hot day so that wasn’t great planning on my part. With both of us on our gravel bikes we headed out for a 31 mile ride. Again, I didn’t plan too much (that’s on me) other than spotting the route and that was good enough for me. While my son’s gravel bike has a 2x10 setup I have mine set up as a single speed. In the city there’s rarely a hill I can’t climb, even if that means zigging and zagging up. But coming at the base of a step incline on gravel? Well, that’s another story. I had to do a bit of walking my bike at times.
In spite of it being a bit hot and walking more than I anticipated we still had a great time. I had fun and my son had fun. It wasn’t like the “meh” response after finishing a mountain bike ride. It got me thinking about the role of gravel riding as a gateway into mountain biking. As we pedaled I reflected on participating in a few mountain bike races in the 90s. Interestingly, so much of it was on dirt or gravel roads. There were no elaborately maintained trail systems that we have today that flow with plenty of gravity-fed runs. “Back then” it was raw single track or chunky dirt roads or gravel. In other words, I think of my roots of mountain biking and how it was actually at times more gravel riding than anything. In other words I kind of “eased” into mountain biking that way.
No, I’m not saying that introducing people has to be sequential … first gravel and the single track. But I wonder where my love would be if my first introduction was simply the kinds of trails that we have today. There’s something about learning to enjoy a good pedal, learning to corner, and getting used to bikes before going truly off road.
What do you think? Should we just leave gravel riding alone or is it a gateway into mountain biking?