Riding on gravel

[Matariki]

I hate gravel with a passion. The other day I was riding out to a mates house only to come to the entrance of the drive way and land flat on my face.
What was even worse that I was unable to pick up my bike, fortunately two gentlemen stopped by and gave me a hand. None the less it was embarrassing.

My question is how should avoid this sort of situation in the future and how do you pick up a heavy bike after making yourself look stupid?

[superman]

I hate gravel with a passion. The other day I was riding out to a mates house only to come to the entrance of the drive way and land flat on my face.
What was even worse that I was unable to pick up my bike, fortunately two gentlemen stopped by and gave me a hand. None the less it was embarrassing.

My question is how should avoid this sort of situation in the future and how do you pick up a heavy bike after making yourself look stupid?

Was it huge stone gravel? I started riding on just straight dirt and grass first with the bike and when you feel proficient on that you move onto gravel and then large stone gravel. Never feels any nice but you can get quite used to it. Seeing as all my neighbours driveways are hilled gravel.

[NotHisRealName]

I'd suggest hooking up with some dirt riders and learning how to ride it. I mean no disrespect - I'm planning on doing just that, myself.

From what I've seen, it's important to stand up on the pegs to lower your center of gravity, and to primarily use your rear break to slow and stop (unlike when on the sealed roads) as a rear-wheel skid is easier to control than on the front.

[Jantar]

Gravel riding on a road bike is a topic that comes up quite frequently, yet it is nothing to be scared of. The main things to remember are to weight your footpegs and allow the bike to move around under you. Ride in one gear higher than you would on the seal. Slow down early for corners. Use your rear brake to balance the bike (a bit like a sea anchor) but your front brake is still the one to slow you down. Look well ahead and anticipate the road surface.

There is a lot of good advice in http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=24616

[Gremlin]

A, practise picking up your bike in better conditions. Unfortunately, the gn is rather light already, but there is a technique as well.

B, you can't really avoid gravel in NZ, so best to practise to get better.

To pick up the bike, have your back to the bike, hands on bar and subframe, then walk backwards. Hard to explain, but there is vid somewhere, or get someone to show you.

[bogan]

don't panic brake on gravel, you'll lock up and lose control, then bin it (sounds like you may know this already). Gravel riding is a bit of an experience thing, you want to ease into it, trying to remember what that bloke said on the internet as you hit a patch going to quick ain't gonna help; unless the advice was 'tuck and roll' I'm not really sure the best way to get experience, but with gravel you learn to just ride a bit looser, let the bike move around a bit on it; which I guess is scary if learning it. I started riding dirt before road so was used to it. In saying that, the best way of course, is to see it and slow down.

picking up bikes, lift from the bars as you get more leverage that way

[steve_t]

Probably not very easy once the bike is down on gravel but



If you do it like the vid, make sure your stand is down!

[Matariki]

I've ridden on gravel plenty of times before without problems, but I ran into big loose gravel which threw me off, literally. I've always had trouble with with large loose gravel.

[Gremlin]

Let the bike move around a little, you don't want a death grip on the bars. If the stones are really big, I just slow down to a crawl and bump my way over the stones.

[p.dath]

Gravel riding on a road bike is a topic that comes up quite frequently, yet it is nothing to be scared of. The main things to remember are to weight your footpegs and allow the bike to move around under you. Ride in one gear higher than you would on the seal. Slow down early for corners. Use your rear brake to balance the bike (a bit like a sea anchor) but your front brake is still the one to slow you down. Look well ahead and anticipate the road surface.

There is a lot of good advice in http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=24616

That link is broken. This is what it should be:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...n-a-Sprotsbike

[Crisis management]

I hate gravel with a passion.

That's your problem.....once you start to "hate" something, whether it's gravel or wet roads you are going to struggle with it, you tense up and make the bike crash (the bike is perfectly happy on any surface, it's the rider that has the crash).

The GN is actually quite a capable gravel basher as are most bikes and you need to learn the skills to ride on it, as Gremlins' mentioned stay loose on the controls (don't bother standing up) and start off slowly giving yourself plenty of time to brake and change direction, as your confidence builds and you get used to the bike sliding around you will find your speed building.
Braking takes a bit of getting used to as you need to be able to brake to the point of lock up and control the braking at that point, this is because your amount of traction varies constantly on gravel and dirt surfaces so you are always modulating the brakes. I use both brakes, applying the rear first to settle the suspension, then the front with most of my braking power coming from the front brake as the rear is generally sliding around.

My suggestions.... find some hard packed dirt / gravel roads and practise on them first to get your head used to "dirt versus seal", you will be surprised how much traction there is. Just ride down the road back and forth for a while then practice braking in a straight line then corners. Stop, admire the countryside, calm your heart rate, repeat a few more times then do something else. Come back in a couple of days and repeat.
Once you feel confident with that type of surface you have essentially conquered dirt roads! Find some heavier gravel and repeat the procedure.

As you're riding slowly there is little chance of hurting yourself, you may fall off once or twice but it's only scratches and scuffs on the paint and thats just an opportunity to laugh at yourself and entertain your friends with the story. The worst that can happen is you will still dislike gravel but you will know you can ride on it if you have to.

Good luck and post the photos!

Here's my contribution.......

[awa355]

That's your problem.....once you start to "hate" something, whether it's gravel or wet roads you are going to struggle with it, you tense up and make the bike crash (the bike is perfectly happy on any surface, it's the rider that has the crash).

The GN is actually quite a capable gravel basher as are most bikes and you need to learn the skills to ride on it, as Gremlins' mentioned stay loose on the controls (don't bother standing up) and start off slowly giving yourself plenty of time to brake and change direction, as your confidence builds and you get used to the bike sliding around you will find your speed building.
Braking takes a bit of getting used to as you need to be able to brake to the point of lock up and control the braking at that point, this is because your amount of traction varies constantly on gravel and dirt surfaces so you are always modulating the brakes. I use both brakes, applying the rear first to settle the suspension, then the front with most of my braking power coming from the front brake as the rear is generally sliding around.

My suggestions.... find some hard packed dirt / gravel roads and practise on them first to get your head used to "dirt versus seal", you will be surprised how much traction there is

Good luck and post the photos!

Here's my contribution.......

How the fuck did you drop it there?? Having said that, roads rarely run on/off bridges at the same level. Theres usually a decent jump up or off the ends.

[Crisis management]

How the fuck did you drop it there??

I actually lost the front on the other side of the bridge, and with incredible skill managed to slide it over the bridge (you can see the skid marks on the bridge).....I was busy standing up looking over the handrail at the river when it happened so I reckon it had nothing to do with me!



If you reckon that's bad, you should have seen the highside later in the day.....and yes, you can get enough traction to highside in gravel!

[awa355]

I actually lost the front on the other side of the bridge, and with incredible skill managed to slide it over the bridge (you can see the skid marks on the bridge).....I was busy standing up looking over the handrail at the river when it happened so I reckon it had nothing to do with me!



If you reckon that's bad, you should have seen the highside later in the day.....and yes, you can get enough traction to highside in gravel!

Wasn't too sure whether the skid marks came from you or the tyres.
Glad to see you survived to fall over once again.

I have had one 'off' on gravel using the front brake going into a downhill corner. Does running wide and finishing up in the watertable still upright and sitting on the bike count as an off? Nah, not when no one saw it

[bogan]

The GN is actually quite a capable gravel basher

certainly is, my old flat ended up with a pretty decent rut in our gravel driveway from a GN

Here's my contribution.......

thats pretty impressive!