Gravel Roads Making A Comeback?

[OakLeaf]

Same thing here. Lots of our formerly favorite roads are getting chip-seal this year.

Fatter tires and lower pressure will make your bike easier to handle on gravel. They won't save your paint and potentially your frame itself from being torn up. Nasty stuff. The fronts and undersides of our motorcycles are horribly pitted, pockmarked, scratched and scarred merely from our 1/2 mile gravel lane.

[Crankin]

I hate gravel, too, for the same reasons everyone has said. I mostly am riding my road bike and if I come across gravel (which usually only happens when I am on my group ride), I get off and walk my bike. I won't take a chance. As Kfergos said, they are not doing it around here; people wouldn't stand for it! They just let roads deteriorate until the money becomes available. Last fall, the town of Harvard repaved quite a few of their roads with something that seemed very bumpy/weird (chip seal? I am not familiar with that), and we were concerned. But, after the winter, it seems fine.
My only complaint with the roads around here is the unending repaving that takes place every summer! Right now, 2 of the main streets in Acton, which I use to get to many places, are stripped down to grooved pavement. It's been 3 weeks and the final repaving has not taken place. I can't ride my road bike on it and when I came upon one of these streets on my Jamis, it was just plain uncomfortable.

[Andrea]

All I can think of is that you can have more events like this one down in Louisiana:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

All I can think of is that you can have more events like this one down in Louisiana

Looks great to me. We ride gravel roads all the time where we live- it's all just part of the fun for us!

[Aggie_Ama]

All I can think of is that you can have more events like this one down in Louisiana:

Next year do the double! We have the Tunis Roubaix a lot of people do the day before the Rouge Roubaix.

[tulip]

I grew up on a gravel road. The advantages were that the cars went more slowly than they do now (it's been paved). The disadvantage was that we had to rinse the dust off the house a couple of times a year.

I like gravel roads and I like riding on them. If you have the funds, you could use your newly-created gravel roads as an excuse to purchase the Supreme Gravel Road Bike: a Rivendell Saluki with 650B wheels. Now that's riding!