Gravel riding

[Catrin]

Any tips on gravel road riding? These are very remote gravel roads and they can differ greatly between the size/type of gravel used as well as the depth. Right now the tires on my mountain bike differ, I have a Mountain King on the back, and Geax Mezcal on the front. Would it be better to have the more aggressive tire on the front to help bite into that gravel, or keep it on the rear where it is?

I hope to go scouting these roads soon, but I may (and probably will) wait to do some fit related changes to my mountain bike to allow proper knee extension and make certain my neck isn't too stretched out. It feels great on single-track, but the fit has a ways to go before I can do more road-like riding with my Jamis. This isn't a surprise, we went a little small on the size deliberately. Some of the gravel roads in the are I will be riding in are VERY steep and I need to make certain my fit is correct to make sure my knees, IT band and hip stay happy.

If I can get in enough gravel riding this winter, I hope to ride in the Sub-9 Death March in early March rather than volunteer, but we will see.

[tealtreak]

The most important thing to remember with steep gravel is you have no traction when you brake!!!!!!! yikes! but true.......

[Catrin]

I want that suspension Murienn, and since I am done with single-track for now I am going to use my mountain bike, she isn't going to collect dust. Besides, when I ride off-road with my Gunnar the vibration hurts my hands too much. I really need that suspension.

Tealtreak, that is what I thought. I took my LHT on one of those roads when I still had it and it freaked me out a bit as I wasn't expecting it. Now some of the roads will be more hard-packed, but I've been told that there isn't any consistency in the shape of these roads.

[tealtreak]

I want that suspension Murienn, and since I am done with singletrack for now I am going to use my mountain bike. Besides, when I ride off-road with my Gunnar the vibration hurts my hands too much. I really need that suspension.

Tealtreak, that is what I thought. I took my LHT on one of those roads when I still had it, that is why I know I want that suspension. Now some of the roads will be more hard-packed, but I've been told that there isn't any consistency in the shape of these roads.

What i was taught (and has worked so far) is brake hard when you are on a dirt or hard packed spot (so you have traction) then "flow like water, loose grip" on the gravel part (also screaming yeeeeaaaa in your head helps! haha)

[Irulan]

Any tips on gravel road riding? These are very remote gravel roads and they can differ greatly between the size/type of gravel used as well as the depth. Right now the tires on my mountain bike differ, I have a Mountain King on the back, and Geax Mezcal on the front. Would it be better to have the more aggressive tire on the front to help bite into that gravel, or keep it on the rear where it is?

I hope to go scouting these roads soon, but I may (and probably will) wait to do some fit related changes to my mountain bike to allow proper knee extension and make certain my neck isn't too stretched out. It feels great on single-track, but the fit has a ways to go before I can do more road-like riding with my Jamis. This isn't a surprise, we went a little small on the size deliberately. Some of the gravel roads in the are I will be riding in are VERY steep and I need to make certain my fit is correct to make sure my knees, IT band and hip stay happy.

If I can get in enough gravel riding this winter, I hope to ride in the Sub-9 Death March in early March rather than volunteer, but we will see.

Catrin, I don't want you to take this wrong, but it seems to me there is a tendency to over think all this stuff. Why not just make sure the saddle is a good pedaling height(that's all you should need to do to protect your knees), and go out and put some gravel road miles on the dang thing. You will never be able to outfit a bike to fit all contingencies.

[Catrin]

Catrin, I don't want you to take this wrong, but it seems to me there is a tendency to over think all this stuff. Why not just make sure the saddle is a good pedaling height(that's all you should need to do to protect your knees), and go out and put some gravel road miles on the dang thing. You will never be able to outfit a bike to fit all contingencies.

Yes, I do tend to over think. In THIS case, however, I can't get to a good pedaling height. That was fine for the trails but not for longer distance riding.

[Irulan]

Yes, I do tend to over think. In THIS case, however, I can't get to a good pedaling height. That was fine for the trails but not for longer distance riding.

I don't understand unless the seatpost is not long enough. All of my mountain bikes will extend to an appropriate hieght for long distance ( road style) pedaling....11 miles of gravel road climbing for example. I don't think I could ride certain trails without this. I routinely change my seat height - full extension for almost any sort of climbing, about 1/2'-1" lower for extremely rolling terrain, and lots lower for full on descending. There are plenty of trail I ride at full extension, probably 80% of them When I do clinics we mark the climbing height on everyone's seatpost for reference.

What I'm trying to say is I can't imagine anyone having a mountain bike that you can't get to correct pedaling height. If you are riding with your seat generally too low, well no wonder you are having problems. Seat too low can feel awkward and cause knee pain, and it's certainly not very efficient.

[Catrin]

The bike is 1 size small because of fit issues, I and my fitter worked this out at the beginning. It is fine for single-track and feels great, but it isn't right for road riding. If I get the seat post up any higher (which it will do as we replaced the original seatpost with a very long one), I am then in too aggressive a position for my neck - it can't be stretched out because of whiplash & arthritis. It won't be a very expensive fix, I just need to save up for it. It is a pain to be sure, and we knew when we worked this out that this might be eventually necessary. Every other mountain bike we looked at that was the right size would have stretched my neck out far too much...and the consequences of that isn't pleasant. Even before the whiplash injury I couldn't tolerate my neck to be stretched too far - though I didn't know why.

So, while it sounds like over-thinking, it isn't. I just need to bring up the stem and handlebar to accommodate the higher saddle height - and it needs to go up quite a bit. This will make me more upright of course, and my fitters original concern was that would have had me too upright for single-track and would have caused weight distribution problems. It never felt too low on the trails, but as soon as I hit pavement with it I was very aware of it.

If my skills had advanced enough that I could have ridden long distances on the trail without stopping it would have eventually become a problem and another solution would have needed to be found, but it wasn't a problem on the trails I was riding (and miss). I know it wasn't helping me with efficiency, I don't think it affected my crash/ride ratio. I was only riding every couple of weeks so it probably wasn't really affecting my knees...

[goldfinch]

I ride on ratty gravel roads. I think the more aggressive tread on the front makes sense. The rear tire will follow.