Gravel riding

[Henk]

The GN will do gravel fine. The road that was sugested earlier as west coast road is probably Coast road, probably a good one to start with and the ride to it is fun. Go up Old North, when you hit Peak Road turn left, Coast Road is on the right not long after you pass Kiwitahi Rd on the left. Comes out a little South of Kaukap.

[cheesemethod]

Cheers for the help folks. I've got 3 weeks of leave coming up so I'll put a few gravel missions in there I think.

[Hiflyer]

I've got 3 weeks of leave coming up. . . .

DAMN YOU!!! I want 3 weeks of leave

[gavinnz]

I did a lot of gravel road riding on road bikes in my early days... I got quite confident after a while.
A few points to consider that might keep you upright are...

1. Sit up. The less weight on the front wheel the less likley it is to "dig into" a pile of gravel and plow it causing a lowside crash.

2. Relax your body. Keep light hands on the bars, if you have a death grip the wheel will tend to dig in and you want it to float. Don't fight it, let it move about.

3. Ride with care and not to fast. The reason for this is that if you get into lose gravel the best reponse if to accelerate. This might seem crazy, but what it does is it lifts the weight off the front wheel allowing it to "float" over the lose gravel. If you are going to fast then you can't accelerate and get that effect.

4. Be super carefull on the brakes and forget what they say about mostly using the front brake (which is correct on sealed roads) get used to using both brakes but the rear the most. This will tend to keep you in line on gravel.

5. At times you will be forced to cross the "pile" of gravel the seperates the car tracks... slow down before hand then accelerate over the pile.

6. ADVANCED ONLY! On a straight bit of road where you have 100% visablity for oncoming traffic, ride IN the pile of gravel in between the car tracks. VERY slowly at first. Rembering to accelerate out of it if you get into trouble. The bike will move about under you. Relax and get used to it. As one day you WILL be forced to ride in it by some random situation and if you have practiced it in a controled way you will stand more chance of staying upright.

7. Not if, but WHEN you are riding along on a sealed road and all of a sudden lose gravel roadworks is in front of you and you ARE going to go through it... this is what to do. While still on the seal, slow down as much as you can safely then just before you hit the gravel accelerate into the gravel and try and ride it out. THE WORST thing you can do is to try stopping hard in the gravel.

Hope that might help someone stay upright.
Regards
Gavin