I am riding a commuterized mtb with 26" rim, 32 spokes with skinny tires @80PSI. I have to cross a number of fairly uneven rail tracks. Should I slow down (I don't at the moment)? Do I risk breaking or bending my wheels?

Thanks,

are you passing over the rails at 90 degree angle or close to it? In my experience if you shift your weight back so the it is not on your front wheel you will be okay. I cross 2 sets of rails on my CX bike running 32mm tires at 80 PSI at about 15-20mph with no issues.

Depends on how much you like your bike, or your body for that matter if you miscalculate.

I noticed fat tires make me feel better on railroad tracks. I was riding my old mountain bike this winter and for some reason the tracks and potholes don't bother me as much. My summer bike is 700C X 35 (not skinny by any stretch), but for some reason they seem more fragile.. probably just perception though.

Cross at right angles or you risk sudden crash syndrome, especially if the rails are wet. The rails can grab your wheel and yank your bike right out from under you.

I think this is an "it depends" question. It depends on how uneven the tracks are, how narrow your tires are, how fast you're going, whether you have any shocks, and in general how comfortable you are going over them at speed. There isn't a universal answer.

Short answer...maybe.

Long winded answer: It depends If you cross the tracks with your butt planted firmly on the saddle and the bike has no suspension system, the risk of wheel damage is higher...and so is your butt pain Front suspension is going to lessen the pain a little and full suspension is going to make you ask "What railroad tracks?" These guys are doing it wrong



You should, on any bicycle, ride over railroad tracks like you would ride a mountain bike over obstacles:



Notice how the rider is up off the saddle, his feet are parallel to the ground and his legs...specifically his thighs...are supporting his weight and acting like springs. Your legs and arms absorb more road shock than any bicycle suspension possibly can...short of a 9" travel downhiller.

What this position does is allows your bike to move up and down under you while your body follows a relatively flat line. The bike takes less punishment and your legs can handle the bending and flexing.

Riding like the people do in the RAGBRI picture, means walking across the tracks. Riding like the mountain biker does means flying across them at 10, 20, or 30 mph with more control.

This is only partly right. You shift back so that the front wheel doesn't get trapped by the tracks and you lose control of the bicycle. But the front wheel is the strongest wheel on the bike. It can take more punishment than the rear wheel can. It's best to lean backwards as the front wheel goes over the tracks and then move the center of mass forward...a little...as the rear wheel goes over the track. This takes weight off the front wheel so that the wheel won't get trapped and you'll crash but then takes weight off the rear wheel so that it isn't damaged by the impact. This kind of body movement is second nature to anybody that has mountain biked...even with full suspension...as can be seen in the mountain bike picture above

And if, after reading all of the above, you still have doubts there is nothing wrong with walking your bike over those tracks. Just don't step directly on the rails, in particular is you have cleats

Adam

Walking is good.

The fall produced from the tire catching the rail at an angle is extra forceful.

It's like the bike is being pulled out from under you. A broken hip is often the outcome.

If I can't ride across a smooth crossing at 90 degrees, I'll walk it.

Who'da thunk it, I've been doing this right all along. I've got a set of track on every commute and go over them easily on 25cm tires at 15-20 MPH.

OMG, I wouldn't even think of riding across THAT!

This is absolutely true. A dozen years ago, I crossed some wet trolley tracks at an oblique angle. I went down so fast, I didn't know what happened. Broke my 5th metacarpal in 3 places and got a slight concussion. Now I only cross tracks perpendicularly and very carefully if they're wet.

Basically same thing as black ice, you go down as if someone has forcefully yanked the bike from under you, no fun, except that studded tires will do squat to help on rails

Adam

I was lucky. I only sprained my knee. I was on two crutches for a month, one crutch for another month to six weeks, and a full YEAR later, I'm starting to be back at full function. Yes, it was a bad sprain. But a broken femur can kill you, so on the whole I'm awful glad I got lucky. Within 6 months, I was in good enough shape to help my sister-outlaw move. It's been getting the last stages of strength and stability back that were *****y.

In my accident, it wasn't that the tire caught on the rail, or that there were problems with the angle. Wet railroad tracks can be very slippery. You can feel it a little when walking in wet weather. If you crouch down and investigate, it's easy to notice. A bike *must* have traction from the front tire. No ifs, ands or buts. I lost traction due to the tracks being wet, and I lost it on the front. Down I went. A number of bystanders were *sure* I had been hit by a car. Nope. It was all the magic of rain on metal.

I spent a fair bit of time learning to fall as a kid, and that probably saved my femur. I didn't try to fight the fall, so the impact was spread over almost my entire left side. I also had a *healthy* dose of luck.

The bumpy lumpy tracks can be a problem. For the most part tho, even now I don't walk over them if it's dry out. (or rather I do, but only when I don't have my bike with me ) It's a fairly straightforward mountain biking problem, and the only way to learn how to pick a good line is to ride. If you're not sure, walk across. It's easy to miss details at speed. No traction falls suck, but diversion falls (where your tire needed to be at a 90 degree angle with respect to a bump, and it wasn't) are damn near as common. If you walk the bike over and pay attention, you can feel how you have to approach. You do need a certain degree of speed for avoiding diversion falls... slowing down can make a fall *more* likely. It's a game of momentum and balance, which is why my most hated track crossing isn't the one that got me. There's another crossing on the same rail line where I have to cross it immediately after a left turn at a traffic light. And I do mean *immediately*. It's quite probably the bumpiest track crossing I know of within about a 5 mile radius, and the tracks cross the road at a sharp angle. It's... fun. It's doable, but in rainy weather I feel *no* shame about walking it.

The first picture shows a track that is perfectly easy to ride across as long as you keep away from the gap in the ties. That just requires you to take the proper line and watch where you are going

The second picture is more problematic but not undoable. It's hardly any rougher than you'd find on just about any 10 feet or so of mountain bike trail. I'd probably pick a line that was to the right or left where the tire is so that I'd wouldn't be riding right across the worst of the hole. I don't think I'd even have a problem riding a fully loaded touring bike over that.

Mountain biking really helps in learning bike handling skills. Once you been down a trail full of baby heads, everything else is easy

I had to google that. Never heard that term before.

Trail riding is different. Although you're more likely to cross something like that on a mountain bike than road bike. I would still probably walk or ride around problems like that. I just rather be careful.

Rocks the size of a baby head I avoided rocky trails, never like them.

Adam

Trail riding is different, but the principles can be successfully applied to road riding. I don't think a road bike suffers from as many limitations as people perceive. Much of my riding is on roads with sections that would give the Paris-Roubaix a run for it's money, but I have no hesitation riding 23c slick tires on all my bikes because I use technique to make up the difference. A bmx and mountain bike background has done a lot for the 'riding light' aspect. I've even been known to ride a road bike on single track and bmx trails (FUN!). It can be done.

You people are joking...right? In the picture,how about crossing where there isn't half the boards missing?

Some of the roads in L.A. are rougher than that....

The pictures just illustrated the dangers of going through a really bad railroad crossing, it doesn't mean they actually rode like that. As you can see most of that crossing had boards missing. So it's possible that your wheel can get caught in a gap like that, normally you can't recover from this, it's a guaranteed dive. I've seen people fall when their front wheel got caught in a grate or crack in the road. So a rail crossing with gaps like that is better dealt with by walking.

...Or bunny hopping, (just sayin')

+1000 on this

I was crossing a track perpendicular at about 0.5 mph, intending to stop in about three feet. I had just the tiniest amount of left lean going and as I was going almost no miles per hour the front tire was on the rail(which happened to be wet) for a relatively long amount of time. As Barretscv said, the bike gone from under me in less than a heartbeat as my front tire slipped away down the rail and I fell harder and faster than you would think possible. The only lucky thing was that I landed on my hip, ribs, and shoulder simultaneously, distributing the force over a larger area and not breaking any bones (might have cracked some ribs). It was one of those falls where adrenaline takes over and you jump up lightning fast, get on your bike and evaluate your body condition as you pedal down the road. I ended up with a small bruise on my hip, but it hurt pretty good, a small scrape on the *top* of my shoulder which wasn't too bad, and not a mark on my ribs, but they hurt like hell for a couple weeks. I forgot the old mountain biking addage, "The slower you go, the faster things happen." I also make double-triple sure I'm square and balanced when I go over tracks now. Lesson learned.

not sure of your speed so i don't know if you should slow down. I also don't know the angle at which you are crossing them. I also don't know the road condition adjacent to the tracks. cross them perpendicularly if you can. try not to get squeezed all the way to the shoulder. maybe you can take the lane for a short period? weird stuff can happen at RR crossings - use caution, don't act like they aren't there. a bike and bike wheels have the ability to bound over obstacles without getting damaged but RR crossings are special problems and you don't want to lose control and crash. OR GET HIT BY A TRAIN!

+1 That's my point. Riding on a trail that is nothing but roots, rocks, mud and slippery crap makes anything I run across on the road seem tame.

Road bikes will take more abuse than most people think...as long as you know how to weight off the wheels. That's why I said that the guys in the RAGBRI picture were doing it wrong. They are all 'sitting' on the saddles. Riding rough roads like that makes damaging your wheels more likely.