Gravel roads and driveway advice needed

[prettybillie]

Can anyone give me advice or tips on how to turn into a gravel road or driveway and keep the bike upright? :shit:

[Hitcher]

Put a leg down to act as a pivot.

Lean the bike slightly towards the pivot point.

Apply the front brake sufficiently to lock the front wheel.

Apply throttle to rev the engine to at least double idle speed.

Quickly release the clutch.

Reengage the clutch when the bike is pointing in the direction you desire.

[sinfull]

Can anyone give me advice or tips on how to turn into a gravel road or driveway and keep the bike upright? :shit:

More n likely it's your nervousness lettin ya down if ya binned on gravel !
My drive is gravel and i ensure all my slowing is done prior to turning off the highway into the drive, ie; brake hard with the front as i aproach then release the front and trail brake with the back (very lightly) when i ride onto the drive ! Just slow down, relax and it'll come with practise, no one likes gravel apart from perhaps Bonez lol Skinnier the tyre the better for gravel too !

[sinfull]

Put a leg down to act as a pivot.

Lean the bike slightly towards the pivot point.

Apply the front brake sufficiently to lock the front wheel.

Apply throttle to rev the engine to at least double idle speed.

Quickly release the clutch.

Reengage the clutch when the bike is pointing in the direction you desire.

My drive is quite narrow ! Mmmmm might try that Hitcher lol Not !!!

[madbikeboy]

Appropriate speed, slow but firm controls on the bar. Don't do anything abrupt with the brakes. Practice your slow riding skills with a mentor.

Go borrow a mountain bike. Seriously, you'd be surprised how much control you have on gravel, and a MTB is a good way to learn without expensive insurance claims.

Once you get good, you'll be able to follow Hitcher's advice.

[Monamie]

I have a gravel road then into my gravel driveway and it can be very daunting to learn on:shit:
I found that slow and wide is good for the turn. Don't use the front brake and only the back gently or slight pulse (on the straight- not on the turn:confused: unless you want to practice skidding).
Basically the more gravel you do the more you will relax and let the bike find its line rather than fight it. It is like riding on marbles and you will feel the tyres go all over the place....but this can turn in to a bit of fun eventually:laugh::eek:

[buellbabe]

When I rode Harleys I never had any issues with gravel, being able to get my feet flat on the ground was a bonus. On the Buell (X1 AND the XB) I can barely get a toe to the ground...if I took Hitchers advice about putting a leg out I'd be down before I had time to worry about it!

So instead I just take a deep breath and let it out, relax the arms and kinda slouch into the seat so that I've got as much weight as possible over the foot pegs. Experience as taught me that the slower I go the more the front wheel wants to go every-which-way so I keep the speed up a bit (2nd gear) and just lightly use the back brake if necessary. I think the key is to just keep things steady.

Last weekend I was on a ride that ended up at a DOC campground out in the middle of nowhere, accessed by a gravel road...well I was doing fine until I came around a corner and was confronted with steep hill(upwards). The tracks that had I had been riding in were no more and became two higgledy piggledy ruts.EEEEEEEK! I made the mistake of starting to go up it and then hesitating and stopping to think about what line I was gonna take...big mistake! Cos of course every time I tried to go forward from a standstill the back wheel would spin and slide and since I was on the XB and supposed to 'be looking after it' I decided not to risk it. Flagged down the next bike (a Harley, barstards had no troubles with the dodgy terrain LOL!) and asked him to send my mates boyfriend down to ride it up for me.

He jumped on the Buell and gave it death up the hill and made it look soooo easy! But ya know what? I felt no shame whatsoever in admitting that I didn't have the balls to ride it up that goat track myself!

[prettybillie]

I've got the same issue with only being able to put my tippy toes on the ground. :doh:

[slimjim]

practice ...practice..and more practice....each rider has their own way to handle gravel ..some prey..others play...thankfully i spent many many years riding up to port charles an port jackson, grandparents an mum and dad got baches in port charles-jackson an with different bikes i had...rd350,xs650,t140,gxs1100, dyna-glide,and those roads up there with oneway roads,give way to vehicles coming downhill, wrinding up some nasty bulldoxer cut roads ,no side stock fences,sheer drop offs, where the grader hardly ever visited..:laugh:gravel,shingle-dirt mixs, used to love winter..crossing the ford's when flowing :laugh:..however never bin them on gravel...never was in a rush on them either...its just spending time on this sort's of roads....soon there will be none to ride on, seem's so many of them are been sealed to get tourist's to our away spots:laugh:

[prettybillie]

I'm more comfortable with the whole practice thing now that I've had my crash knobs put on - at least I won't do any more damage to my fairing :doh:

[klingon]

Put a leg down to act as a pivot.

Lean the bike slightly towards the pivot point.

Apply the front brake sufficiently to lock the front wheel.

Apply throttle to rev the engine to at least double idle speed.

Quickly release the clutch.

Reengage the clutch when the bike is pointing in the direction you desire.

In case you haven't worked it out yet, please COMPLETELY DISREGARD everything Mr Hitcher has so helpfully suggested.

I agree with all the other advice so far though. Most important thing is to relax and not fight the bike. It's surprising how much you can let the bike wander around of its own accord, on condition you stay relaxed and steady.

Slow down well in advance of reaching the gravel. Once you're on the gravel ideally you won't brake at all - just keep steady on the throttle. If you do need to brake, use the back brake for most of the braking effort (the opposite to what you would do on a sealed road).

Keep your feet on the pegs and your weight low to help with stability.

And do lots of practise. Every so often go out and ride up & down the driveway just for fun. Get to know where the gravel is thick & thin, where the drive is flattest and where it has the most slope, etc. Practise riding on different parts of it and notice the handling differences.

Have fun!

[Hitcher]

In case you haven't worked it out yet, please COMPLETELY DISREGARD everything Mr Hitcher has so helpfully suggested.


Where's your sense of adventure? I could have suggested ringing the AA or hiring one of those trucks with a HIAB crane on the back.

[klingon]

...up there with oneway roads,give way to vehicles coming downhill ...

Usually on a gravel road the vehicle coming down gives way to the vehicle coming up the hill. Makes sense if you think about it - the one going downhill will always be able to get started again after they have stopped. The one going uphill might never be able to get enough traction to start again!

I once lost momentum going up a very long, steep, winding gravel road, while towing a trailer with a heavy load. There was steep drop off one side of the road down to a paddock, and a ditch on the other side.

After many attempts at getting started, and realising there was no way my trailer-backing skills were going to allow me to back all the way down the bottom of the hill and get another run-up, I ended up deliberately backing the trailer into the ditch. I unhitched the car and had to go and ask a local farmer to please pull the trailer out of the ditch with his tractor and take it to the top of the hill for me. :o A very humbling experience and a lesson learned.

[prettybillie]

My sense of adventure got a little bit lost with my cracked ribs ha :doh:

[vifferman]

A very humbling experience and a lesson learned.
I know that feeling. :o
I once took a grilfriend out for a drive, and got stuck down a hill at one of Rotorua's lakes, because the road had been freshly regravelled. My Morry thou couldn't get up the fairly modest hill, due to axle tramp. I had to walk a couple of miles to a nearby house, and call my father to help. Having grown up with cars of that era (and older) and unsealed roads, he just laughed at me. Him and a mate stood on the rear bumper and the car went up the hill no problem.

[slimjim]

[QUOTE=klingon;1831513]Usually on a gravel road the vehicle coming down gives way to the vehicle coming up the hill. Makes sense if you think about it - the one going downhill will always be able to get started again after they have stopped. The one going uphill might never be able to get enough traction to start again!

I once lost momentum going up a very long, steep, winding gravel road, while towing a trailer with a heavy load. There was steep drop off one side of the road down to a paddock, and a ditch on the other side.

nope...coming down-hill is alot harder to pull over and stop than a vehicle coming up hill...many times too that said vehicle is towing a trailer, down-hill so try backing up with that on the car on gravel..and many times to with loss of traction, lowering the air pressure (car)an use of handbrake should allow grip on gravel...shouldn't have same air presssure as tarmac slightly lower tire pressure

[klingon]

I know that feeling. :o
I once took a grilfriend out for a drive, and got stuck down a hill at one of Rotorua's lakes, because the road had been freshly regravelled. My Morry thou couldn't get up the fairly modest hill, due to axle tramp. I had to walk a couple of miles to a nearby house, and call my father to help. Having grown up with cars of that era (and older) and unsealed roads, he just laughed at me. Him and a mate stood on the rear bumper and the car went up the hill no problem.

:doh: Bet your Dad thought it was a hoot - and did he ask you lots of trickily embarrassing questions about what you and your girlfriend were doing on an isolated lake-front road?

With a front-wheel drive car you can sometimes turn around and reverse up the hill. Redistributes weight onto the driving wheels, and reverse is often more torquey than first anyway.

Gotta love old, underpowered cars with bald tyres. I've owned my fair share. (Come to think of it I own one now - it's sitting out the front with lichen growing on it. I wonder if my car ever gets jealous of my bike?)

[vifferman]

:doh: Bet your Dad thought it was a hoot - and did he ask you lots of trickily embarrassing questions about what you and your girlfriend were doing on an isolated lake-front road?
Yes.... hence the :o

Also, there was a sign on the way down the hill warning about deep gravel and traction problems. I thought nothing about it - fearless attitude and overconfidence in my driving skills...


With a front-wheel drive car you can sometimes turn around and reverse up the hill. Redistributes weight onto the driving wheels, and reverse is often more torquey than first anyway.

Gotta love old, underpowered cars with bald tyres.
Yeah, the problem here was the crappy suspension: leaf springs and those execrable rotary dampers the old car was fitted with. It just needed some weight to stop the wheels pogoing so much.

[Badjelly]

I'm more comfortable with the whole practice thing now that I've had my crash knobs put on - at least I won't do any more damage to my fairing :doh:


My sense of adventure got a little bit lost with my cracked ribs ha :doh:

Photos or it didn't happen!

[prettybillie]

Photos or it didn't happen!

Hey, I'm more than happy believing it didn't happen ha :2thumbsup

[cs363]

I have a gravel road then into my gravel driveway and it can be very daunting to learn on:shit:
I found that slow and wide is good for the turn. Don't use the front brake and only the back gently or slight pulse (on the straight- not on the turn:confused: unless you want to practice skidding).
Basically the more gravel you do the more you will relax and let the bike find its line rather than fight it. It is like riding on marbles and you will feel the tyres go all over the place....but this can turn in to a bit of fun eventually:laugh::eek:


This is overall some of the best advice I've seen in this thread - just don't go too slow as momentum is your friend on rough surfaces.
And totally agree on building confidence by riding as much on gravel as you can - I remember when we were younger we used to go riding from Hamilton up to Coromandel and ride all the unsealed roads we could find (it wasn't hard a few years back - most of them weren't sealed!) and it certainly improved my gravel road riding confidence, as Monamie says eventually it gets to be quite a bit of fun! :)

[prettybillie]

This is awesome everyone. Thanks so much. My bike is getting lowered today so hopefully I will eventually find those damn gravel roads as much fun as you do when I can touch the ground :2thumbsup

[buellbabe]

I am also getting some work done to my seat which will narrow it even more and give me a bit more foot on the ground...funny thing is that I reckon its a mind over matter thing...you know ya can't touch the ground so ya feel like you have less control but seriously have you seen the seat height on an offroad bike???? ground clearance for Africa LOL.

My first bike was a DT175 and I never had any probs with off-road riding so why does it bother me so much on the Buell? Gotta get over it.

[prettybillie]

I am also getting some work done to my seat which will narrow it even more and give me a bit more foot on the ground...funny thing is that I reckon its a mind over matter thing...you know ya can't touch the ground so ya feel like you have less control but seriously have you seen the seat height on an offroad bike???? ground clearance for Africa LOL.

Who's doing the work on your seat? I agree - totally mind over matter...the mind is a powerful thing though hahahahahaha

[buellbabe]

TBC... any decent upholsterer should be able to do it. Can't remember who did it the first time round (its already been modified LOL).