It starts harmlessly. You buy a gravel bike. You set off. You actually just want to cycle. And suddenly you raise your hand. First once. Then again. Then more and more often. At some point, you greet people you don't know. And worse: you expect them to greet you back.
Welcome to the world of gravel greetings.
The good mood avalanche
There's no getting round it. Even the notorious greeters, sociopaths, people with a "Monday morning at the citizens' office" look on their faces - they all buckle at some point. Gravel biking is not just a sport. It's a social ritual with handlebars.
But the term is actually wrong. It all started with racing bikes, of course. But Gravellers look like they want to belong. They greet more. More intense. More passionate. Sometimes almost religious.
"Spread positivity, get positivity back", says a professional. If you don't say hello, you damage your karma. And presumably also his mental inner bearing.
The Codex
A kind of basic greeting law has long existed online. It regulates everything.
You greet groups at the front and back, not everyone.
Not in the city - it looks creepy.
Professionals are greeted first. Always.
Why? I have no idea.
Perhaps for the same reason that ski instructors get free goulash soup at mountain huts.
Men greet women first. Likewise always.
Professional cyclist and bike influencer Rick Zabel says in his Insta-reel: "You ride a bike, I ride a bike - let's say hello!"
Sounds plausible. But it's actually the start of a silent commitment. An annoying obligation.
Closed company with handlebars
You might think: If you greet, you greet everyone. You don't.
You only greet people with handlebars. Racing bike. Gravel. End of the list. Mountain bikers? Parallel universe. Trekking bikes? Air. Cargo bikes? Invisible. A strange moral.
Only in very sparsely populated regions - such as above 60 degrees latitude or in the Mongolian steppe - are greetings more generous. There, people would probably even greet Andrew Tate, Björn Höcke or Christian Ulmen.
Simply out of relief that someone exists at all.
The seven stages of the approach
The gravel greeting knows gradations.
The little finger salute: politely distanced.
The index finger salute: efficiently done.
The finger clap: in solidarity.
The motorbike V: internationally compatible.
The full hand salute: major social investment.
The Travolta pistol: boldly wrong.
The hectic wave: stop immediately.
And very important: Do not overtake and say hello. A greeting from diagonally behind is like irony on two wheels. Frightening, at best. Rather: mocking. From above.
Conclusion: We obviously want it that way
It's actually absurd. You cycle alone through the forest, along country roads, on forest tracks and constantly have small micro-relationships with strangers. And yet: you join in.
Perhaps because cycling is a solitary sport. Maybe because people like company. Maybe just because you want to say hello back yourself at some point.
By the third finger clack in a row at the latest, you realise that you now belong.
> The dark side of gravel biking: the ground strikes back
> Adventures in Germany: With the Graveller to the sea
> Hammer device, everyone says hello!
Dimitri Lehner
Editor
