El Gato27

Son and I went on a new (to us) hike and bike trail on our road bikes. Thought it was all paved. ~ 7 miles into it came across a segment of a fairly rough dirt trail. Didn’t like the looks of it, tight up and downs, trees, roots, etc….definitely mountain bike stuff. A passerby said it was less than a mile. If it was a flat walking trail, no problem. I wimped out, didn’t want to take the roadies on it.

So how do you all feel about taking road bikes on mountain bike trails, not routinely but just in a pinch to get from Point A to point B. Am I being overly protective?

fietsbob

Cyclocross is Like old road Bikes on unpaved roads . The TdF was run over Gravel roads for a long time In the early Years .

Learn to judge what you have to stop and carry the bike over and start again on the Opposite side of the obstacle.

79pmooney

I also look at the condition of the trail itself. Skinny road tires can do a lot of damage to soft trails creating ruts that fat MTB tires barely touch. So there are places I will not ride even though my bike will do fine.

Ben

MZilliox

I ride my road bikes on dirt and gravel, but not on super wasted trails. I don't like sharp rocks, huge ruts, or lots of roots for my road bike. tires are 28mm at the moment, but on one bike that sees more gravel i'm considering 32s with some tread.

handling is worse on dirt, tires slip a lot more unless they are wide wide. even my 28mm tires slip a fair bit. the good news is if you learn how to slip and slide around on gravel, riding the roads is that much easier.

I would not try this at home, but this video will open your eyes to just what a road bike is capable of. its a super watch, so much fun!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhabgvIIXik

have fun and be safe out there. bikes are supposed to take you to new places


heres my serotta road bike with 28s on a typical dirt trail in my area.

LGHT

I ride my road bike over a ton of dirt, thorns, bad areas etc, (no sand) and never had any problems. I currently have 23 tires on it, but I did replace my wafer thin tubes with these as they are extremely thick and I've even pulled thorns out of my tires after a ride and have yet
to get a puncture.

JimF22003

I've never taken the road bike on out and out mountain bike single-track stuff, but I've ridden plenty of gravel and unpaved stuff on it. As long as the gravel isn't real loose, it works fine.

bikemig 

Agree that a road bike can do just fine on gravel and dirt but there is nothing wrong with not riding a road you are not comfortable with. Sometimes it's good to push the envelope and sometimes you just have to use your judgment. By the way, if you want to ride a road bike on a dirt trail, a little fatter tire is helpful.

obed7

I do not take my road bikes on trails with the conditions you describe, but I do take my cross bike on trails like that...if it gets worse than that, i find another route... i do not own an mtb.

70sSanO

I have an '86 Cannondale SR400 that I toyed around with riding in the dirt. The largest tire I can use is 28mm and I put on a couple of Kenda Karvs. They are a shallow knobby. I've ridden it on some mild single track with a little rock but nothing at all serious. First couple of time I used downtube friction shifters, now that was an experience. I have since gone to flat bars, but I rarely take it on dirt anymore.

I don't know how severe the trail is when you say roots and trees. If you need to get over 6" or more, you will have to stop regardless as I doubt it will be easy to get the front end up and over. Also I don't think a road bike can withstand drops. Biggest issue is with a loose surface such as sand. The narrow tires really want to sink into it. And I don't think I would take pure road tires off-road.

Hard packed smooth dirt is something else.

John

El Gato27

Trail was much more "technical" than MZilliox's post. That would have been not problem. I have 23's on one road bike and 25's on the other. Will take me hybrid out there and check out all the trail. Thanks for all the inputs.

Cyclosaurus

Mountain Bikes: Who Needs Them?

12strings

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if most of us tried that stuff with our bikes, we would end up with a broken bike. No doubt he is using tougher parts than we generally use.

jfowler85

I ride hardpack with sections swimming with loose pea sized gravel every day. It's an offshoot of a well known trail system actually. I ride either 23s @ 120psi or 25s @ 90psi with no issues. There are, however, no exposed tree roots or rocks large enough to warrant avoiding. Inadvertently I have ridden over crushed limestone, nasty ruts and piles of packed mud/debris from flood washout...so far the my cheap FSA wheelset is holding up great and I have yet to flat. If I had to, I'd take 1 mile of decent single track but I'd be prepared to walk when needed. Isn't that called cyclocross?

CliffordK

I watched the summary for those bike party films a while ago.

Apparently the bikes fared better than the riders (one of which was paralyzed),

I may have to re-think the whole CF thing. If CF doesn't break, then it will spring back to essentially its original shape, unlike Aluminum that can take some new and unique shapes. So, apparently the wheels fared quite well.

I do take my road bike with skinny slicks out on gravel a bit. I'm not sure if control is lacking a bit. Just fine if everything is straight, but recently I went down a gravel slope that ended precariously close to a parked truck. No doubt with surveillance cameras. I narrowly missed BF infamy.

Trailroaster

Depending on the terrain you will not have any problems going thru dirt tracks.

Every year here we have our personal Castillian 'Roubaix' (cobbles included). Take a look.

GP Canal de Castilla 2015

100 miles over tarmac, dirt and cobbles. No MTB needed, this year someone appeared with a CX bike but mainly people went with road bikes and 25-28c tires.

700x28c tires are ideal for such terrain. Forget using wimpy 23c ones.

ThermionicScott 

At the risk of being pedantic, Martyn was doing a stunt for an unrelated event when he fell. I admire his spirit, though:


That's my thing, too. I love taking the road bike with 28mm tires on dirt and pea gravel trails, but I get a little nervous when the rocks get bigger and deeper. I'll generally "tripod" for a bit to get through that.

MichaelW

I have taken my old steel roadie up and down some quite technical slopes. 28mm tyres are pref to narrower ones. You can't slam the bike around; you have to pick your way down carefully.
If your local trails are all a bit easy and undemanding on your full-sus MTB, you don't need to travel to find harder terrain, just switch to a less suitable bike.

jtaylor996

Well, it was a stock road bike, and it didn't break.

But, the first guy in that video ended up paralyzed waist-down, so.... a broken bike is the least of your worries if you attempt the stuff in those videos.