Gravel is scary and terrible - how to navigate?

[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.

1. 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
2. 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)
3. Wind your steering damper softer a click or two if its set really hard
4. 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.
5. Keep all actions small, especially the brakes & throttle.
6. 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
7. Aim for car tracks where the loose portions of the gravel are pushed aside.
8. 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.
9. Scan ahead for tire tracks and loose patches and pick your lines early.
10. Always stay on your side of the road, brakes are relatively useless on gravel so oncoming traffic wont stop
11. 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
12. 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

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 and I did slow down for corners

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!

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!

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.