you really shouldn't ride too fast on gravel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VcUgSf0OxA

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 5:54:39 PM UTC-7, wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VcUgSf0OxA

That doesn't appear to be gravel. Maybe there was some gravel on that hard surface which would make it like marbles on ice. That bike had knobbies on it and can easily navigate gravel but that was a matter of judgement and not of surface.

That's a good point, Tom. I just try to stay as far away from gravel as possible. It doesn't get along very well with my 700-C X 23s.

That's a good point, Tom. I just try to stay as far away from gravel as possible. It doesn't get along very well with my 700-C X 23s.

Of course Jobst Brandt could ride dirt and gravel on 700-Cs with no problem, but I'm no Jobst.

On Sunday, April 12, 2020 at 7:50:12 AM UTC-7, wrote:
That's a good point, Tom. I just try to stay as far away from gravel as possible. It doesn't get along very well with my 700-C X 23s.

Of course Jobst Brandt could ride dirt and gravel on 700-Cs with no problem, but I'm no Jobst.

Just to give you a point of reference, Jobst rode 20 mm tires at 150 psi. I would ride 23 mm road tires on what they now call gravel rides and after getting a Ridley that I suppose you would call a gravel bike now and I was more than a little surprised at how well it handled and rode with 2 mm knobbies. On the road it didn't seem to lose much speed either. I would take it on a long shoreline path that was completely unpaved and only had hard gravel in places. Because the gravel beds keep sinking into the bay mud every year or so they dump fresh loose gravel on the road so that they can drive over it with a pickup. This is so hard to ride on with a bike that we ride on the sidings where ever they are available.

This is about a 15 mile ride and then I come back about a mile on the main road to a coffee shop. It is a strange place with few customers and I expect that this lockdown will put them out of business.

In any case I would return the rest of the way on hard roads. I couldn't much tell the difference in the speed on or off road with the knobbies. And I knew all of the best places to slip off of the main road and ride in the residential areas. Now you wouldn't have any problems since the traffic is now so light it is lighter than when I would leave at 7 am to ride to Palo Alto. 25 miles in 1.5 hours. The return trip was almost twice that because of the traffic.

If I decided to go to San Francisco along the peninsula and catch BART It would take about that same amount of time to go an extra 10 miles. Of if I forgot the route and went along El Camino Real, I would end up in (what is it?) Dailey City, that would be over on the Pacific Coast above the city and I would have to try to chose the correct road to ride down into the city. It's hell not being able to remember the roadways anymore. I used to have all the roads memorized because I rode over them when they first opened. Now I have to be careful not to get lost, by using deduction.