Which bike for Virginia Creeper Trail?

[emily_in_nc]

If you've ridden on the Va. Creeper (we're going next Sat!), would you choose to ride:

Mountain bike with knobby tires

~or~

Bike Friday Pocket Crusoe (road bike) with 1.3" slick tires

??? Obviously the Bike Friday is lighter, and the tires are wider than a typical road bike, but if the knobbies would be more appropriate for the trail, I'll take that one.

Thanks!

[Blueberry]

Emily-

You could ride the trail on either (assuming it hasn't been raining much), but I think you'd have a more pleasant time on the mountain bike. It rains enough up there that there's likely to be at least some mud on the trail. Plus, I've just found that larger wheels roll over stuff better (I love my Friday, but...) We usually do it with 1.5 slicks on my mountain bike and 32 conti top tourers on DH's hybrid, so it certainly can be done on something like the width you're considering.

Have fun - I doubt the leaves will be turning yet, but it should still be pretty up there.

CA

[pumpkinpony]

+1 on the Mountain Bike. I love the Creeper Trail! Haven't been out there since 2003 though. Have fun!

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks for the input, CA and pumpkinpony! Unfortunately, I didn't take your advice. :( After talking with a guy at work who has done the Creeper and thought we'd be fine on our Fridays, we ended up taking them. I admit that my DH kinda talked me into it as at first I was set on taking my mountain bike, but he looked at lots of Creeper pics online and determined that it looked easy and flat enough for us to do on the Fridays. And the Fridays fit into the back of our Honda Element more easily, so it was the path of least resistance, even though I'd initially planned on taking my mtb, thinking I'd be more comfortable on it.

I was right. And even my stubborn DH finally ended up agreeing. :rolleyes:

It was more than just the tires and lack of shocks. We started out in Whitetop, heading downhill towards Damascus. Though certainly not technical or steep, this portion is is the steepest part of the trail (4-6% grade), and there were some washed out and rocky areas. It was certainly doable, but on a bike with narrower tires and no shocks, we definitely felt it, and had to pay much closer attention than we would have on fat knobbies.

One thing I hadn't thought of was that doing miles and miles of slow downhill, I ended up needing to ride in my drops most of the way for best braking, and my hands got really sore and cramped! I'm certainly not used to extended braking like that in my normal riding. I did feather the brakes to give the rims a rest, but I used them way more than I usually do. I have kind of a long reach to the brake levers on my Friday, which is fine for the rides we do around here with only occasional braking, but not for miles and miles of downhill riding on light gravel with some sketchy places, plus lots of other riders (incl. many novices/kids) we'd come up behind since we were going slightly faster (tho still slowly).

So, my hands were sore, my back was getting tired of being in the drops for so long, and after an hour of downhill, we both decided that we were uncomfortable enough to bag making it to Damascus this time, so we turned around and headed back uphill.

Riding back up was much better. Since the grade is pretty consistent, I found a comfortable gear and mostly rode with my hands on the tops of the bars at a steady pace, actually about the same speed as we went down! This would have been great riding had it been uncrowded, but there were many large groups of riders coming downhill, and most of these folks were not expecting any riders going uphill (they'd been dropped off by a shuttle service and were riding downhill only). We had to stop or slow down, or go way wide to go around many novices who couldn't manage to get their bikes over to the right side of the trail (we got lots of "deer in headlights" looks!) I was friendly and said "thank you, have fun!" to everyone who moved to the right, but it was a bit frustrating/stressful to have to dodge so many riders while riding against the mainstream. I couldn't believe how few people were riding uphill! There were probably 50 downhill riders for every one uphill rider. Sad!

So, we only got in around 18 miles in 2 hours, not nearly what we'd hoped for, but DH's back and my hip were already barking from the bumpy ride, so it was just as well.

All that said, it was an absolutely glorious day with perfect temperatures and beautiful scenery. We'll definitely go back and do a lot more of the trail, but next time with mountain bikes and mid-week, to avoid the crowds!