Originally Posted by
CliffordK
For touring (100+ miles), do you prefer paved, gravel, a mix, or perhaps mostly paved with a few short gravel connections?
If you were given a choice of a very busy 2 lane highway vs a bit longer and hillier route that was 50% paved, 50% gravel (reasonably good condition). Would you take the alternate route with gravel?
Oh, and is there a maximum slope for gravel or paved?
My driveway hits about 17%, and it can be a challenge with a very heavy load, or just hard work with a moderate load.
A few general comments:
1. The biggest item is predictability. If I know the road is gravel, then I'll take the appropriate bike/tires and that can be as pleasant as paved roads. What isn't as fun is expecting pavement and then having multiple tens of miles of gravel.
2. There can be a pretty big variation in gravel roads. Some when they are wet (some soak in, others become soft mud) but even when dry, there can be loose coarse stuff graded over vs. relatively smooth. Similarly, roads can accumulate a lot of corrugations and be somewhat of a pain to ride. The expectations thing is back at play here, but having relatively smooth, not muddy, uncorrugated gravel isn't really that different from pavement. The others are ok too if I'm prepared for them.
3. More than about 8-10%, I'll occasionally end up walking, particularly loaded. I tend to be a bit cautious, so descending on gravel is a lot worse than climbing on gravel.
4. When it comes to a busier/flatter road that is more direct vs. a quieter/hillier road that is longer - I'll bias towards the more direct roads.