Gravel is scary and terrible - how to navigate?

[mister.koz]

Appologies if this is a repost - i did search!

So, I know a few guys who are quite uncomfortable about gravel, hard packed or not. In my experience (short-ish) I have found the following advice from other riders really useful when navigating gravel patches, please ammend and correct me if needed.

Disclaimer - this is not an epitome, just a collection of advice I have been given - riders should try and find their way rather than follow all advice like sheep.


Keep your weight low & central by putting more weight on the pegs and leaning back a bit - don't stand up totally unless you are on a motard :)
Keep your speed down and your bike in the lower rev range (2nd gear at 20 - 30 on my zx10r works nicely on all sorts of gravel assofar)
Wind your steering damper softer a click or two if its set really hard
Don't lean, put pressure on the pegs and steer slightly - you may see people spinning the back wheel to turn.. all power to them but my bike is quite shiny so I aint trying that.
Keep all actions small, especially the brakes & throttle.
Do not use the front brake unless you are in a hard-packed spot, use engine breaking where possible or the rear brake - both really smoothly
Aim for car tracks where the loose portions of the gravel are pushed aside.
If you are riding the clutch you are probably going too slow, change down a gear and keep a constant speed - preferably not 1st on a sports bike.
Scan ahead for tire tracks and loose patches and pick your lines early.
Always stay on your side of the road, brakes are relatively useless on gravel so oncoming traffic wont stop
Keep your distance from other vehicles front, back & sides - if you are worried about holding people up, pull over and let them pass - 1st place doesn't look as good with torn-up fairings
RELAX and take it easy, loosely packed gravel is normally quite short and hard-packed gravel is allot easier than it looks


After gravel patches I always wait for a clear and straight portion of road where I can carefully scrub the tires of dust/mud by counter-steering inside my lane. I've almost backed a bike through a corner because of left-over mud on the rear from a gravel patch that was wet...

[vifferman]

Hmmmm....
Hhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Yes, yess... it all looks relatively good, but I've found that my bike at least works better on gravel with some speed up, as it lightens the front, and you actually get a little more control at speed. As for braking, I've got DCBS, so I found that I can just brake with the rear pedal, and get pretty good retardation (helps that I'm a retard).

[george formby]

My mate has to ride his fireblade on 2k's of thick gravel just to get to tarmac everyday. the road is windy with tight, blind corners & the clear tyre tracks disappear into thick gravel drifts. He reckons he sits at about 20kmh and the biggest thing is slowing early for corners & keeping a steady throttle on the loose stuff. Staying relaxed & letting the bike move is vital.
I popped round to see him on my TDM t'other day & loved the gravel even though the bike is well over 200kg's. It was comfortable at over 60kmh in places & drifted really well on the throttle. I was very suprised at how hard I could brake on the loose stuff, I tried it on the straights just to see how much if any grip I had & with the bike straight it took a fair handful to lock the front wheel. The rear locked up at the slightest touch. I avoided braking in the corners though....
I would say my bike is 90% road byassed, road tyres ( 18" BT021 front) softly sprung & feels ok when I stand up. It feels bloody big & heavy to begin with though.
Good post.:yes:

[Transalper]

If you've learned how to apply the brakes correctly then gravel isn't much different to wet seal as far as stopping goes.
The application is similar as are the results, of course a wee bit more finesse may be required.
The front brake is still much more effective at slowing/stopping you on gravel than the back one.
BUT if you haven't learnt how to apply them properly you will most likely lock the front and drop the beast, in which case it's time to book in and get some professional advanced lessons as you apparently don't realise how much you actually don't know. (when I say 'you' I'm speaking generally to anyone in need)

I used to travel near highway speeds on straight gravel roads with my CBR1000f and other road bikes when I had them. Of course I did and do slow more for the shingle bends.

[Shadowjack]

Oohh, gravel...dry, dusty, gravel. Love the stuff! Fishing rods and camping gear. Motu River Valley, Waikaremoana, any of the South Island high country lakes.
Trail-bikes, pah! - the fun comes trying to make a big-ish roadie do it. TDM's are all-roaders - well, mine is...
The answer is in the tyres - I am running an E07 rear and soon-to-be a Sirac T65 on the front and it's all good. Folks occasionally question the sanity of such behaviour, though.

[mister.koz]

Thanks guys :)

I have some mates who take their sports bikes through loose gravel roads at 2 or even 3 times the speed I would, it really does come down to your experience!

[oldrider]

You will generally encounter (at least) some road works somewhere in your travels!

Learn to handle the vagaries of broken (less than perfect) surfaces.

It shouldn't matter about whatever style or type of bike you are riding!

Make these conditions your friend, rather than your enemy.

Don't let other riders influence you, ride to survive and arrive alive, it's much more fun that way! :yes:

[mister.koz]

You will generally encounter (at least) some road works somewhere in your travels!

Learn to handle the vagaries of broken (less than perfect) surfaces.

It shouldn't matter about whatever style or type of bike you are riding!

Make these conditions your friend, rather than your enemy.

Don't let other riders influence you, ride to survive and arrive alive, it's much more fun that way! :yes:

Couldn't have said it better, i only add:

If you aren't having fun then you shouldn't be doing it.

[george formby]

Oohh, gravel...dry, dusty, gravel. Love the stuff! Fishing rods and camping gear. Motu River Valley, Waikaremoana, any of the South Island high country lakes.
Trail-bikes, pah! - the fun comes trying to make a big-ish roadie do it. TDM's are all-roaders - well, mine is...
The answer is in the tyres - I am running an E07 rear and soon-to-be a Sirac T65 on the front and it's all good. Folks occasionally question the sanity of such behaviour, though.

:rockon:
Do you post on Carpe-TDM too?

[Shadowjack]

:rockon:
Do you post on Carpe-TDM too?

I do contribute on the odd occasion on Carpe-TDM - under a different tag - I may have to rationalise.

[Zuki lover]

Interesting reading material, but you sound like p'dath (sorry mate)


When riding on shingle, all you gotta remember is that wherever the front goes, the back will follow and if you lose :woohoo:control, then give a bit of power:woohoo: and she'll come right.

Nothing to be scared about - shingle is all fun. the more you do on it, quite clearly, the better you get :woohoo:

[cheshirecat]

I hit some really interesting gravel exiting the Homer Tunnel last year. Dark into bright light and nobody told me nobblies and a dirty great search light are needed for that tunnel. Transit NZ had just resealed and covered with that ball bearing stuff we all appreciate. A car ahead rolled so even the cagers became cautious. Dropped into second and kept the speed down to 20/30k. I used slight presure on the rear brake enough to kill the wheels inertia and tried to work the brake against the engine slightly so the engine was doing the real braking. This was really important. The kind transit NZ workers waved me into the opposite lane which was slightly better but didn't do much for the oncoming traffic who were obivously unaware of the aforementioned instructions.
They should put how to deal with Transit NZ's roading attempts into the bike test instead of how to ride over that piece of wood nonsense.

[FJRider]

I hit some really interesting gravel exiting the Homer Tunnel last year. Dark into bright light and nobody told me nobblies and a dirty great search light are needed for that tunnel.

And .... don't forget the rain in there too .... :gob:

Many a biker has ridden into that tunnel with the sunnies still on ... :eek5:

[mister.koz]

Interesting reading material, but you sound like p'dath (sorry mate)


When riding on shingle, all you gotta remember is that wherever the front goes, the back will follow and if you lose :woohoo:control, then give a bit of power:woohoo: and she'll come right.

Nothing to be scared about - shingle is all fun. the more you do on it, quite clearly, the better you get :woohoo:

d'path? :confused:

Gravel doesn't worry me too much, just thought i would put all i learned in one place. Perhaps it will help someone :)

[BMWST?]

gravel...a lot is in the mind.
Was going to pick a up a tag one cold dark night and went up a road unknown to me....was a narrow road so was keeping left and or straightlining as required.I thought...hmm i think i have a front wheel puncture..then realised the raod in my headlight was grey/brown i was on a gravel road going my normal road speed!

[discotex]

Appologies if this is a repost - i did search!


All good tips. Like riding in the rain I hate it until I'm doing it. Once I'm going it's sweet as.

Almost lost the rear and dropped the bike drifting last time I was on gravel.

My big tip is the same one for riding in the wind:

BEND YOUR ARMS

Riding with locked elbows because you're freaked out makes it wayyyyyyyyy worse.

[Chrislost]

Appologies if this is a repost - i did search!

So, I know a few guys who are quite uncomfortable about gravel, hard packed or not. In my experience (short-ish) I have found the following advice from other riders really useful when navigating gravel patches, please ammend and correct me if needed.

Disclaimer - this is not an epitome, just a collection of advice I have been given - riders should try and find their way rather than follow all advice like sheep.


Keep your weight low & central by putting more weight on the pegs and leaning back a bit - don't stand up totally unless you are on a motard :)
Keep your speed down and your bike in the lower rev range (2nd gear at 20 - 30 on my zx10r works nicely on all sorts of gravel assofar)
Wind your steering damper softer a click or two if its set really hard
Don't lean, put pressure on the pegs and steer slightly - you may see people spinning the back wheel to turn.. all power to them but my bike is quite shiny so I aint trying that.
Keep all actions small, especially the brakes & throttle.
Do not use the front brake unless you are in a hard-packed spot, use engine breaking where possible or the rear brake - both really smoothly
Aim for car tracks where the loose portions of the gravel are pushed aside.
If you are riding the clutch you are probably going too slow, change down a gear and keep a constant speed - preferably not 1st on a sports bike.
Scan ahead for tire tracks and loose patches and pick your lines early.
Always stay on your side of the road, brakes are relatively useless on gravel so oncoming traffic wont stop
Keep your distance from other vehicles front, back & sides - if you are worried about holding people up, pull over and let them pass - 1st place doesn't look as good with torn-up fairings
RELAX and take it easy, loosely packed gravel is normally quite short and hard-packed gravel is allot easier than it looks


After gravel patches I always wait for a clear and straight portion of road where I can carefully scrub the tires of dust/mud by counter-steering inside my lane. I've almost backed a bike through a corner because of left-over mud on the rear from a gravel patch that was wet...

I found you can use the rear brake untill lock up to help steer around corners.
I also had my GSXR front wheel in the air on the way to taupo last year when the bridge in the middle of nowhere was out and we had to detour down a 6km gravel road.
gravel aint that scary, unless you let it psych you out!

[Chrislost]

All good tips. Like riding in the rain I hate it until I'm doing it. Once I'm going it's sweet as.

Almost lost the rear and dropped the bike drifting last time I was on gravel.

My big tip is the same one for riding in the wind:

BEND YOUR ARMS

Riding with locked elbows because you're freaked out makes it wayyyyyyyyy worse.

The best thing about gravel is that its NOT GRIPPY enough to highside you.([edit] this applies to gsxr 750s running BT016's only!)
drifty drifty waaahooo

[Kickaha]

gravel aint that scary, unless you let it psych you out!

Exactly, I was after a tag the other day and took a slight shortcut, 100kmh on a shingle road isn't to much of a problem, older bike with narrow tyres helps though

[discotex]

The best thing about gravel is that its NOT GRIPPY enough to highside you.([edit] this applies to gsxr 750s running BT016's only!)
drifty drifty waaahooo

:lol: there's nothing quite like trail riding on a sportsbike with road tyres eh.

Who needs a motard!

[Motu]

Yes,tyre profile is your friend.Any part of the tyre not in contact with the road is holding you off the road in gravel - regardless of whether your tyre is a road or adventure tyre.

[Kickaha]

Oh yeah fastest I have traveled on a shingle road is an indicated 160kmh on a XJ550 back in the mid eighties,closed private road of course :msn-wink: and I did slow down for corners:yes:

Just keep the front pointed where you want to go and don't worry to much about what the back is doing

[Motu]

Well,back in the days when I was a better rider than I was - I ignored the front wheel and just concentated on where the rear wheel was going.Do it anyway you want....just stay out of trouble.

[XP@]

A little refinement: the bit that says stick to the car tracks... try and use the left one. much safer !

[wysper]

I don't mind gravel too much.
I tend to avoid the front brake on gravel.
Use the engine, and smooth rear brake.

I kind of enjoy riding on gravel roads.

At our new place, we have a sloping driveway made of smallish boulders...that is scary, every morning I feel like I am going to lose the front going down it.

Still, once I master that, there is another skill to add to my motorcycling bag of tricks. (unfortunately it is a pretty empty bag LOL)

[mister.koz]

Yeah, gravel is sweet, this was more about leyton's fear of gravel than mine :)

Ride to the conditions and where you are comfortable. I talked to a guy late last year who liked backing his gixxer around gravel corners at 4wd impreza speeds... Not something I am going to try hehe

[ckai]

Yeah, gravel is sweet, this was more about leyton's fear of gravel than mine :)



haha dunno if Leyton has a fear of riding on gravel. Not from what I saw last week anyway. If he did, he certainly got over it pretty quick. I think his rule of thumb was power up so the front wheel doesn't touch the gravel. This seemed to be Spazm's idea as well.

Who said sports-bikes can't go off-road!

:blink: Crazy SOB's.

[mister.koz]

haha dunno if Leyton has a fear of riding on gravel. Not from what I saw last week anyway. If he did, he certainly got over it pretty quick. I think his rule of thumb was power up so the front wheel doesn't touch the gravel. This seemed to be Spazm's idea as well.

Who said sports-bikes can't go off-road!

:blink: Crazy SOB's.

Or perhaps he read the advice in this thread, had a concrete milkshake and HTFU

:)

[ckai]

Or perhaps he read the advice in this thread, had a concrete milkshake and HTFU

:)

hahah too right

[Eddieb]

Ride smoothly, gently roll on and off the throttle to control your speed if possible rather than using the brakes, i.e roll off to slow down way before the corners.

Lean the bike into corners but not you, i.e sit up around the corners. Lots of info on this on the web and the reverse to road riding. It's all to do with the contact patch and the angle the bike is being pushed through that contact patch onto the road surface. By sitting up the bike is being pushed straight down rather than at an angle

And go faster - seriously. not fast fast but say 5-10km faster than you feel comfortable with, with a bit of speed the wheel should roll over the stones better rather than being pushed around by them.

And always, always stay in the left track for corners on narrow & one lane roads.

[carver]

gravel is easy and fun
just ride by feel

[StoneY]

Gravel is horrid on my GixxeR but the Duc can handle it
:sick:

[Leyton]

Or perhaps he read the advice in this thread, had a concrete milkshake and HTFU

:)

LOL, Ask Flux about my sideways handle bar experience!! RAD MAN!!!

Correction : I fuckin Love gravel and it does not scare me. But on a bike that is sensitive to gravel damage... its another story. I would rather not stuff my tyres on gravel.

Exibit A: http://www.youtube.com/user/AgentMi6#p/a/u/0/GOly0TpqSoQ watch from 3:50 in.

The problem I have with it is also obvious today after cleaning the bike, The splits in the tyres piss me off, so gravel is to be avoided as much as it add's to features of the ride.

In saying that, it was a small price to pay for some great roads on the weekend! :) If I will do it again from what I have seen of the new splits in my tyres, probably not but then again.. if it was with more people then yeah I would go for sure.

Shame there was not more people to enjoy that route with.

If there was any tips I have for gravel it is..

Ride at around 60km/hr + anything under that and you do not have enough gyro to keep upright
No weight on the front
No braking with the front
Avoid breaking!! and just use the motor.. but do not slow down slower that 60km/hr if it can be helped.
Pick you spots to ease off the gas if you want to loose speed, do not ease off over very loose stuff suddenly
Do no chop that gas

Things that may supprise you.... , you can pull the gas back and spin the wheel if you are riding faster than 60km/hr, the gyro will keep you upright, you will drift out sideways a bit... so I do not recommend this. But for deminstrative purpose's, speed + positive throttle is the key, never coast.

[mister.koz]

You were bitching and moaning about gravel and didn't want to go on a ride because the gravel was too much....

[Taz]

Appologies if this is a repost - i did search!

So, I know a few guys who are quite uncomfortable about gravel, hard packed or not. In my experience (short-ish) I have found the following advice from other riders really useful when navigating gravel patches, please ammend and correct me if needed.

Disclaimer - this is not an epitome, just a collection of advice I have been given - riders should try and find their way rather than follow all advice like sheep.


Keep your weight low & central by putting more weight on the pegs and leaning back a bit - don't stand up totally unless you are on a motard :)
Keep your speed down and your bike in the lower rev range (2nd gear at 20 - 30 on my zx10r works nicely on all sorts of gravel assofar)
Wind your steering damper softer a click or two if its set really hard
Don't lean, put pressure on the pegs and steer slightly - you may see people spinning the back wheel to turn.. all power to them but my bike is quite shiny so I aint trying that.
Keep all actions small, especially the brakes & throttle.
Do not use the front brake unless you are in a hard-packed spot, use engine breaking where possible or the rear brake - both really smoothly
Aim for car tracks where the loose portions of the gravel are pushed aside.
If you are riding the clutch you are probably going too slow, change down a gear and keep a constant speed - preferably not 1st on a sports bike.
Scan ahead for tire tracks and loose patches and pick your lines early.
Always stay on your side of the road, brakes are relatively useless on gravel so oncoming traffic wont stop
Keep your distance from other vehicles front, back & sides - if you are worried about holding people up, pull over and let them pass - 1st place doesn't look as good with torn-up fairings
RELAX and take it easy, loosely packed gravel is normally quite short and hard-packed gravel is allot easier than it looks


After gravel patches I always wait for a clear and straight portion of road where I can carefully scrub the tires of dust/mud by counter-steering inside my lane. I've almost backed a bike through a corner because of left-over mud on the rear from a gravel patch that was wet...

christ mate you make gravel sound like it's real hard to ride on.

[p.dath]

I'm interested in the comment in tip #1, about leaning back.

I've tried leaing forward and back, and while I can notice a difference, neither feels like it is better than the other position.
Leaning back would raise your centre of gravity as you move your weight back (and consequently up), although it would presumably move the weight to be more evenly split between the front and rear tyre (depending on where your seat position is, I guess).

So clear it up for me, why is it better to lean back?

[Taz]

Few of those tips make sense..... Some peeps over analyse the simplest of tasks.

[mister.koz]

I'm interested in the comment in tip #1, about leaning back.

I've tried leaing forward and back, and while I can notice a difference, neither feels like it is better than the other position.
Leaning back would raise your centre of gravity as you move your weight back (and consequently up), although it would presumably move the weight to be more evenly split between the front and rear tyre (depending on where your seat position is, I guess).

So clear it up for me, why is it better to lean back?

My main thought for leaning back is to even out the weight balance, my bike is fairly forwards, I guess it would be different for different riding positions.

[Leyton]

You were bitching and moaning about gravel and didn't want to go on a ride because the gravel was too much....

Bull.....$hit.

What I acually did, was let those with super inflated ego's run rampent over a concieved idea that gravel scares the shit out of me, Enough said about that.

Just ride FFS :ride:

And for anyone reading the tips, Another bit of advice I have.

Keep it simple.

The moment you start thinking about riding over gravel, survival reactions kick in when things do not go your way and you feel even more uncomfortable. Start off with the logical points, ie.. weight on pegs = low center of gravity.

[awayatc]

My man thought for leaning back

And your womans thought please...?

[buellbabe]

All great advice people and the bit about going a bit faster than you are actually comfortable with did make sense cos its quite logical that the bike would have smoother travel over the bumps.

When I rode Harleys I never had a problem with gravel roads or bush tracks for that matter, they are great all terrain bikes but the Buell??? Holy crap its freaking horrible in gravel, just feels like its all over the place and I am REALLY uncomfortable. I have noticed some people doing it motard style and putting a leg out but if I do that it means I'm leant past the bikes centre of gravity and then its all over rover cos there is no way I'll get it upright again... So instead I just do it slow and steady but now I'm wondering if I'm doing it too slow. LOL.

[mister.koz]

Bull.....$hit.

What I acually did, was let those with super inflated ego's run rampent over a concieved idea that gravel scares the shit out of me, Enough said about that.



It's one thing to defend yourself and quite another thing to directly insult people who have gone a long way to help you out. Well done.

[mister.koz]

All great advice people and the bit about going a bit faster than you are actually comfortable with did make sense cos its quite logical that the bike would have smoother travel over the bumps.

When I rode Harleys I never had a problem with gravel roads or bush tracks for that matter, they are great all terrain bikes but the Buell??? Holy crap its freaking horrible in gravel, just feels like its all over the place and I am REALLY uncomfortable. I have noticed some people doing it motard style and putting a leg out but if I do that it means I'm leant past the bikes centre of gravity and then its all over rover cos there is no way I'll get it upright again... So instead I just do it slow and steady but now I'm wondering if I'm doing it too slow. LOL.

There's a video somewhere of carver coming back from the cape going downhill on a gravel road riding his scooter. He passed sports bike after sports bike at a fair amount of speed.... I'd be doing about 15km/h - 25

Harley ATV hehe :) I saw some buell's a the training day yesterday, they have some awesome technology in them! They look like their weight is quite far forward... I wonder if that could be it? You have to do whats comfortable for you.

[Leyton]

It's one thing to defend yourself and quite another thing to directly insult people who have gone a long way to help you out. Well done.

Good point, But that was to those whom is guilty of such, so in saying that, Direct it was not. In hinesight, I don't give a toss, say what they want, do what they please... . And thankyou for all your support, and that is a direct thankyou. So unless you consider yourself fitting into the catagory of super inflated ego, you have nothing to worry about.

I do not think you can use direct insult as perhaps a form of defence.. you decide because you had previously use my name, in the same sentence as your insault, this being a direct insualt. And yes, it has pissed me right off. Can you see what I am getting at here ?

I do forgive, quit it and just ride.

Leyton

[Leyton]

So instead I just do it slow and steady but now I'm wondering if I'm doing it too slow. LOL.

#1 - What method works :) If you are finding yourself getting little scares every known and again then thats no good, but if you are consistant and confident with your pace over gravel, I would not change it for anyone.

Perhaps that logging truck coming up behind you.. one hopes they forgive :P

[scracha]

I popped round to see him on my TDM t'other day & loved the gravel even though the bike is well over 200kg's. It was comfortable at over 60kmh in places & drifted really well on the throttle. I was very suprised at how hard I could
2's up on about 20Km of unexpected gravel yesterday. Felt slow at 60kmh in 2nd, she's that stable. There is no better bike for NZ roads IMHO.

[marigami]

Well you should come to France where there are so much tiny roads (we should call them paths) in some areas which are regularly neraly every summer put some new gravel on...
Especially in places like mountains roads (Auvergne, Alps..).
In that case you'd better have a little grip at the rear (pillion is good!!) and have the right tyres.
Anyway do not try to move your handle every time. Sorry for my poor english,can't find the propoer word.
And I think keeping the speed rather low is better well on my bikes and with the bike my ex used to have (500 Honda).
We also found that, after riding in gravels, the best to actually clean the tyres was riding for a while in the grass.
Well it was our experience anyway.

[Lucy]

Wish I'd read this thread before yesterday. Just before National Park there was a big patch of really thick loose deep gravel. Nearly shat myself as the bike seemed to be sliding all over the place. Didn't fall off though, and I ended up going back over it (was about 500metres probably, seemed like 5ks) and riding over it again, to see if I was any better. No traffic around luckily, this stuff was deep, no tyre tracks to speak of, and thick ridges on the sides. Yuck I didn't like it, which is why I searched for tips and found this thread. I felt like I couldn't steer, and that I was going to wobble off. Keeping the speed up slightly seemed to help, but it was still scary.

[mister.koz]

Wish I'd read this thread before yesterday. Just before National Park there was a big patch of really thick loose deep gravel. Nearly shat myself as the bike seemed to be sliding all over the place. Didn't fall off though, and I ended up going back over it (was about 500metres probably, seemed like 5ks) and riding over it again, to see if I was any better. No traffic around luckily, this stuff was deep, no tyre tracks to speak of, and thick ridges on the sides. Yuck I didn't like it, which is why I searched for tips and found this thread. I felt like I couldn't steer, and that I was going to wobble off. Keeping the speed up slightly seemed to help, but it was still scary.

Yeah big wobbly gravel does suck... when the wheels feel more like plough's

I am glad you got through it and more than impressed that you went back over it to get a better feel for it!

[Lucy]

Yeah big wobbly gravel does suck... when the wheels feel more like plough's

I am glad you got through it and more than impressed that you went back over it to get a better feel for it!

Oh ta, well, it wasn't really by choice - I had passed a learner just at Owhango and after getting through myself I thought I'd better stick around to make sure they made it through ok, then I thought that if they did have trouble it would be before I could see them so went back. But they must have been on a practice pootle from Taumarunui cos they didn't show up. It did seem fairly random to see someone with a high vis vest, white helmet, L plate and no luggage out there on SH4.

[FROSTY]

next time you find some loose stuff try focussing on staying relaxed. On gravel particualarly being stiff n tense makes matters heaps worse

[pc220]

Dont get put off by gravel roads. Some of the most interesting places i have stumbled upon have been at the arse end of nowhere down a gravel road. You will miss most of the best scenery if your limited to sealed roads only.

[Lucy]

next time you find some loose stuff try focussing on staying relaxed. On gravel particualarly being stiff n tense makes matters heaps worse

Yes! It's hard to force yourself to relax, but I managed it, which is pretty much the only reason I made it through.

[Lucy]

Dont get put off by gravel roads. Some of the most interesting places i have stumbled upon have been at the arse end of nowhere down a gravel road. You will miss most of the best scenery if your limited to sealed roads only.

I hope to ride a lot more gravel roads, (lot easier now I have a bike again ha ha), this just took me by surprise as it was so thick and big rocks too. And I was horrilby out of practice.