Cycle Oregon Gravel Sections
 

Cycle Oregon has included two optional gravel sections in this year's (2017) ride (15 miles Bend to Century Drive and 10 miles of Dorena Lake to Oakridge). Does anyone know whether these two sections contain washboards, and if so how severe?

I rode last year's Go For The Gold and remember most of the people around me at the mess tent fretting over the gravel sections on the climb up to Bear Camp. There was a few ruts and nasty spots, but it was doable on a road bike (the biggest annoyance was all the dust in the air). C.O. is really cognizant of putting together routes that allow the widest range of riders access, so I don't think they would include a route (even in the optional section) that would only be usable for full suspension bikes.
I'm more worried about the climb up to Crater Lake.

There should be a paved route from Dorena Lake to Oakridge that follows Brice Creek for quite awhile before heading toward Oakridge. I haven't ridden it in a while so maybe the pavement was damaged in the last few years. It's an absolutely fantastic route, but it's very tough. It's a bear of a climb and remote. If CO is offering that route, I'll go for it as long as you're not adverse to long climbs.

Snow happens, and conditions change .. Re grading gravel roads can be done, maybe cycle oregon inc can hire that done?

You might ask them..? there is still a couple months to sort that out.. You are the Paying client..




;)

I ride gravel roads all the time commuting but I sure hate them within the first week or so after they grade them. Like riding on marbles. I can do it but it sure slows me down. I don't think I've ridden on wash boards much, might be a hard decision.

I'm not sure which road they are taking out of Bend. I have been on the gravel roads on the Dorena - Oakridge ride. These will start at the top of the ridge between the start and destination and will be a steady downhill run on solid gravel logging roads, good brakes and caution required. There will be some washboard, mostly on curves, but not the whole way. I find that if I ride toward the inside of the curve it is not so severe, pick your way through bad spots. It is a fun way to go if you have the bike, brakes and tires to handle it, it's a bit too much distance on a traditional road bike. The roads run along the sides of recent forest fires, check out the size of these burns, impressive.

(3) gravel sections, days 1, 5 and 6. I'm not sweating the washboard much as I'll bring along fat tires and swap them in on those three days. I will also have better downhill control than most using a big fixed gear.

An aside - the county I live in, Washington Co., OR has many steep gravel descents with wild washboard at the bottom; enough that I had the old frame I picked up that rode so well on bad roads stripped and checked out by local framebuilder. Those washboards felt like they were designed specifically to break frames.

And back to Cycle Oregon - they take real care not to send riders into dangerous situations. Often very poor roads have been upgraded before we arrive and when it cannot be avoided, they have established pull-offs, etc. or staggered riders so we would survive intact.

Ben