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Commentary on gravel bikingThe fashionable sport's odyssey - What's wrong with you?

Dimitri Lehner

 · 05.11.2025

Spanish bike acrobat David Cachon swings his Graveller through the turn in a Scandi Flick. Gravel biking, where most people can't even mountain bike, is hip right now.
Photo: Copyright David Cachon
Why are so many people currently drawn to mountain bike trails with their gravel bikes? What is happening in the gravel scene? This young sport seems to be going through a turbulent phase and may be on the way to a crisis of purpose. A commentary by Dimitri Lehner from our sister magazine BIKE.
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My colleague Max's gravel bike - a Giant Revolt - is almost unrecognisable. First, the 40 mm tyres grew to a sturdy 50 mm, then the handlebars disappeared and made way for wide MTB handlebars. Only the suspension is still missing. It's as if the bike wants to be someone else at all costs - a mountain bike perhaps, but with doubts about its existence.

>> First time gravel biking: Bikepacking from Munich to Freiburg

Freedom for all - but with moderation!

Of course: everyone can ride wherever and however they want. If you want to chase your gravel bike over rough enduro trails - go ahead. But in my eyes, that's nonsense. It reminds me of past fads in sport: in windsurfing in the eighties, the boards got smaller and smaller because it was cool - until hardly anyone got out on the water and you needed a storm to speed up the tiny boards. Or snowboarding, when everyone was suddenly standing on butter-soft freestyle boards and no one could manage to set an edge on the piste and 90 per cent were wobbling over the snow as if they were drunk.

What now - one way or the other?

So now race gravel bikes with fat tyres, gravel bikes with a dropper post and suspension fork or straight handlebars like a mountain bike. And gravelers who stumble down steep root paths or try to cross the Alps on bumpy trails.

But now get on the pedals and hold on tight! What rubbish - this isn't a trail for gravel bikes!Photo: Laurin LehnerBut now get on the pedals and hold on tight! What rubbish - this isn't a trail for gravel bikes!

I say: It's all rubbish!

Rubbish is all I can say. Misused like all those Land Rovers on the A96 motorway.
For me, the gravel bike is a ticket to freedom. Because with a gravel bike I can turn off the road into the forest at will and leave everything behind me. Forest floor and gravel instead of tarmac. Trees instead of cars. Peace and quiet instead of noise. On a gravel bike, I fly along the forest track and enjoy the acceleration because it's easy. Because it's fast. Because it is reduced to the essentials - without suspension fork, vario support, fat tyres.

My appeal: Keep the Gravel in Gravelbiking.
Because sometimes less is not only more - but simply more beautiful.

Only straps bags to his bike when he's going on a big ride: gravel fan Dimitri Lehner. Otherwise, his motto is: as light and reduced as possible and the trails gentle and off the beaten track.Photo: Georg GrieshaberOnly straps bags to his bike when he's going on a big ride: gravel fan Dimitri Lehner. Otherwise, his motto is: as light and reduced as possible and the trails gentle and off the beaten track.

Dimitri Lehner

Dimitri Lehner is a qualified sports scientist. He studied at the German Sport University Cologne. He is fascinated by almost every discipline of fun sports - besides biking, his favourites are windsurfing, skiing and skydiving. His latest passion: the gravel bike. He recently rode it from Munich to the Baltic Sea - and found it marvellous. And exhausting. Wonderfully exhausting!

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