# Who's riding their road bike on fireroads/gravel?



## mtb_roadie

Anybody using their regular road bikes on fireroads/gravel? Pluses/minuses? My bike has room for 28mm maybe even slightly larger tires. Looking to do some mixed terrain riding in Marin -headlands, Tam, etc.


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## Marc

I suspect between being over-geared and tire-size and traction you'll have problems.


Can't vouch for your terrain in your neck of the woods. We have pea-gravel out here and your 28mm tires wouldn't get you out of the parking lot in that; although for rail-trails hard-packed with a dash of chip limestone the setup can work.


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## mtb_roadie

for the roads i'm thinking, gearing would be a bit much but manageable but maybe 28s are too narrow and not plush enough. any reason i would have any concerns about the frame? or is it really more about tires and gearing?


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## Marc

mtb_roadie said:


> for the roads i'm thinking, gearing would be a bit much but manageable but maybe 28s are too narrow and not plush enough. any reason i would have any concerns about the frame? or is it really more about tires and gearing?



The gearing issue is because frequently with steep inclines and loose(r)-pack surfaces you cannot ride out of the saddle and power through climbs like you would on a paved road. Even with 44mm file-treads and 15% country farm roads, I cannot climb out of the saddle. The wheels just spins without the rear wheel having more load.


It comes down to hard parked the surface is, the gradient, and your tire/pressure. From what I hear fire roads (we don't have them out here) are steep although maybe more hardpack/MMR rather than pea gravel or loose dirt.


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## mtb_roadie

Yep, definitely hard pack with some marble over hardpack surfaces. There are some steep roads but I'd avoid those. I guess I'm more curious/concerned as to whether or not its detrimental to my road frame (outside of scratches and dings of course). It seems that if I can handle the gearing and I can fit the right tires, there should be no concerns about the frame. Again, not looking to race, just looking to mix terrain.

Thanks for all the info!


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## Finx

There are a lot of factors.

How heavy are you? How fast do you ride? Do you have a light touch on the bike? Are you prone to pinch flats? How are your bike handling skills in sketchy/loose/muddy conditions?

The fact is, you can make anything work if you are really determined. It's just a matter of how optimal you want your setup based on your specific needs.

In an effort to remove myself from traffic as much as possible, I've been riding a lot more gravel the last two or three years. Where I'm at, some of the fire roads can get sketchy at certain times of the year. I'm a big/heavy rider, and I like to treat myself to a fast bomb run down a decent after a hard climb. After a few dicey experiences last year on steep decents, I decided to treat myself to a frame setup where I can get up to 50mm tires (45'ish with fenders).


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## BCSaltchucker

wife and i have a couple designated 'gravel bikes.' we were running like 32C tires. But the gravel we ride is in old railway beds done in likely limestone gravel/chips. it is very fine and very firm. So I just ride my road bike with 25mm tires on it, she uses her new disc road bike with 28mm tubeless. There are other gravel railstrails and true logging roads that require a full on 2.3" MTB tires though

gearing on my road bike is wide, likely lower than on an typical gravellie


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## Mapei

Last weekend I saw an entire peloton of folks riding the western, unpaved portion of Mulholland Drive on roadbikes. Not a single genuinely fat-tired wheel in the bunch. They were riding 32mm tires at most. Most seemed to be on 25's to 28's. Some even seemed to be on 23's. Full roadbike attire. Happily cruising over sand, rocks and ruts, though not at a particularly high speed.

As for me, I was just walking.


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## Lombard

For shorter rides, you could probably make it work. For longer rides, 28mm tires off-road will be quite jarring on the body IMO.


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## dir-t

I incorporate some dirt roads into my rides sometimes. I'm sure by now I have hundreds of dirt road miles on my Allez with 25mm tires and there's absolutely no problems with the frame etc.

The roads I ride are mostly packed clay that sometimes get resurfaced with gravel, are wash boarded, and can be loose and dusty towards the fall. When there is fresh gravel on them they can be a pain and I try to avoid them because of how hard steering can be. But I certainly wouldn't worry about damaging the bike.


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## Matador-IV

I do at times, if the roads are dry and not a lot of newly dropped lime stone. I ride 25C tires @60psi, but I'm 136lbs. Only my road bike has a Power meter, so I like to gather the data. Cornering is a challenge in the loose stuff.


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## Lombard

dir-t said:


> The roads I ride are mostly packed clay that sometimes get resurfaced with gravel, are wash boarded, and can be loose and dusty towards the fall. When there is fresh gravel on them they can be a pain and I try to avoid them because of how hard steering can be. * But I certainly wouldn't worry about damaging the bike.*


I would not worry about damaging the bike either. It's just not a very pleasant ride with skinny road tires. Maybe it's just my aging body talking. You also need to ride slower. With 38mm gravel tires, you can blast away!


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## duriel

The biggest issue for you is 'are you going to be able to ride the bike on gravel?' 
Depends on your skill set, not the bike.


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## Jay Strongbow

OP, sorry but unless someone rides the same roads any info. you get from other areas is about useless.

I ride a lot of dirt roads and, for example, in parts of Quebec these are really nice roads often better than the paved roads. I think there's clay in the dirt or something like that. I don't but I would have no problem with 23mm race tires. (I use 28mm though)
Just over the border in VT things are quite different and while I can get by with 28mm, 33mm is much better and strongly preferred.

As far as using a 'road bike' goes that also depends. Mine if fine, but an aggressive twitchy crit type geometry bike wouldn't be. You'd get by, but again depending on the road condition, it might not be fun. My old bike was pure fast handling race and riding gravel with that kinda sucked.


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## taodemon

I've done some dirt/fire roads on my venge with 23mm tires. I wouldn't want to do all day rides on them with this setup up but it worked fine for small portions of the ride. On rougher stuff you likely won't be going as fast as you could on something with bigger tires or be as comfortable but it can still work. It really depends on the conditions of the roads you will be on.


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## Bob Ross

mtb_roadie said:


> Anybody using their regular road bikes on fireroads/gravel? Pluses/minuses?


I don't actively seek out fire roads or gravel when I'm out on my road bike...but since I don't have a dedicated "all road" bike or anything other than road bikes, when I do encounter fire roads or gravel I just suck it up and deal with it.

The only "plus" I can think of is that you don't have to turn around and find another route when you encounter gravel.

The biggest "minus" I can think of is that gravel just isn't that fun for me.


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## GearDaddy

My CX bike is just perfect for riding gravel roads. Using 32mm+ tires at 40-50psi allows you to go full bore with confident traction, and that works pretty well on the paved stuff too.

I don't throw away my CX tires that have become worn down the middle, as they are perfect for gravel/pavement mixed riding. You generally don't need much tread down the middle, but having some side-knobs does come in handy in the looser gravel sections.


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## scott967

Not lately, but when I lived in SoCal I would ride gravel and even mtb trails on a road bike w/ 23 tires. But mostly with my touring as I needed the lower gearing on the trails. I eventually bought a second wheelset that I put 27x1-3/8 tires on that I ran at 70 psi and that worked well. My biggest problem wasn't wheels but I could have used some of those CX additional brake levers (this is on canti brakes).

scott s.
.


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## Warpdatframe

If you're riding on nice dirt roads or anything hard packed you'll be fine. The problem comes when you run into loose or muddy conditions. I've ridden some local gravel roads on 25c tires before but it's pretty awful unless you're riding fast and really concentrating.


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## hfc

I ride my road bike with 23c and 25c tires on gravel stretches of 1-3 miles. A lot of hills mostly 5-9% climbs. Frequently not very pleasant on the descents but otherwise no big deal. Usually coarse gravel. There was one time when I actually passed the grader coming off the road as he finished spreading out the new gravel. That ride sucked.


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## Lombard

Bob Ross said:


> The only "plus" I can think of is that you don't have to turn around and find another route when you encounter gravel.


The other big plus is that when you have the choice of a dirt/gravel road with no traffic or a smooth paved road with lots of traffic, the dirt/gravel road would be the more pleasant ride if I have the tires for it.


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## BCSaltchucker

Bob Ross said:


> The biggest "minus" I can think of is that gravel just isn't that fun for me.


this is how I feel about gravel too now. gravel is so noisy and the vibrations are incessant. unlike road or mtn biking


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## duriel

I have been thinking of getting a more gravel type bike to ride on gravel roads possibly. 
I don't like handlebar vibrations or dust. Most of the roads around here are hardpacked gravel, although they may have some rough sections.

So who around here has got a gravel bike and actually rides on gravel for most of the ride? 
Did some get a gravel bike and then go back to road due to noise, dust, & vibration?


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## Lombard

duriel said:


> I have been thinking of getting a more gravel type bike to ride on gravel roads possibly.
> I don't like handlebar vibrations or dust. Most of the roads around here are hardpacked gravel, although they may have some rough sections.
> 
> So who around here has got a gravel bike and actually rides on gravel for most of the ride?
> Did some get a gravel bike and then go back to road due to noise, dust, & vibration?


I'm thinking that doing 50+ unpaved miles on a gravel bike would feel quite harsh after awhile. For that, I would just get out the hardtail mountain bike and just deal with it taking longer.

I got the gravel bike to do rides that are a mix of paved and unpaved. It's nice to have the option of getting out of traffic and riding 10 or so miles on the quiet unpaved sections.


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## Pisgah2000

A road bike can be fine, and very fast, depending on the particular gravel. I've ridden mine with various 26-28s, and it's been fun. Tubeless 28s helped immensely with ride comfort, speed, and obviously not getting flats. Ride quality with something like a 28mm Gatorskin pumped to 80 psi isn't awful, but 60 psi in a tubeless something or other is better. Both are miles better than 100psi in a 25, which was necessary to not pinch flat. This may go without saying, but the tubeless 28 is also nicer on pavement. I was only able to get the rear wheel on my bike to work tubeless though, so yeah. It's not as easy as tubes. If that's out of the question, something like a tubed 28 GP 4 Seasons would probably be very nice.

Overall though, I've found that a 29er hardtail is the winner for me. With the right tires, there's not much difference in speed (if anything, it's faster), and it's very comfortable. I'm not sure if a new slacked-out lazy "XC" bike would feel good, but an older, steeper, longer XC bike is basically a current gravel bike without drop bars. It weighs about the same, too. If there are twists, turns, high speed, and heavy braking involved (meaning it's not a rail trail), the extra grip and braking ability of something with discs and fat, grippy (but not too grippy) tires is a plus. I recently stuck a rigid steel fork on that bike, and it's been great.

Oddly, I've not really liked CX bikes as much as a road or hardtail 29er on gravel. Maybe I just haven't ridden/owned enough of them, or maybe it's that they're decently good at everything, so they're not as exciting. I am toying with the idea of a new disc road bike that can take a 32, like a Domane or Canyon Ultimate for mixed surface rides. I'm not sure why I really need that over one of my current bikes, but it sounds fun.


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## DrSmile

If I'm out on gravel roads, I use the hard tail MTB with 2 inch slicks. It out rolls any knobby tire and beats any road bike tire no matter how wide. Plus if things get a bit bumpy you can unlock the fork. Yes it's heavy but what kind of speed records are you setting on gravel?


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## Fredrico

mtb_roadie said:


> Anybody using their regular road bikes on fireroads/gravel? Pluses/minuses? My bike has room for 28mm maybe even slightly larger tires. Looking to do some mixed terrain riding in Marin -headlands, Tam, etc.


I'd be willing to try it on 28 mm tires with some tread. But I've been lucky enough to live places paved roads went everywhere and on almost all the heavily trafficked roads there were nice paved shoulders or passing lanes. 

Around DC there are still plenty of nice back roads, many laid down in horse and carriage days, and you find interesting historical things along the way. Out west a different story. Although, kudos to TX DOT, the farm to market roads in TX are all easily passable on 25 mm tires. They're chip and seal with a thin layer of asphalt laid over the top. The cars press the tarmac flat when it softens up under the hot summer sun, and after a year the pavements are quite comfortable. You can go anywhere around ETX on these roads and most of the major routes have shoulders by now. I guess ideal setups vary according to where you live.


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## BCSaltchucker

hmm I think I'd want to do proper gravel with a cross bike and 650b 40mm tires, just to try and dampen the buzz


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## Fredrico

BCSaltchucker said:


> hmm I think I'd want to do proper gravel with a cross bike and 650b 40mm tires, just to try and dampen the buzz


For sure, with this roadie. I avoid the section of MUT in Bethesda, MD, because of pea sized gravel, some of it sharp enough to damage side walls if the tire hits it right. Then again, I'm hitting it on 95 psi, so directional stability is definitely challenging. 40mm tires on 650b rims would be much better on this stuff, and could be interchangeable with 700mm wheels.


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## Durt

BCSaltchucker said:


> hmm I think I'd want to do proper gravel with a cross bike and 650b 40mm tires, just to try and dampen the buzz


I had always used 32's and 35's. Just went to WTB Rambler 40's and it's like riding on pillows! Nothing less than 40's for me now on the rocks.


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