Gravel Roads

[nick949]

As I was looking through some of my motorcycle trip photographs the other day, it struck me that many of my favourite pictures - indeed a disproportionate number of all the photographs on my computer - were of gravel roads. Now you might assume that I’m a dirt-bike rider, skilled in blasting through waterholes, over rocky creek beds and along forest tracks, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have no skill or training in riding off-road, the bikes I prefer for my trips down the dusty roads are ‘standard’ touring bikes from the nineteen seventies, and my backside tends to stay resolutely attached to the seat.

Many years ago, long before my passion for motorcycles and riding was revived, I was astonished to meet some riders in northern Ontario who thought nothing of hammering down the hard-packed gravel roads north of Lake Huron on their Harley Shovelheads. Having grown up in England, where even the tiniest lanes are paved, I had assumed that unless you had special skill and special equipment, like the scrambler racers I saw on weekend TV, unpaved gravel roads were no place for a motorbike. I expected them to fall off at every corner.

I had driven those roads many times in a truck, and was well aware of how the loose surface could have you skittering sideways in a moment unless you were careful.  I couldn’t imagine how anyone could possibly remain upright on two wheels, yet week after week those riders passed by our house on their way to Friday night drinking sessions the bar in Bruce Mines, then, some hours later, we’d hear them heading back the other way. We called them the ‘Drunk Riders’.
      
Since then I’ve been drawn to the far corners of the map: the places you can only reach by air unless you drive or ride for many bumpy miles on unpaved surfaces. At first I tended to avoid unpaved roads, but as my confidence grew, I started to ventured further off the tarmac. Once I got used to the feel of not being entirely in control, I began to relax and actually enjoy the sensation. I quickly found that maintaining a death grip on the handlebars is counterproductive; it was essential to stay loose and let the front wheel find its own path, even when that involved a little skittering and sliding.  The internet is full of ‘experts’ who encourage riders to accelerate if they encounter soft spots or find the front wheel going astray.  Judicious use of the throttle is, of course, valuable, but you can soon find yourself travelling far faster than conditions allow unless you are careful. My experience is that if you keep your speed under control, keep your centre of gravity low by weighting the foot pegs, and use the bike’s torque to pull you through any difficulties, you can ride hundreds of miles on gravel in reasonable safety.

Of course, there will be times when things get a little scary and out of control. Patches of deep, loose gravel built up in corners or along the edges of the road are traps for the unwary which you sometimes can’t avoid; where you have to grit your teeth and hope that the bike stays upright. Perhaps worse are the deep divots where truck wheels have sunk in to soft, wet gravel and the hole has become filled with loose dust. If you hit one of those there’s not much you can do except let the bike bounce around and keep rolling. Non-bike riding folks often worry about what will happen when you hit a pothole, and are surprised when I tell them ‘not much’.  You might experience a bit of a jolt, especially if the hole is deep, but it’s rarely enough to counteract the physics that works to keep the bike upright and rolling.

Freshly graded roads look enchanting. Where the road is level, the grader blade tickles the surface, raking it as smooth and appealing as a Zen garden. Unfortunately, all may not be as serene beneath the surface. That perfect-looking road bed may conceal deep wet spots, dust filled divots or sharp rocks hidden beneath the powder.  The grader also tends to sweep loose gravel towards the edges of the road, leaving deposits of deep, soft gravel; an easy trap for the unwary, which can catch your wheel and drag you towards the ditch.

Roads which have been well travelled are far more motorcycle friendly. The road surface is usually hard-packed and bare. While there may be a sprinkling of loose gravel over the surface, at least the major hazards are visible. Corner can be tricky, where vehicle traffic has piled up loose aggregate, but with reasonable speed control and careful riding, it’s rarely a problem. All this changes during heavy rain. Depending on the composition of the road bed, the road may turn to mud and there may be wash-outs.  There’s always something to keep the mind engaged.

Some of the finest rides I have ever enjoyed have been on long stretches of unpaved road. The picture on my computer screen as I write this is of Quebec Highway 389 south of Labrador City. You can see the road snaking off into the forested blue hills in the distance. The road surface is hard-packed gravel with a few loose ‘marbles’ on the surface. Some might see it as an ugly, dusty scar across the landscape, but to me it is an inspiration.  It communicates a sense of adventure and a little bit of isolation.  Sadly, every time I turn around some gravel road I used to enjoy riding has been paved with chip and tar, and Quebec Highway 389 is no exception.  The last time I rode it, portions had already been paved and works were well underway to straighten corners and ‘improve’ the road surface. I understand the road-builder’s desire to create roads that everyone can travel in safety, but for a certain breed of motorcyclist, it seems as though the urban world is closing in and ‘adventure’ is being edged out at every turn.

Nick


free photo upload website

[Gliderjohn]

Almost always something interesting down gravel roads.
GliderJohn

[Huzo]

You mentioned Dusty Rhodes..
No relation to our learned moderator perchance...

[nick949]

You mentioned Dusty Rhodes..
No relation to our learned moderator perchance...

Nothing I would like better than to show Dusty Rhodes some Dusty Roads.  We might even talk politics. 

Nick

[Knuckle Dragger]

I love dirt roads.  Not just for the journey, either.  The destinations (& the stops in between) are usually less frequented, less crowded, & often much more offbeat & 'interesting' too.

My home country is the most urbanised on earth.  Meaning that to get away from its "five teeming sores", our coastal capitals, requires travelling the vast network of dirt roads.  There's obviously reasonable networks of interstate and regional macadam too, but most 'outback' roads in Oz are gravelled.

So it's always been perfectly natural to traverse this network with nary a thought or consideration for the consequences.  Big mistake.  Many of these roads are extremely, heavily corrugated.  The type of corrugations that can literally shake a vehicle to pieces.  Exhaust systems disintegrate, nut & bolts part company with their accomodation, electrical connections & bulb filaments are placed under extreme duress, and tyres, wheel bearings, wheel studs & even wheels themselves are prone to sudden, unexpected & on occasion catastrophic failure.  I've encountered & personally experienced many mechanical failures on dirt roads.  Flat tyres aplenty, dings in alloy wheels (especially those cheesy BMW ones), holed petrol tanks (twice), innumerable bolts just disappear, and exhausts crack & fall off.  It's not unheard of for subframes and even mainframes to crack under the constant stress of the continual rhythmic pounding induced by corrugations.  Yet get your speed right and you can literally float over corrugations with little discomfort.  Get it wrong & you can literally (at best) become airborne (or worst) irreparably wreck your vehicle in just a minute or 2!

To traverse dirt roads in Australia after dark is foolhardy & dangerous in extremis.  Much of the game in Oz is nocturnal, big, solid and unpredictable.  Even smaller ones can kill:  a tiny 5kg wallaby can take you off your bike at speed.  A forester (grey) or 'big red' can total both bike & rider on impact.  Then there's errant sheep, goats, donkeys, cattle, pigs, emus, dogs, brumbies, camels, buffalo & possibly more that I've forgotten.  Some with 1000kg+ in mass.

In Tas there's wallabies, wombats, possums, devils & tiger-cats too that are attracted to roadsides after dark. Plus birds:  raptors like Eagles, Goshawks, Falcons, Sparrowhawks & Kestrels & carrion specialists like ravens all frequent roadkill.  Then there's literally flocks of Cockies, Corellas & Galahs, Magpies, Kookaburra, Plovers & Seagulls all hell-bent on vehicular suicide too.  Luckily, mostly only during the day, but I've also sadly hit the odd Owl & Tawny Frogmouth at night too.  In regional & outback Oz, you just don't bike certain roads at night.  Even multi-wheeled vehicles usually use auxiliary lighting and slower speeds at night.

Overtaking can on occasion be fraught with danger.  A road train (prime mover, turntabled trailer & multiwheel dog-trailer combo) is a 38?? wheeled mobile behemoth that seemingly creates its own weather pattern on gravel.  Typically an enormous, visually impenetrable dust storm.  It can take many km. of following at a safe visual distance, & maybe a whole km or more of effectively driving blind alongside to overtake.  Riding a bike, there's no way of (two-way radio) forewarning drivers of your intended overtaking manouevre.  You just have to pray they've seen you, and will move slightly over to allow you at least one less loose tyre rut to use whilst blind.  Oncoming vehicles will invariably throw up stones into the path of oncoming traffic.  Full visors, and occasionally dust masks are de rigeur.  Any static accumulative surfaces (lexan visors, plastic sunglasses etc.) are quickly rendered opaque by accumulated dust.

Then there's the occasional, deadly bulldust hollows.  Usually only found in the deserts & semi-arid zones, these lay in wait like a pool of water in hollows & washaways, often out of sight until its too late.  Unlike water, your narrow front wheel plunges in until it bogs down & the bike can either washout underneath you or even flip!  Best to ride the worst roads with circumspection & caution.

Having scared the crap out of many potential dirt cowboys I need to add that any type of road situation is potentially dangerous.  One needs to exercise caution irrespective of the road surface, and as always ride appropriately to the conditions.  Unless shod with 16" 80's vintage racebike tyres, just about any bike is capable of handling the majority of dirt roads in Oz & elsewhere.  Some bikes are better than others, however.  Bigger wheels & skinnier tyres help.  Fat tyres will kick sideways if glancing larger pebbles or road irregularities, whereas 19/21" fronts & 19/18" rears tend to just ride up & over or just baulk less at irregularities.  Narrow, low bars esp. without a steering damper will rapidly become tiring, as will the more extreme 'racebike crouch' or rearset peg setups too.

As previoiusly mentioned, keep the mass low by weighting up the footpegs rather than the seat, don't overload in the wrong places up high (tank bag, top box, ventura bag etc.) & you'll probably thoroughly enjoy the experience.  Enjoy the ride.

[nick949]

Brilliant stuff Knuckle Dragger. Oz must still have an education system where people are taught to use the English language in interesting and creative ways.
If I had the free cash, I'd happily take a tour on those roads you describe. I'd love to dice with big reds and brombies in a bit of bull dust............... .except I can't stand the heat.

Thanks for a great response.

Nick

[twowheeladdict]

 

When you run across fresh gravel that isn't even packed down yet, you will not like it when on a heavy bike.

[nick949]

When you run across fresh gravel that isn't even packed down yet, you will not like it when on a heavy bike.

Aw c'mon. It just makes things a bit interesting (in a sphincter clenching kind of way).  Most riding is just too dull.

Nick

[oldbike54]

 Nick old man , we have some good gravel in my area , I manage maybe 100 miles a year on unpaved back roads , in the past it was a lot more .

 Maybe we can figure something out .

 Dusty

[nick949]

Nick old man , we have some good gravel in my area , I manage maybe 100 miles a year on unpaved back roads , in the past it was a lot more .

 Maybe we can figure something out .

 Dusty

Any time you want to come up here Dusty...

N

[cleatusj]

Dusty.  That is the color of my Calli.

[pat80flh]

I lived many years on a dirt road tucked into the Bristol(NY) hills. I found my old FLH to be a great off roader, with that big fat 16" dogcrusher on the front. 
  The rear brake is your friend, especially in gravel.

[Knuckle Dragger]

Freshly graded roads are pretty horrible until they get packed down to a more solid base.  Feels like running on flat tyres.

Incidentally, slightly lower tyre pressures (SLIGHTLY!) gives a bit more drive, bite & cushioning on dirt too.

[xackley]

The only question that enters my mind when the road turns to dirt is how dirty is my bike already, and how much work will it take to get it clean again.
My old goldwing has seen miles of two up travel on the roads less traveled. My wife seems to chose the most questionable road when asked left right or straight.
I baby my 15 year old guzzi, it is still to pretty. It sees some dirt, but only when moisture content is right and I know the road.

[Moto]

I like dirt and gravel roads too. Lots of wisdom in the above comments.

The only addition I'll offer is that more throttle is especially appropriate when you find your front tire starting to wash out on a turn. It's a beginner's mistake to shut down the throttle at that point, since the weight transfers forward.

Moto

[twowings]

Dusty:

We need to plan a ride up to see NIck! 

[nick949]

Dusty:

We need to plan a ride up to see NIck! 

The small Ontario Guzzi Rally is usually around the 24th August in Lavigne, near North Bay.........
 

......but I have room too....

[oldbike54]

Dusty:

We need to plan a ride up to see NIck! 

 Oh man , I would need a month 

 Dusty

[twowings]

Ok, I'll give you 1 month...no more...

[Kiwi_Roy]

While riding my Griso on the Dempster I discovered it would track much better in thick gravel if you leaned the bike into the curves, it should have been obvious I know but I forgot all I learned riding gravel in NZ

[twowheeladdict]

is a toyota celica a sports car


Did this on my Vulcan Voyager 1700.  I hated hearing the rocks pinging on the metal fenders. 

Tried to take a short cut through a WMA two up.  I did fine, but my buddy slid his Voyager XII into a ditch and he and his wife had to wait 3 hours in total darkness for a tow.

[nick949]

Yep, those big cruisers can be a bit of a handful. Check my third picture. Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe and my son's 81 Honda on our way to the furthest north point you can reach in Quebec (which is on the east side of James Bay near here https://goo.gl/maps/aSU7hdHSzHz)

Nick

[mtiberio]

I'm living in the desert now, and I love graded dirt roads. My Eldorado seems to have the proper combination of narrow tires, big handle bars (for leverage) and relatively "light weight". I actually enjoy it more than my CRF250L. Thinking long and hard about some dual sport tires for it. I see Dunlop makes some flat track replicas, K180s.

[twowheeladdict]

I'm living in the desert now, and I love graded dirt roads. My Eldorado seems to have the proper combination of narrow tires, big handle bars (for leverage) and relatively "light weight". I actually enjoy it more than my CRF250L. Thinking long and hard about some dual sport tires for it. I see Dunlop makes some flat track replicas, K180s.

That tread pattern is what comes on the Suzuki Van Van 200

[tris]

You mean public roads that are just GRAVEL 

They are pretty much non existent on this little island, unless you count the roads that are becoming more gravel than tarmac due to the "austerity cuts" 

[mtiberio]

That tread pattern is what comes on the Suzuki Van Van 200

which must be why they offer a 14" size...

[canuck750]

I don't mind gravel as long as it doesn't turn to mud. My bike is out of the frame but deeper in a sink hole of mud.



I don't like sand, I fell twice on the Baja this winter when the gravel / rock road turned to deep sand and the overloaded KLR decided to take on a mind of its own, too heavy to blip the front wheel up and off I went. luckily sand is soft and only my pride took a bruising!

Western Nevada on the original Pony Express Trail



Dempster highway mud



San Juan Range Colorado

[flat out]

Great topic. Pretty well most side roads and county lines north of where I live are gravel. This is why I got the Stornello.
You could probably cross northern Canada on gravel. Those roads are usually quiet and scenic.
t.

[twowheeladdict]

Found this website.  www.gravelmap.com

I started populating it with all the gravel roads near me, and am going to use it to do my own "gravel" shamrock tour with my base being Centerville, TN.

It was originally created for mountain bikers, but the owner welcomed Dual Sport riders to use it as well.


https://gravelmap.com/#@35.791815668904455,-87.43712341308594,11,hybrid

[JohninVT]

About 50% of all the roads in the US are unpaved.  The single biggest disappointment with my California 1400 is how horrendous it handles gravel.  I'm thinking about buying a cheap Stone and throwing a set of knobbies on it to get back some of the riding I'm missing..