Recently I was on the YouTube and the ol algo served me a video in which someone asks a bunch people at Sea Otter whether or not weve hit peak gravel:Now even without watching it you can probably guess whether or not industry insiders think weve hit peak gravel. (And if you cant guess, the answer is, Absolutely not! The supple-tired gravy train will never stop a-rollin!) However, Im not sure this is the right question. Consider this guys response:Hes from Bridge Bike Works, with which I was not immediately familiar, and he makes the good point that people often accuse the bike industry of wanting to sell them more stuff (An industry that wants to sell stuff? What nerve!), but that having lots of options is good for customers. He then talks about their Surveyor, which he notes is good for 90% of road to fast gravel:Now Im not saying the Survey is a bad bike, at all. Yes, its an expensive bike (the frame alone is $5,500) but if its the bike you want and youve got the money than thats all that matters. Whether its a boutique carbon gravel bike or an uber-deluxe Rivendell youve run through the Ultradynamico/Rene Herse/White Industries/Nitto garden, if you wanna go balls-deep on your next bike purchase then by all means go for it. Its certainly a lot better than throwing your money away on something that will erode your humanity, like drugs or an Ivy League education.What I am saying however is that this whole Gravel bikes open up a whole new world of possibilities for new riders! is starting to sound like a real load of crap. A Surveyor isnt going to mint more riders any more than the high-end road bikes of yesteryear. A race bike is a race bike, and it doesnt automatically become more accessible just because it has more tire clearance. Some people buy their first road bike and never ride it because they thought it was cool but it turns out it was weird and uncomfortable, while for others its the start of a lifelong love affair with cycling. I dont see why gravel bikes are fundamentally any different, and despite the much-touted versatility Im sure plenty of entry-level fat-tired flared-bar machines will wind up languishing in suburban garages hours from the nearest gravel road, forsaken by riders who found the handlebars uncomfortable and who never bothered to bring them to the shop after the brake piston started sticking and instead just went back to the Peloton.So I dont think the question is whether or not weve hit peak gravel. I think the question is the Passover-adjacent Why is this bike different from all other bikes?, and I think the answer is that it isnt. Bikes for roads and trails and multi-day tours and all the rest of it are nothing even remotely new, nor is the fickle and delusional consumer. Gravel races are no more or less accessible than the criteriums of yesteryear, and for all the talk of diversity and inclusion in the gravel space for most people who live in cities and suburbs and have full-time jobs and families these events might as well be on the moon. Ultimately some people are cyclists and some people arent, and I dont think todays bikes are any more or less likely to unlock your inner cyclist than the bikes of yesteryear just because they have a few more millimeters of tire volume. Speaking of the road bikes of yesteryear, Ive been riding this one a lot:As someone whos embraced steel and friction almost completely in recent years its a rolling testament to my hypocrisy. The integrated shiftingThe crabon cockpitThe wheels with like six spokesAnd of course the frame made from not onebut two expensive materials that are not steel:Bu what can I say? Its a great deal of fun to ride, and its nine speeds transport me with a flick of the wrist right back to 2003, when I was at the very peak (or depth, depending on how you look at it) of my own roadiedom:But Ive changed a lot since then, and one way in which Ive matured is that I now stop while riding and pay attention to the natural word around me. In fact, as I took the above photos, I became aware of movement in the Saw Mill River:It was a brown furry mammal of some kind, plying the waters:I didnt know what it was, but I thought maybe it was a beaver, so I climbed over the fence and went after it:As I did so I realized I was leaving behind a fancy road bike that did not belong to me:However, sometimes in life a man must choose between bike and beaver, and in this case I opted for the latter.Boldly, I pressed on, even though I was wearing road shoes:And while I lost sight of the beaver (assuming it even was a beaver) I did see the sort of place they like to hang out, at least in cartoons:Beaver dam or random pile of crap? I have no idea.Anyway, while I may not have gotten that beaver shot, I did at least get a picture of this jawbone:If you have any idea what kind of animal it might have belonged to please let me know.