Is there a sweeter phrase in the English language than gravel spill?Get there while you can! Im not sure if traffic is backed up like that because all the local gravelistas have descended upon it, or simply because the motorists arent using appropriate gravel vehicles:Now theres a car that was way ahead of its time:Imagine the attention youd get at the start of your local alt cycling (another awful term) get-together if you showed up in your Subaru Gravel Express with your Crust on the hitch rackthough this particular specimen does pose quite a dilemma for the typical car dork:The car dork thing where they use daily as a verb is at least as annoying as any term bike dorks use, though someone somewhere is composing a Reddit post about how they daily (eew) a Curst NorEaster build (ugh) with alt bars (gag), Campy brifters (gack), and an XTR M900 rear mech (blech)* even as I type this.*[Its perfectly fine to say mech if youre British and thats how you were raised, but if youre a West Greenlander and youve appropriated the word mech for derailleur I find it deeply offensive. Yes, ordinarily Id be in favor of the term with fewer syllablesbut not this time! Do you also call the elevator the lift, or the garbage can the bin? Im sure you dont, unless you enjoy getting punched in the nose.]Speaking of gravel, its so, so over for the non-motorized bicycle:By the way, this opening paragraph would have totally won my Spirit of Gravel contest if it had been sent to me as an entry:There is oneword in the outdoor gear space that runs the risk of being terminally overused. Its the wordgravel. Whether its referring togravel running shoesor the popularity ofgravel bikes, the term conveys both a nonconformist punk sensibility and marketing hype. (These two things dont contradict each other.) Yay! Its a road bike, but with bigger tires! Its a mountain bike (MTB), but with no suspension and drop bars! Its the bike you already own, just more expensive!I know one winner has already received his prize, though the second package may still be making its way out west.But yeah, the non-motorized bike is absolutely about to go the way of the rim brake, and heres why:Honestly, its hard to tell if I wouldve felt different about this bike if I were younger. As it stands, Im safely in my 40s. While I stillfeelmostly the same as I did when I was 28 when Im just walking around, I just dont have the same power or endurance. (I still work out, but honestly a lot less than I did before I had kids.)Riding on Leif Erikson on the Wanderosa brings that all back. This trail is one of the great blessings of living in Portland. Its a major urban park thats easy to access but also feels remote and covered in trees. Ive spent so many years just running up to Leif Erikson during the workday to get in a trail run or meet some friends for a hike, and its gotten harder to find the time or energy as Ive gotten older. The Wanderosa makes it a blast again to rocket along without my teeth rattling around in my head or not being able to keep up with my friends. It just brings me back to the time when the most fun thing I could think to do on the weekend was cover a dozen miles doing something, then hang out without my hip flexors burning.Thats it, its over. Am I thrilled about it personally? No. Will I be riding non-motorized, non-suspended bikes with rim brakes and level top tubes and skinny tires with tubes in them for as long as Im still able to lift my leg over them without having to employ some sort of pulley system in order to do so? Yes. But Im mature enough to know when Im beat. (In fact, Im so mature I can barely lift my leg over a bike with a level top tube.) Read the above review again without prejudice, and remember that convenience always wins. The end.Of course, that review is of an entry level model, and its only $7,999. If you want a higher-end e-gravel bike you might consider contracting something a little more Viral:Heres the story:Today Domahidy is running Viral bikes out of a new headquarters with roots in the burgeoning epicenter of bike innovation in America, Bentonville. According toVisit BentonvilleViral is a boutique titanium bike brand thats spent nine years perfecting its revolutionary approach to mountain bike design. Visit Bentonville also says that At the core of every Viral bike is a 12-speed internal gearbox that eliminates traditional derailleurs, cassettes, and chains, replacing them with a sealed drivetrain and Gates belt drive system.Wait. They spent nine years and couldnt come up with a better name than Viral? Maybe its different for the Internet generation since the connotation has changed, but as someone old enough to be thinking about how much longer Ill be able to lift my leg over a bike I could never ride around on one that says Viral on it. Gross! It might as well say Septic, or Purulent, or Pathogenic. Yes, granted, in my teens I used to parade around in t-shirts that said pretty much just that:But at this point in my life its just not the sort of thing I want emblazoned on my expensive high-end bicycle.Harrumph. Keep your diseases and your motors to yourself.