“This is quite possibly the most versatile series of bikes that ever existed,” touts Mojo Cyclery owner Morgan Johnson. “There are no holdbacks or drawbacks . . ..” 

“You can actually own just one bike,” agrees a shop regular overhearing our conversation on the explosive growth in gravel bike sales.

The Mojo shop is notably community centered and enthusiasts gather for themed rides throughout the week. On a still-hot summer evening, 18 local gravel converts—all but two of us on light, fast, wide-tired dirt road speedsters—left from the Mojo Cyclery shop in Spokane Valley, rode trails up Beacon Hill, then flew down its paved, winding backside. We wound back along the Spokane river on Hobo Lane, a segment of well-worn urban trail connecting some of the 50+ miles of gravel road in the city limits, most of them on the east side. 

Spokane County encompasses around 1,000 miles of gravel or seasonal-use roads, according to their website. With abundant connectivity to the city-wide spiderweb of singletrack trails, this may be the perfect place to test the flexibility of these new hybrid cycles, composites of road, cyclocross, touring, and mountain bikes. 

Gravel bikes incorporate a long wheelbase and low bottom bracket for stability with wider chainstays and forks for voluminous tires. Many braze-on options accommodate the plethora of racks, attachments, and bags built for the burgeoning bike-packing industry, whose meteoric rise mirrors that of gravel riding. The bike’s geometry facilitates a more-upright-than-road riding position, as scenery supersedes speed in riders’ priorities, allowing them to withstand long miles of chunky washboards in relative comfort. If that all sounds a bit like your touring bike, it is—on a diet that would be disconcerting if the bike was human.

While e-bikes comprise an ever-increasing share of annual bicycle sales, an accompanying surge in gravel bikes has kept their purely people-powered counterparts competitive. Nationwide, gravel-ready bike sales nearly tripled between 2017 and 2018, according to Bicycle Retailer. Locally, Mojo is smartly riding this wave.

 “We see our groups growing and growing. We see them becoming more diverse, which I love. It’s neat to see the people that are like, ‘I want to try it out,’ and come back with a smile on their face,” Johnson beams. At the end of almost 20 miles of multi-surface summer fun, beer in hand, there was certainly one on mine. 

“ . . . I enjoy it because it gets me off paved roads,” says Justin Montgomery from the Coeur D’Alene Trek Store. “We have some amazing paved roads around here, but we also have the Coeur d’Alene National Forest in our backyard, with endless Forest Service roads, so having something I can do both with just makes more financial and comfort sense.”

During a second organized gravel ride called Ride the Passes, on back roads from Wallace over Lookout and Moon passes, lugging my leaden touring bike through the billowing dust clouds of dedicated gravel grinders, I was in total agreement. You may be able to ride many kinds of bikes on gravel, but you won’t be able to ride many miles comfortably or quickly. If you want to keep up with the growing gravel industry and its long-ride frontrunners, or to follow fellow cyclists off of busy, dangerous pavement into more scenic, serene surroundings, you’ll need the machine this very magazine called “one ride to rule them all.” 

[Feature photo by Justin Skay.]

Related: Gravel Riding in West-Central Idaho, Snow-Free Winter Riding in Central Washington

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This time I took on the task of making a frame bag, a gas tank bag, and a porteur bag for my locally made Elephant National Forest Explorer bike. I was preparing to bikepack the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Loop and I needed bags to carry my gear. Buying bags would cost more than it would to make them. Plus, I wanted the bags to match the color scheme of the bike.

I scoured sites and found lots of tips and ideas, but my first challenge was relearning how to operate a sewing machine, which I hadn’t done since Nixon was in office. My wife let me use her older, heavier machine, which is what’s needed for this kind of work. She won it in 1988 on The Price Is Right where she also got to kiss Bob Barker. With a pedigree like that, how can it not work for me, right? The user guide disappeared many years ago, so through trial and error and some search-engine studying, I figured out how to wind and load a bobbin, set the stitch length, and thread the needle. I tackled the frame bag first.

I created a pattern from the bike’s triangle and bought some cheap muslin material. I cut all the pieces out, including strips to simulate the Velcro strips that attach the bag to the frame. This practice was well worth the time. Getting used to the sewing machine boosted my confidence, and since the bag is sewn together inside out, it forced me to focus on the geospatial aspect. The muslin bag was enough of a success that I moved on to nylon.

The first nylon bag did not go well. Nylon is a thicker and stiffer material to work with, making the handling more awkward while running it through the machine. Once completed, the bag was, as my master seamstress next-door neighbor politely put it, “A bit catawampus.” But she also gave me some helpful advice for which I’m very grateful.

The next bag went together well — except for the part where I got the inside-out thing wrong and had to take one side completely apart and do it over. But the finished product looked good and, most importantly, it looked good on the bike. I sealed the inside seams and waterproofed the outside. I stuffed a towel inside and hung the bag out in the rain. For good measure I hit it with the hose for a while. The inside stayed dry. Success!

I sewed a gas tank bag without bothering with a prototype and mistakenly put one side of the Velcro straps on backwards. It was an easy fix and you don’t notice the mistake — much. The porteur bag, a box-shaped bag that sits on top of the porteur rack, was tricky because I had to figure out a reliable method for attaching the bag to the rack that would hold up to the punishment of bouncing over 500-plus miles of rough roads while holding 20 pounds of gear.

I used the bags on my bike packing trip in July. The porteur bag was functional, but I’d feel more comfortable with an improved mounting system. The frame and gas tank bags worked well. There’s a sense of pride and accomplishment that goes with making your own gear. It’s surprising just what you can make if you put your mind to it. Try it some time and you’ll see for yourself how fun and cool it can be.

Hank Greer is an avid photographer, runner, and cyclist, as well as an inconsistent Oxford comma dropper. To read his Everyday Cyclist and other OTO stories, visit our archives.

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