Tim McNamara wrote:
In article .com,
"Mike Reed" wrote:

I people walking a lot, but I've always just ridden over gravel
(parking lots and such). What's the motivation to walk or even carry
your road bike?

Fear of crashing, generally. Most people riding bikes have very minimal
bike handling skills. Good skills are really developed in childhood,
and many children have very limited bike riding experience since most
parents drive their children everywhere to organized activities that
have had the life and spontaneity squeezed out of them, and where all
must receive prizes (Lewis Carroll reference).

Well, I hate gravel too:

My last crash was with my city-bike going carefully through a corner
with some gravel. I didn't go very fast, but I did scrape my knee and
Elbow. Not a big deal if I wasn't underways to an important client.

Honesty helped: I simply told he people I looked a bit disheveled
because of the accident and noone seemed to mind, but I must say it
wasn't my finest hour.

The crash itself was stupid. I had seen the gravel, so I went pretty
slow. I cornered and my frontwheel just slipped away. BANG. And there I
am priding myself on my bikeskills ^^ (I used to cross as a kid and
after that 20 years roadracing in the peloton)