[Closed] Can we stop with this gnarmac nonsense please

Don't forget Mountain Cross predates Gnarmac by at least 3 years.

I think Pikes Peak is all tarmac now, isn't it? Maybe Derbyshire county council have been there.

must be nice to live/ride somewhere where potholes are single, rare, avoidable entities

how about you stop telling people what to do? Or is it not ok that i've got 28mm tyres on my road bike?

riding around potholes isn't always possible, sometimes there's a car in the way, [s]sometimes[/s] often it's another pothole, or etc.

Ah, 2 pages and i get it now.

Hybrids

I appear to have hit a nerve bigger than the average Sheffield pothole.

Someone referred to mine as a 'hybrid sort of bike' and it pee'd me right off. I'd rather it be called a road bike.

Not sure what mine actually is as the whole point of getting it was to commute on road with the option of buggering off somewhere else when the road is boring me. Gnarmac seems to fit the bill, but no one understands what it means, so I end up calling it a 'road bike but a bit beefier' to non cyclists!

Mines Brian and so's my wife's.

Is Gnarmac 700c restricted? where does that leave Cannondales Slate?

I ended up ditching my roadbikewith25mmtyres as the paths I took it on may have killed it in a short time.

I have the option of gnarmac-ing my 29er hack bike easily, but that would make it a hybrid... 😉

Didn't they used to be called "rough stuff bikes" or "rough stuff tourers"?

Far too evocative of wool plus twos and cotton duck saddle bags for toady's marketing departments though.

Someone referred to mine as a 'hybrid sort of bike' and it pee'd me right off....................... road with the option of buggering off somewhere else

I've nothing against them, I've got a touring bike, with canti brakes and 32mm tyres and masses of mud/guard room. It just amuses me that people keep re-inventing the nomenclature to avoid the use of the words "touring" or "hybrid".

I think the CTC needs to do a Rapha-style black and white advertising campaign with photos of mud splattered manly men with 1000yard stares and quips like:

"Touring bikes are gravel bikes for those that know the true meaning of rule 5"

"Touring bikes, adventure bikes for people who don't have to be back before tea time"

"Touring bikes, cross bikes for people that can pedal for longer than an hour"

waiting for the Kinesis KrisKross replacement for the Tripster ATR...

Someone referred to mine as a 'hybrid sort of bike' and it pee'd me right off..

I had the same! Then realised I had no argument whatsoever to say it wasn't.

TINAS/nedrapier - Yeah that's what pee'd me off the most, it is a hybrid! But usually hybrids are seen as those ones that old folk buy from halfords with about 30mm susspension and flat bars, whereas my gnarmac bridleslayer is frickin cool right*.......

*It's a planet x London road so probably not really!!

It's just a bike. But a bike where the head tube's a bit too long.

A bit like fire roads are in the UK

Surely the phrase "roughstuff" which has been about for decades is much more suitable.
Oh no , it isn't a trendy new word 😮
When Grit CX starting out I suggested that they should be using that rather than CX as what they were promoting wasn't CX.
Can't do that they said, it isn't a recognised term.
Anyway, I was out today on my roughstuff bike as its the one I use for riding on rough stuff and have done for years.

Whoops.
Always read all of the thread first.

I think the CTC needs to do a Rapha-style black and white advertising campaign with photos of mud splattered manly men with 1000yard stares and quips like:

The love towards gravel/gnarmac bikes here is pretty funny. It's just another industry led push to make us buy new bikes, but when the 650B/29er band wagon roller through everyone hated it. What's so different this time? Oh, this push appeals to my niche, middle class aspirations. I'm on board.

I like the term gnarmac 'cos it's exactly how I train.

Bridleway from home avoding rat run, Rural B road - Chiltern double track avoiding rat run, rural B road, bored bit of woodland bridleway, battered, rural B road, double track hill KOM attempt (fail), rural B road, bridleway home.

My gnarmac machine is a rigid 29er - it's not about the bike more about riding where you want.

whatnobeer - Member

The love towards gravel/gnarmac bikes here is pretty funny. It's just another industry led push to make us buy new bikes, but when the 650B/29er band wagon roller through everyone hated it. What's so different this time? Oh, this push appeals to my niche, middle class aspirations. I'm on board.

I'm missing the point - why would a cross/gravel/gnarmac bike be more middle class than a 29er?

bridleslayer...
YES!!!

Double yes!!

The (cough) tripster (/cough) shall forever be known as a bridleslayer...

DrP

I'm missing the point - why would a cross/gravel/gnarmac bike be more middle class than a 29er?

29ers used to be niche, now they're mainstream. This re-branded crossbike fad will be popular until they become common place at which time the either niche mongers will either desert it en masse or sit it out and wait until the johnny come latelys move on to the next niche fad.

Maybe it is fad, maybe it is B.S. but that is type of riding I'm doing the most and always did no matter what was it name.

My personal expression for that? Crossploration or Cycloration :p

Cheers!
I.

Oh, this push appeals to my niche, middle class aspirations. I'm on board.

Oooor.... this push actually reflects what I do most of the time because I've gotten bored of trying to eek out the most fun I can out of the short sections of local singletrack with miles of tarmac between them/the weekend drive for two hours to ride a trail centre etc. etc.

Granted they've just made cool what already (sort of) existed but I do believe the bikes are different from CX bikes, not designed for 1 hour balls out efforts for a start.

I guess the 'can't comprehend more than 2 styles of bike riding' crowd will never be happy 8)

How is a Gnarmac bike different from a CX bike?

Is a Gnarmac bike to a CX bike what a Sportive bike is to a proper road bike?

3 pages on a crap troll? Come on now chaps.

Traditional (or Euro) cx race geometry is higher BB,steeper HA,shorter
CS,lower stack and a horizontal TT (for carrying).
More contemporary cx bikes have migrated to the point that there's not much difference between them and [insert preferred term here]

Garmin should release a ruggedised Edge 520 GPS and call it a Gnarmin

nope. 3 pages in, still don't get it. Just shut the hell up and sodding ride.

..I'm sure there's some sort of bike forum spike on summer wet days like it is today...

gwaelod - Member
Garmin should release a ruggedised Edge 520 GPS and call it a Gnarmin

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😀

miketually - Member
But gravel bikes are for riding gravel roads, and we don't really have those over here...

What we have is close enough.

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There's hundreds of miles of this stuff not far from my doorstep, and an mtb is wasted on it, but a cx or roadbike is the wrong tool because there's no guarantee there will be an actual track when you come barreling around a tight bend.

thisisnotaspoon - Member

I just like to mock peoples reluctance to admit that they're buying a touring bike.

in a similar vein I've always thought that the only difference between a hybrid and 29er was the price tag

stop!! it's only just got going i like gnarmac its faster than having to type

cxstylee(non-racing)/offroadadventure/gravelracer/dropbarhybrid-commuter

any chance of a proper [gnarmac] BBcode so we can crack on ?

Does Gnarmac demand drop bars? 'Cos if not my SS Bad Boy with a Lefty Solo is right on message...

I reckon GPbike - General Purpose bike - is the best way of describing the category.

MTB capability but fitted with high volume tyres with easy rolling for the road, and a comfortable all day riding position. It's not a hybrid, their tyres are too skinny, it's what a hybrid should be.

Basically a 29er frame set up for the road. Preferably one of the unfashionable steep head angle frames. A Scandal is excellent for example apart from the low head.

If you haven't tried it, give it a go, you'll probably like it.

And you'll not be condemned to taking a car to ride loops anymore. You can ride out from home, follow a track over to the other side of a mountain and ride back on a diffferent road. 🙂

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Two quotes from the Rough Stuff Fellowship: The Early Years

"It appears that a man named Amos Sugden claimed that he had crossed the Sty Head Pass in Lakeland equipped with a bicycle of some 50lbs weight and shod with solid tyres. The date was August 1890 and, although this was quite early in the cycling scene, he made no claim to be the first. Was he merely following another cyclist's footsteps? His achievement was no mean feat, and caused quite a stir in the current wheelers' world. Just to rub it in he subsequently went on to cross most of the Lake District foot passes."

"By 2.30 pm I was traversing the tops of the Long Mynd, this being after a visit to Condover to see the Elizabethan Hall and Leebotwood, to see the old drovers' inn of 1600 AD. Hereabouts two cyclists - then unknown to each other - passed in opposite directions, but each going to the same place [the RSF inaugural meeting, 1955]. Arthur Matthews and Harry Parkinson are now popular members of the Lancashire Section. Harry, by the way, unable to obtain a bed that night, slept on a pile of gravel at the roadside." Bob Harrison.

Just shut the hell up and sodding ride.

Hmm.

In recent decades bikes have become more specialised. So a typical MTB seems to have 800mm bars and 5" of travel and an upright position. If you want to do 15 miles of road to get to a trail then it's possible but honestly not very comfortable.

Back in the early 90s when an MTB was fully rigid, had 580mm bars and 1.7" tyres it was fine, but on a modern bike it's not much fun. Who cares if it's marketing led or not? Specialist bikes exist, and they are better at certain kinds of riding - of course they are. Why wouldn't they be?

epicyclo - Member

miketually - Member
But gravel bikes are for riding gravel roads, and we don't really have those over here...

What we have is close enough.

You're "up there" though, aren't you? Not "down here"? 😉

It appears that a man named Amos Sugden claimed that he had crossed the Sty Head Pass in Lakeland equipped with a bicycle of some 50lbs weight and shod with solid tyres

The "but it's a tourer innit" comment kinda irks me as my (and most other) gnarmac/bridleslayer is about 20lb lighter than the average tourer. Also wondering what the uptake of disc brakes in the tourer market was like pre gnarmac.
But that's besides the point as I reckon the "it's a tourer" crowd are just as bad as the "no it's not", both trying to pigeon hole others riding and pour scorn with no basis whatsoever.
It's all riding bikes innit?

gnarmac - and now bridleslayer - works for me as they are pisstakes and not riding specific.

Harry, by the way, unable to obtain a bed that night, slept on a pile of gravel at the roadside

In recent decades bikes have become more specialised. So a typical MTB seems to have 800mm bars and 5" of travel and an upright position. If you want to do 15 miles of road to get to a trail then it's possible but honestly not very comfortable.

Back in the early 90s when an MTB was fully rigid, had 580mm bars and 1.7" tyres it was fine, but on a modern bike it's not much fun. Who cares if it's marketing led or not? Specialist bikes exist, and they are better at certain kinds of riding - of course they are. Why wouldn't they be?

Yep, and I'm pleased about that.

When I bought my first mtb, just over 20 years ago, you had precisely no choice, you had to have a mtb. Road bikes weren't very popular, hybrids weren't common (as in sit up, narrow tyres, flat bars,) and the only place you'd find a cross bike was mail order.

Why are people complaining about being given plenty of choice?

Yep, and I'm pleased about that.

Me too. My original Orange P7 in 1996 was servicable. My current bikes are all bloody fantastic.

miketually - Member
'What we have is close enough.'
You're "up there" though, aren't you? Not "down here"?

Yes, lucky me. 🙂

But I did live in Hampshire in the 60s for a year when I was a lad - followed a tasty English lass south - and I found plenty tracks to ride on my roadbike and never a cross word from anyone I met. I just did what I was used to in Scotland, poked my wheel along anything that looked interesting. (I didn't know about the lack of freedom you poor folk have down there, so I assumed it was ok.)

BTW I don't know why they call them the "Downs" they're more like "Bloody Ups".

Isn't this just people finally realising that for the vast majority of the riding they do a full on MTB is too much in one direction, and a full on road race bike is too far the other way?

It's like the whole sportive headtube thing, average people realising that a full on race geometry and close clearances isn't appropriate for normal riding.

And now MTBs are too far past the general all-round ATB bike shape they were 20-30 years ago they're not really appropriate for normal riding either.

They're just 'bikes' for flexible riding, a bit of road, a bit of offroad, with mid-sized tyres, middle of the road geometry, and middling weight and occasional load carrying ability without being full on tourer.

Very much a meld of rough-stuff/CX/MTB/Tourer/Audax, they don't fall into any pigeon hole, sure some are more biased towards one area than the other but they are the very definition of a hybrid, just that the don't fit what we've been calling hybrids for the last 20 years and the marketeers need a new way to capture the imagination hence all this gravel/allroad/gnarmac stuff.

Plenty of us have been using either older converted MTBs, or tweaked hybrids and tourers for general duty like this for years, but now there's a lot more choice in decent bikes off the peg for it, gotta be a good thing.

Anyway I like the term Gnarmac, it's just a bit of fun and being used in jest more than anything.