Dirt Road Exploring
 

I took the fenders off my Salsa Casseroll and put on wider tires so I could explore some of the dirt roads near my home. I've been wanting to do this for a while and today seemed like a good day to go for it. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps high 60s to low 70s. A perfect day to take in the autumn scenery on the back roads around rural middle Georgia.

The bike worked out very nicely for the dirt roads. The wider tires made it very stable on the gravel and dirt roads. It never felt squirrely or like it might slide out and dump me. The ride was pretty smooth on the dirt roads as well as the shake 'n' bake paved roads. I like the look of the big tires. It makes the bike look muscular somehow. :p The bike was not as much slower on smooth pavement as I expected.

I found some nice dirt roads, but I eventually got hemmed in between dangerous sections of two highways, so after 40 miles of wandering around, I called my wife to come and pick me up. I'll study the Garmin map to see where I can find connecting roads to make a full loop for riding in the future.
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/132209

I really liked this kind of riding. It is nice to not be limited to only the paved roads but still be able to make good time on pavement. There are some very pretty places out there on dirt roads.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluesda...86080702/show/
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bike1 by BluesDawg, on Flickr
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dirt4 by BluesDawg, on Flickr
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dirt6 by BluesDawg, on Flickr
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dirt7 by BluesDawg, on Flickr
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dirt10 by BluesDawg, on Flickr
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bike3 by BluesDawg, on Flickr
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shack by BluesDawg, on Flickr
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dirt16 by BluesDawg, on Flickr

Cool. I've been doing a little of this kind of exploring on my LHT, although dirt roads around here are getting scarce.

Here's a blog I've been following that will keep you're whistle whetted for a long time.

http://chris-pondero.blogspot.com/

Great post. I'v been thinking of doing a bit of exploring also on the dirt roads in my area. Many have been paved over the years so I will have to drive a bit to find some long ones. Even thought about picking of a karate Monkey to handle the chore but with things a bit tight the LHT will hafta do. Thanks for the great pics...they really serve to wet the appetite! Thats a pretty bike also, sorta been looking at those (with a triple) and the Soma Stanyan along with KM. Ride safe

Looks like a lot of fun, although it's probably not the time to venture forth like that in AR. Modern gun (deer) season started on Saturday.

We have a ton of National Forest Roads like that down in Louisiana. I've been contemplating a bike for riding those types of roads.

Thanks for report and pics.

That looks like a great ride. I envy you.

Great images!

BD, I use my mountain bike for that kind of riding. It's getting scarce around here as my little town has been swallowed up and turned into a suburb of Houston. Enjoy it while you can.

Brad

I need to make a trip to GA and try out some of those roads. I used to live in Newnan, GA.


Thanks for sharing.

Nice ride and good pics BluesDawg. It was my prefered style of riding when I was a kid, and it still is. There's more of a wonder of what's around the next corner that getting in the "miles".

Put a few ruts in those roads and a few mountains in the background and it looks a lot like the roads to my father-in-laws house.

Are those tires 32s or wider?

BTW, nice photos.

The tires are the 37mm Continental Contact tires that came mounted on the bike originally in singlespeed form. Their actual mounted width is 34mm. It looks like I could fit true 38mm tires. I'm running 60psi front/70 rear. I think I'll try about 5psi less in each next time.

While I could ride these roads on a MTB, it would be a very different experience and not what I was after. What I like about this setup is that I can ride paved or unpaved roads efficiently. There are many roads here that start out paved, but the pavement ends and the road continues for miles before the pavement starts again or the road ends at a paved road. The tires need to be rugged and wider than typical road tires, but knobbies or 2" wide tires would be overkill and would detract from the on-road part of the ride, as would flat handlebars. For my preferences, a rugged road bike is the ticket for this, not a MTB.

I had a blast this weekend doing something similar on my vintage MTB.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...2&d=1288056438

It has hard forks, hardtail, and "skinny" tires for road use. I guess because of the geometry, it's almost more of a road bike than MTB. The tires are Serfas inverted tread tires that work great on road, and surprisingly well on light offroad trails/dirt roads. They're 26x1.5 (the smallest that will fit on my rims) inflated to 65psi. I like the flat bars for the rough portions and only use the bar ends on road.

I hit a "rails to trails" track that was basically dirt and gravel. I didn't need anything more than what I had on it. I did find some rough side trails that "need" exploring so I might go back with wider knobbies, but for what I was doing these tires did the trick. It was a fun ride!

I agree with you about knobbies detracting from the road ride. That's originally why I got my skinnies. The hum, vibration and air resistance that knobbies give you onroad get old after a bit.

Hey BD, the pics remind me of those red dirt roads of East Texas, since I've never ridden in Georgia.

RE: Tires--- I did the C&O on my Trek 520 touring bike with a set of Conti Travl Contacts in 700cx37MM (35mm actual) at 60 psi and they worked great, even in light mud and rain. They fit under my cantilever brakes fine but might be tight with your sidepulls. The thing I liked is that they have just a bit of knobby on the sides. I went back and forth on which bike and which tire would work best for the C&O/GAP, and these were perfect, IMHO. I also did a couple of 40 milers on the blacktop and they were okay there also.

http://www.universalcycles.com/image...dium/12929.jpg

BD, I use the mountain bike because the roadies won't take anything larger than a 25C, a glaring hole in my fleet is a CX or touring frameset... I have a perfect compact triple awaiting one.

Brad

One of the nice things about the Casseroll is it's clearance for wider tires than most road bikes. The Tektro long reach caliper brakes (what used to be called "standard") have a long quick release lever combined with the Cane Creek brake levers with Campy style quick release giving me lots of clearance for these tires or even a bit wider.

There are always many different ways to do things. We go with our own preferences and often with what can be done with the equipment we have. I found out long ago that I am much happier with drop bars than flat bars in almost all situations. Serious offroad riding like rugged singletrack is just about the only place I like flat (or riser) bars and even there I would like to try a MTB properly setup with dirt drop bars. to each his own. It's all good.

Rim Size
 

Did those rims have the normal 700 x 23 tires on them before or are they made for larger tires? I have an older Trek 1000 Road Bike I'd like to convert.

BD, I promised my daughter a mountain bike to replace her stolen Diamondback. She's living at Ft. Stewart (Army wife) and hope to have something wrapped around that crankset before my next trip there.

Brad

Excellent photos BluesDawg, other than the rail trail, I'd need to drive to get to gravel roads around here. Louis-thanks for the link-I spent some time looking at that blog. If I wasn't so lazy I'd go down for his fall ramble.

The rims are 32 hole Mavic CXP-33 and have a road rim's typically narrow width of 19.4mm. Mavic very conservatively rates them for only up to 28mm tires, which is what I normally run on them. I know that cyclocross riders routinely run wider tires on them and the Contact 37s fit up with no problem, but I would be happier with something wider. I am thinking of building some wheels on wider rims, maybe Velocity Dyads with 32F/36R spokes for permanent multi-surface use.

I'm at a cross-roads with my MTB, I've been looking at a "Fitness style" bike, a pure road bike is kinda a waste for me but the idea of something a bit lighter and more road ready has got me thinking seriously about selling the MTB. My other bike is comfort bike that's been worked over a bit to make it more "road" but again, it's still 32 lbs. in stock trim. I'm hardly on dirt anymore and the Mrs. didn't take to MTB'ing at all, (scared the jebers out of her), still it's hard to think of some of the local trails around Colorado Springs, CO. and NOT have a MTB. Humm I wonder if I could put 700c cyclo-cross tires on the "hybrid" ;)

Current bikes: Road Hybrid:
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_GW75NWraW4E/TN...imonterey3.jpg

Hardtail MTB:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_GW75NWraW4E/TO...0/IM000524.JPG

When I first got the OCR- I was still riding with my MTB mates. We used to do raod rides together but there were too many occasions when a "Rough" trail would link two sections of road and would have made a good ride for all of us. (If you like road riding on MTB's with knobblies that is) Then one day I decided to attempt the 3 miles of Trail on the OCR. Standard bike- OM wheels and 700x 26 Kenda Slicks. The bike made it superbly- even though it was loose dirt and more suited to MTB's than road bike. Only concession I made was on the down slopes as hitting the lumps at speed would probably have wrecked the wheels.


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It made me think about a CX bike but I am afraid that this is still on the back burner waiting for the Enthusiasm to start up again. If its offroad then the MTB would be better than a CX- and for a Road ride- thenthe Road bikes are better. But for the 40 miles of flattish trail that I could get in locally- then the CX may be on the cards.

I like them pictures. Great scenery, do you ever stop to look though those old southern houses, if empty! I love exploring.

How do you like the drop bars when on dirt roads. Seems the other "explorers" have bars with bullhorns, my preference.

+1 Me too!!

What an awesome day BluesDawg! Thank you for sharing those great pictures!

Great post and thread. Just read an earlier post on heart rate training and my head was spinning. Riding for fitness and exploring and experiencing the beauty around us seems like very worthy goals. Spending time worrying about what zone your in might cause you to miss the beauty of what you're riding past.

I have 700/32 Marathons on my Bridgestone T700. Where i live you have to ride roads like that if variety is on the menu. I have several dogs that seem to look forward to my passing. They bark but don't chase me anymore. I enjoy the slow pace and scenery.