and if you do how do you make it comfortable?
i would like to ride my road bike (planet x spitfire rim brake) from Devizes to Bristol and back and the kennet and avon towpath is the perfect route EXCEPT it is just like the Paris Roubaix all the way to bath. when i tried doing it on my road bike i got absolutely battered due to the towpath. the roads to bath from Devizes are very busy during the day and my mountain bike is just too slow and overkill for the towpath.
the last time i had the tires that came on the bike 25.5mm panaracer's i think they were and i got a tiny hole in the rear due to the towpath bigger than a puncture hole so had to bin the tires. now though i have conti gator skinz 28mm tires. am hoping that might add a bit more comfort as well as puncture proofing.
i know some will say get a gravel bike but i don't have the cash to get one at present due to paying off upgrades on my chisel fs. i also love my spitfire.
just interested in any advice tbh (apart from mtfu etc as that's an obvious given answer ;-p
I commuted for years on rough paths like this on a drop bar bike. 32mm tyres, speed to float over stuff, stay loose and let the bike move under you over the worst stuff, and a healthy dose of MTFU
I do fairly regularly but only a short distance between two neighborhoods as the gravel option avoids a major road. It does, however, include a 15% ascent/descent depending which way I'm going. There's a few rough ish sections but a slightly cleaner line, so I make sure to keep to the cleanser line.
I haven't done anything specific to the bike though, except I have slightly wider tyres (26mm rather than 23mm) than stock but I'd go wider tyres anyway...
Widest tyres you can fit in the frame is the short answer.
I've a steel road bike with generous clearance and I can fit 32mm tyres. I regularly ride 5 miles along the canal into Manchester, which is bumpy with regular cobbled sections.
It's not as comfortable as my gravel bike with 40mm tyres, but it makes a tangible difference from when I had narrower tyres on it
Nbt has the right technique, but I'd add be on the drops with bent elbows. You're riding a long way in a fairly aggressive manner though, not relaxing. Big tyres for sure, but that's maybe impossible on a rim brake bike.
Do you have a mate who could lend you a fat tyre gravel bike or a hard tail MTB? I've done some big canal based rides, and definitely wouldn't fancy a full day of road bike at it.
Nbt has the right technique, but I'd add be on the drops with bent elbows. You're riding a long way in a fairly aggressive manner though, not relaxing.
Biggest tyres you can fit is the obvious answer, but this is the right answer.
I used to live in Trondheim in Norway which has a huge number of unsealed roads so pretty much any decent road ride was going to involve significant off road sections which I did with 25mm tyres front and rear.
Look up Jim Martin and his 'floppy elbow' pedaling technique where you engage your core so you are holding yourself up with your hip muscles rather than your hands. It helps engage the glutes and hamstrings when pedaling but it also makes it easier to take weight off the saddle (without standing up completely) so the bike is moving under you rather than jarring you up and down.
Get a Red shift stem and suspension seat post. The technique above will be great, but the suspension bits will take out the vibration which kills you over time.
and if you do how do you make it comfortable?
Widest tyres possible and also, speed is your friend, the bike will (in theory!) "float" over the surface a bit more rather than slamming into every dip and bump. Push a big gear and maintain momentum. It can however be exhausting if you're not used to that sort of tempo.
I've ridden "off-road" in terms of things like Belgian cobbles, gravel roads in Spain and Italy. There's a definite technique to it although you'll usually work this out for yourself within a few minutes.
The bike will be fine, road bikes can go through far worse than a bit of towpath.
28c gatorskins will be fine. In the early 2000s the pros were winning Paris Roubaix on narrower tubs. Degenkolb won 2015 on 28c Vittoria tubs. As already said, you wont be racing, relax the arms and shoulders and lower the pressure to about 4.5 bar. For a quick win, flip your stem (if it is not already) to put you in a more upright position to help with weight distribution and shoulder relaxation.
Oh, and ride in the dry if you can. Gatorskins are not great on wet surfaces. That robustness comes at the cost of grip. I no longer use them, preferring GP5000s for all riding.
Biggest tyres you can fit. I ride towpaths on my road bikes with 30 or 32mm tyres.
Yes, but no.
I rode my old Cannondale on the odd section but it's slow going picking your line around every little pothole and pebble. That was with 25-27mm tyres.
I ride my new Colibri-Ti (which essentially has 32mm gravel tyres and still masses of clearance) without much care.
The difference between ~27mm and 32mm is massive.
It'd still not say it was comfortable enough to want to do a full day of it, but it's fine enough for a few miles if you need to take a bike-path diversion to avoid some horrible roads. Occasionally an Audax will include old railway lines etc to avoid main roads and it's a nice challenge, but again you just end up constantly having to slow down for either obstacles that would make a mess of your wheels or tyres, or muddy/sketchy sections that you'd not even blink for on an MTB.
In your scenario, I'd take the MTB. It'll be more comfortable and you'll probably be just as fast on the un-tarmacked sections even if they are smooth-ish.
I used to live in Trondheim in Norway which has a huge number of unsealed roads so pretty much any decent road ride was going to involve significant off road sections which I did with 25mm tyres front and rear.I'm in the same boat, lots of unsealed roads round here. Started on 23s when i moved over, haven't had any issues except some tyres not lasting as long. Now running bigger tyres with no issues. Couple of bikes on 25 max as well...
Have also raced cobbles/white roads on 23 and 25mm tubs.
Bigger is better, but smaller isn't *that* bad if you're on top of pressures and technique.
Fast and loose.
Ridden touring bikes off road since the 80s till gravel bikes turned up. Mainly an Elswick Stag and a Dawes Horizon.
My tips are take anything off that rattles - mudguards etc. Widest tyres are not always the best as you compromise clearance - I found 28 to be good compromise, around 60 psi. Adjust the brakes so you can feather them easily whilst riding on the hoods and be very light on the pedals and steering inputs. Unweight the bike as much as possible, kind of bounce the bike with bent legs over the roughest bits whilst keeping up the speed without losing control.
I have ridden off road (singletrack and gravel fire roads) for most of the last 25 years on track bikes with 25c tyres (a lot of that time with Marathon plus, so not just using a narrow tyre but the most uncomfortable narrow tyre)
Yes, it can be uncomfortable but my rides are never more than 90 minutes and not all off road so I have just put up with it. I am now riding a fixed gear with a frame that takes 40c tyres so am using some 40c gravel tyres and have to admit that yes I was an idiot riding it on 25c...
With the money that you might spend on upgrading tyres, changing stems and seatposts etc, just buy a used gravel bike from Facebook Marketplace and sell it again afterwards.
There are some basic ones within 25 miles if Devizes for less than £300, or £400 - 550 gets you something from Ribble, Orange, Giant etc
My road bike will take a max 28mm tyre and that’s pushing it . IMO a 28 works on canal tow paths but you need to be looking where your going and avoiding everything bigger than about 1” or bunny hopping
Wider tyres is the only thing that makes a real difference
id want 32mm minimum to get to the point of not worrying about every stone in front of me
Yep I use 32mm Gravelking Slicks on my road bike at 50-60psi depending on whether I've remembered to pump them up recently and it happily deals with fire roads and offroad sections as long as it's dry-ish with a good amount of comfort and not being too precious about line choice (within reason).
However I don't ride towpaths or urban 'trails' so it depends on the specific terrain you're on. Lots of square-edged bricks etc. poking out the ground would make it a lot less pleasant compared to a general bridleway/fire road surface.
Used to ride my Langster on towpaths a bit, it was quite fun to be on the "wrong" bike, but I stopped when I started getting punctures and got annoyed with it. Still sometimes take a shortcut home on my road bike round the country park which is fine, it's pretty smooth gravel and probably in better nick than some of the roads round here! Bigger tyres and lower pressures makes the biggest difference.
I don't think you can do much - the 25 to 32mm tyre range just doesn't make enough difference. A shock stem might help. There's a BBB version at ~£60 about that might be worth trying, though it's 2x the weight of the USE stem. The bike will still be all over the place though.
I used to do an annual 'in honour of Paris-Roubaix' ride each April where I'd ride ~100 miles with a few sections of towpath, Ridgeway (if dry) and other bits of Byway. 25mm tyres, rim brake steel frame road bike. There is just no way to make it not-awful apart from slowing right down or going really fast which is risky. Riding a road bike on cobbles in N France is the same, the faster you go the more bearable it is from a bumps and vibration POV but then the problem is staying in that state, it's incredibly hard to hold the speed needed. I rode some sections on a lightly-loaded bike and 42mm tyres once which should have damped it all down a bit but nope. Still brutal.
Drop down the a 23c and ride faster.
Imagine the satisfaction.
Personally I wouldn't bother with the bit between devizes and boa on road tyres, 28, 32, whatever. Just go on the road, there are a couple of nice quiet routes.
The bit between boa and bath is ok, then obviously the bit between bath and Bristol is fine. Insanely boring though.
Stick narrower, faster tyres on your mtb and use that?
thank you for all the replies and advice.
i actually have just come back from doing the ride on my chisel fs in the end.
it was the slowest 73 miles in history (i wasn't fit enough to do the distance if truth be told).
BUT
i saw 3 muntjac deer, a roe deer, 3 red kites and numerous canal wildlife including 4 herons and a moorhen couple with beautiful little chicks (2 i think).
also there was a marathon going on when i got to bristol so good luck to all the runners who were doing that (i cannot run to the end of the street never mind 26.2 miles lol).
Well that sounds like a win!
I do find it funny how we “cyclists” will so often endless optimise (or want to optimise) their bikes for the intended purpose but other people will just ride any old bike for anything, often with under-inflated tyres and an unlubed rusty drivetrain - still miles better than going on foot!
Before 8 got my first gravel bike I used to ride my giant TCR with 25mm tyres and rim brakes off road. Only on dry towpaths and smooth bridleways though.
Didn't even consider trying to make it comfortable, just used to batter on. I was a lot younger then though
