I just found this on the lethbridgeroadcrew.com forums, and thought I should pass it on.

http://www.openroadjourney.com/articles/110_2.asp :pepper:

Good article. Something many beginners should memorize, and practice.

Good post hoss, i ride some gravel roads and that article is spot on

I grew up in a little country hamlet, riding my bicycle on gravel roads, and learning to drive on them. If you are riding on a freshly gravelled or graded road without any hard packed shallows to ride in, picking up the speed by 10 or 15 mph will often get you on top of the gravel where it is easier to steer and control the bike. Riding too slow leaves you plowing through the gravel, with very heavy steering.

I've seen this article before. One of the members on another forum is going to Pikes Peak in a few weeks and this subject came up. It's good reading.

I had the pleasure of riding through about 5 miles of construction and the road was mostly gravel and a lot of stop and go. Also to keep the dust down they sprayed water on it and this made it slick in spots. I do the same things as this site says but I also leave the bike in a higher gear, more or less lugging it through the loose stuff but still keeping up speed. These bikes are so torquy that it is pretty easy to spin the tire on gravel in a lower gear. I wouldn't suggest a rooky to try lugging unless they knew just how to do it without stalling though.

I grew up in a little country hamlet, riding my bicycle on gravel roads, and learning to drive on them. If you are riding on a freshly gravelled or graded road without any hard packed shallows to ride in, picking up the speed by 10 or 15 mph will often get you on top of the gravel where it is easier to steer and control the bike. Riding too slow leaves you plowing through the gravel, with very heavy steering.

That's really interesting, makes perfect sense too. Never in a million years would I have thought of that.

I was taking the country back roads near my work one day and made a random right onto the worst road on Earth. It was paved with old chewed up asphalt and was completely covered in a thin layer of gravel. Unfortunately there wasn't enough to get up on like you suggest Hoss. I took it real slow, still felt the back tire slide out a couple times on turns but then grab and right itself again. I have no idea how I didn't go down or get thrown off. I remember my arms being sore as hell from holding on for dear life though. I don't know how they allow the road to be like that, its hazardous for a car. I've avoided it since but drove past it the other day, its still like that.

Thanks for this heads up Hoss, its a great tip. It would probably work for loose dry dirt too I imagine.

Letting a bit of air out of your tires can help. When I was riding out by Radium last month, I ran my air pressure at 28 psi (normally 36 psi). If your front end starts to bog down, give it some throttle.