Originally Posted by
Spoonrobot
I do most of my gravel riding in the same vein either by dint of being in an event or just riding at a good speed on my own for fun.
The roads around here vary from actual red clay roads that are fairly tight and not really affected by the weather to white crusher run and just plain grey dusty gravel. I put some pics
here if anyone is curious. Georgia and the metro Atlanta are have some really nice, really accessible riding.
Back on topic; the biggest hurdle I'm currently working on is dealing with downhill, off-chamber, washboarding. I just can't get in a good position to handle this at any speed greater than 5-6 miles an hour. It's even worse in the wet or if the road surface is even slightly loose. I've tried weighting to the outside and keeping my center of gravity directly over the tires but that seems like it doesn't work in combination with the bumps.
I've seen other riders blast through the same section without issue and I'm kind of amazed at the speed they can achieve. I'm currently running 700x40 WTB Nanos which have a moderately aggressive tread that feels like it locks in pretty well. Maybe the tires are poor?
I'm also looking for tips on gravel riding with smooth tires. I see all sorts of glowing reviews of the 650b Hetres on gravel but whenever I've taken them out and really ridden them at speed they're very loose and seem like they're going to slide out at a significantly lower speed than my knobbies. How do those other riders keep the rear wheel from spinning on steep climbs when you really putting down power?
If anyone is curious about road conditions, hazards and types of features you may encounter this PDF is a great resource:
https://epd.georgia.gov/sites/epd.ge...l_May_2009.pdf
Wow, awesome stuff, Spoonrobot! That state manual is really cool-- I wonder if I can find something like that for MI?-- and the roads pictured in there look a lot like what we've got here in the SE MI. Your pics show a little more variety, perhaps because of detail, but again strike me as similar to what I've ridden on across Michigan, though we do have lots of sand in many areas, as well.
To your question about negotiating downhill, off-camber, washboarded turns, while looking at your bike in those pics, I noticed your tires are quite wide compared to the width of the rim, and so I was thinking that it might be you're experiencing a little sidewall slip. That's where the tire sidewalls flex, and let the rim wiggle or slide from directly above the contact patch, giving that loose feeling even though the tread contact patch is staying in place. If you're running low tire pressure, that can exacerbate the sensation, adding bounce while you're chattering over the washboard, as well as allowing the sidewalls to squirm more.
Maybe. Or could it be a lack of confidence? Do you have any MTB background? I've noticed that MTBers have a little more trust in their machines and handling abilities when riding road bikes on the dirt. Perhaps it's a willingness to let the bike run a bit, and having faith that momentum and a supple technique will see you through a lot of stuff.
I don't know that I see that situation so much myself, but I try to trace across the camber (or down it) at as wide an angle as I can until the apex, so that I've got my apex (or my turning point) as early as possible, and that I'm at the outside edge of the road, so that when I turn into the camber to "climb" up it during the last half of the turn, that I'm doing so at a rather sharp angle, moving back towards the crown (or center of the road).
Does that make sense? To put it another way, I try to avoid having my wheels tipped over along the downside of the turn (i.e. angled with the camber of the road) as I try to turn, and instead try to ride down the camber to the apex, then back up it as perpendicular to the slope as possible. I guess it's a way of minimizing the time spent at a sharp slip angle.
The big rub here is entry speed; it has to be right, because going to the outside of an off-camber turn is where you're likely to find more loose stuff, so braking and turning is very treacherous. Get the braking out the way, and give all available traction to making the turn, the cut, back up the camber towards the center of road.
I think that's how I do it, anyway!
I ride with "smooth" tires generally, either GravelKing file treads, or lately, the low circular pattern texture of Schwalbe S-One. I do have semi-knob Kenda Kwik K879s, which are great for dirt, really, but do give up some pavement speed, so I don't run them often.