It's understandable to be nervous on gravel.
Any wise biker would be. I have a 180m drive of gravel which goes up an incline and its a pig of a thing to get up at times.
Why do you need knobbies. Sjaak Lucassen rode an R1 around the world (according to the web site) on very road orientated tyres. Check out his page.
Cheers R
"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools." - Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
Transalper's right, there's no way I'm going to use anything but road tyres.
However, I've picked up some good info that will help me. There's no way I'll choose to ride over gravel roads, voluntarily. The odd bit of road works can't be helped.
BTW drove from Raglan to Kawhia a few days ago in my Toyota RAV4 and parts were barely passable with several red clay slips. Totally awful for a road bike!
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Roy Price - May the fish be with you! ®
sweet! that sounds like fun, may have to try make it to kawhia...
Windboy.
I guess it depends to some degree on the type of bike. Road bikes tend to be fairly front-heavy, and the sports radials float around on gravel instead of biting down through it, so keeping the front light helps.
I took the VFR on some gravel roads last year, and found that the trick was to keep the speed up: over about 85/90 km/h and it felt much better, especially over rutted surfaces, as it just floated over the bumps instead of getting unsettled. The speed (scary at first) and a passenger both helped to keep the weight back.
I was glad of the linked brakes too - using the brake pedal meant less drama.
One other thing I did, which isn't recommended but worked well, was to go up rutted hills on the wrong side of the road where visibility allowed for it, as there were fewer ruts from cars/buses 'axle-tramping' their way up the hill.
The biggest thing I learned was to check my tankbag before moving it around - the grit under it wrecked my paint.
... and that's what I think.
Or summat.
Or maybe not...
Dunno really....![]()
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