Lack of MTB worthy riding is why I mostly ride a gravel bike. It literally makes the trails come alive™Â
I stopped driving to ride during COVID and haven't really felt the need to other than on a few occasions
I think it'll depend on where you live almost 100% but are riders just starting out in cycling now choosing the bike suited to their surroundings rather than when we all started when pretty much it was road bike or MTB?
I bought a road bike solely because, on a personal basis, I just cannot imagine really driving somewhere just to ride my bike around. That said, living in Manchester I still have to "commute" on the road bike through the suburbs to get to the nice lanes and hills.
I don't mind driving for an event of some sort though. I've driven up to an hour and a half (each way) to 'cross races and trail races and stuff like that.
Gravel bikes just don't interest me at all, but looking at objectively they could make a lot of sense where I live- I used to ride my old XC hardtail along canal towpaths and the mersey river to get to the trails in Marple and Hayfield so I expect a gravel bike would be great for that, though perhaps avoiding some of the more gnarly trails when I get there.
The Solaris is good but a BFe wouldn't hurt🤣
Might be the ideal compromise between the Solaris for getting there and the Rocket for being there. Hmm...
Riding from the door is mostly ok-ish XC but a 15 minute drive gets us to the edge of Galloway Forest.
I think we do drive more than 'local' but there are always 2-4 riders in the van and my total annual mileage on my (only) vehicle is less than 10k a year.
I live in the FOD so yeah 90% of my riding is from the door. I moved here specifically for that from Bristol back in 2020.
I feel like this thread is going to separate the STW Richlist from the normals. It must be incredible to be able to choose where you live. I, like most people have to live in the only place I can afford and cling onto it.
The only fortunate thing for me is that me and my girlfriend work from home now, so as long as we're within an ok driving distance from the office to go in once every month or two, we can live wherever. It actually works out so much cheaper too. We were both on 30k when we moved - so far far from 'richlist' - and for the price of a crappy 2 bed flat in Bristol, we were able to get a 4 bed detached house with a garage and garden in a little village in the FOD.
