this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2025
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Damn it. So it seems like I am prototypical 40-something.
Life can be fun, so trying to make the best of it.
Brewing decent coffee however is fine (or tea, or caffeine pill it & hydrate) but dang nothing like having a bike that can get into some hills! Until the ski mountains open for winter but can be too far, too expensive
I would be great at the triathlon if the three sports it combines were running, bicycling and drowning.
What is a gravelbike?
Basically a road bike, but kitted out for touring instead of road racing. It's really used to be just bigger wheels and tires but these days road cyclists are running thicker tires as well.
Hybrid between roadbike and mountainbike.
Someone posted a pic of one in another comment.
I have an older one (ok, actually two...) of those:
https://www.salsacycles.com/collections/fargo
It is more on the mountainbike-y side, others are typically slightly less rugged.
Isn't that what normal hybrids are for? I guess it looks cool though
"Normal" hybrids usually have straight handlebars. Gravel bikes usually have "drop" handlebars like road bikes.
What's a normal hybrid?
Like a commuter bike with flat handle bars, kinda thin tires, and no suspension
Mine was in the hybrid category but does have front suspension. Helps with the craters in the roads because for some reason UK roads resemble the Donbas. Think it's also listed as a trekking bike.
Roads, gravel paths, grass and dirt paths are generally what I go across.
I know these, although they are not as common here as gravelbikes.
Kinda like watered-down Fixies optimized for urban commute.
Will not work well in more off-road (so: "gravel") scenarios and for touring.
Different thing, I would say.
Ah ok, drop bars are so uncomfortable..
Remember that the geometry is completely different to a roadbike. You are much more upright and less bowed.
You also have many more completely different holding positions than for a classical mountain bike bar.
Most comfortable and ergonomic ride I owned so far.
Solved basically all of the hand and back pain issues I occassionally had during longer tours on classic bikes.
So basically the "mountain bike" I had as a kid, before the started adding fancy shock absorbers and disk brakes?
All right, now I want a gravel bike too!
You had a mountainbike with drop bars?
Unusual.
Also: Basically all gravelbikes come with disc brakes, major distinction to roadbikes.
I had a Randonneur-like bike in my youth in the 80s, which had some features common with the recent gravelbikes.
I liked it very much, so was very happy when gravelbikes became a thing 10 years ago or so.
Haha, i didn't know it had drop bars... Nope, that's not for me :)
Different kind of drop bars than on a road bike, though: Wider and more upright sitting position.
Worth trying out at least once when looking for a new bike.
Hillbike!
I mean, the reason many people fit this in their forties, is because they finally have the time and money to do so.
I was too poor in my twenties to have a nice espresso setup. I make decent money now, but I have young kids now, so no time. In ten years time when I'm in my forties, I'll finally have the time and money simultaneously.
When I was a young man in the '80s and '90s, I used to dream of owning fancy bicycles. Now I'm old enough and rich enough to afford ... fancy bicycles from the '80s and '90s.
@ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com Myebe we can be perfectly content without a lot of money. I'm 24, just over a year into my first job.
Sure, money's tight, but it feels good to finally have my own income. I bought the camera(nikon zfc) I’d wanted since high school, and fixed up the old mountain bike my dad gave me years ago.Then I realized—whether it’s camera lenses or bike parts—there’s a whole rabbit hole of upgrades. Even with ten times my current income, I still couldn’t afford the top-tier stuff.
Later, I came across some writings by Herbert Marcuse and it hit me: so many of the things I thought I wanted—whether the latest gadgets or other trendy stuff—were actually desires imposed on me. By ads, by what others flaunt. I’ve come to understand that I don’t really need any of that to feel happy. Life can be still full and meaningful without them.
Of course we can, I'm not happier now in my thirties than I was in my twenties because of the money I make. My happiness come from different things entirely...but the reduced concerns by being in a decent financially secure position sure as hell doesn't detract from it either, I would say it makes it easier to enjoy the best parts actually.