For us, the gravel bike is the perfect bicycle for Otsego County. Wider tires, lower gearing, and relaxed geometry make it fun to ride on the wide variety of surfaces and terrain. In our rides, we like to ride on as many gravel / dirt roads that we can.
During the winter, the amount of gravel surfaces that you can ride on increases exponentially, given the thick quantities of gravel that the road crews put on the roads. The road surface in the photo above is asphalt. Yet just looking at the road, you wouldn’t know that. Instead, it looks like a nice, upstanding, dirt / gravel road.
Many rides have a 30 / 70 ratio: that is, the surfaces are 30% gravel and 70% paved. With the winter gravel transformation, that ratio flips to 70% gravel and 30% paved. This is another dynamic that makes riding in Otsego county so much fun.
It’s never too cold to ride a bike. There is that (supposedly) Norwegian saying, there is no bad weather, only bad clothes. And that applies to cycling. With proper clothing, riding in Otsego County can be enjoyed all winter. And now you have more gravel roads to do it on.