Gravel Cycling
 

Anybody doing it? Did a 56 mile gravel ride in about 4 hours. Had some really tough sections with deep sand. Had a great time and suffered just a bit. Here's a couple finish line photos.

You sir are an animal! :) My cardio doc keeps telling me that that is the only way to bike. Iowa has lots of gravel roads and is not flat, come see me sometime.

That sounds like a special kind of pain.
Are you using the same bike for your cyclocross and criterium racing? Lower the pressure at all for gravel, or swap tires completely?

Any single-speeders riding gravel?

DaveP

Gravel riding rocks. I use my cross bike with 50/34 11/28 and run cross tires at 50F/60R. Good times.

Make your own line
 

Dave P.

No, I use different bikes for crits and gravel. Here's apicture of my Allez sprint for crits. Looking to get some deep wheels for them, but haven't pulled the trigger yet

I had 40mm tires and ran 26 on the front and 32 on the back on gravel ride this weekend. I also have a set of wheels with 28mm road tires on them for doing intervals on the road.

56mi + sand in 4 hours on 40's = studly! My quads are threatening to cramp just thinking about it.

This is why I'm happy I never clicked with bikes; I DO NOT need another habit to tempt my poor impulse control and end up with a 'quiver'.
Skis, fly rods, ice tools, they've been bad enough, but 12-step programs have allowed me to come a long way.
(That Allez sure is pretty though...)

Twistedsquid, how often do you use the extremes on your cassette there in CO? Just asking 'cause some of the local hillers and 'cross folks around here seem to pair a 12-25 with the compact 50-34.

I really should look into 'cross events, as I found MTBing much more engaging than my (several, short-lived each) attempts over the years at road biking.
Thanks to both of you!
DaveP