Just curious to know how many other riders just point they're road bikes off road with gay abandon?
I do it randomly, think Rapha hell of the north, Lion of Leighton and the HONC. I mean apart from pinch flats what's wrong with that. What I'm saying is, tell me you do it a lot and I don't need a gravel bike!
Tight tyre clearance on mine with 25c, I’d lose a load of paint and likely some carbon too. The CX bike gets pressed into Gravel®️ duties
always have done. always ridden a tourer suited for that.
I did it for a few weeks to see if I might enjoy a gravel bike. Turns out I did and now I have one 🙂
I sometimes gingerly ride some bridle ways to link up nice routes or avoid busy roads. I also road the cinder track in whitby at the end of 150 miles because I couldn't face the main road with tired legs in the dark.
My wheels are 32 spokes on dt Swiss dB 411 rims so can take a bit more abuse than your normal road rims with 28mm tyres.
I'm more worried about my tyres than the frame. They are set up tubeless and I always think thty are going to get a hole in them.
Yep, have done so for 20 years (well a track bike rather than a road bike)
Most track frame are limited to tyre width 25c if lucky but for some reason my current Lansgter Pro frame can take 30c tyres and it is great.
The only drawback is that I need to use very tough tyres as a road tyre would pretty much guarantee to puncture every ride where I live.
I have also ridden bikes with 38c and 43c tyres for a few months and found no great advantage so am happy enough on 28c tyres (and even 23s sometimes in summer)
I've done it a couple of times where I've made a route and mistaken a farm track for a single lane country road.....
With 23c tyres on, it's not exactly pleasant & the first time I did it I got a pinch flat. The second time I did it, one of my rear lights bounced off the mount & was never seen again.
So - I keep eyeing up gravel/adventure road bikes on the bike to work scheme. Quite fancy the Boardman ADV8.9 - not sure I'd sneak a fluo orange bike into the garage unnoticed, though. 🙂
If you ride with @molgrips, even if it is a road ride on your finest road bike, you can be guaranteed to hit some gravel sections. 😉
I do it in the summer or if we've had a dry spring. Gravel, hardpack on 25mm tyres no problem. No way in any mud across roots and rocks.
Had, (probably still do) a decent length singletrack KoM on my PlanetX RT57. I rarely get home from a road ride without at least some off-road detour. Great fun on sketchy slicks.
Me.
I pin it* through a potholed farm track thing on my commute.
Was a bit grim on my carbon bike but the steel one has probably had more air time that my mountain bike**.
* For me
** If you add all the tiny little pops up.
I used to everyone once in a while, now have a gravel bike though!
My fixie is pretty much the perfect towpath tool and is damn good on a few disused railways too. Bit crap up to much of a gradient mind you.
Done the tour of the Black Country a few times on my alu roadie with 25mm tyres. Was fine too, no bother as long as you’re careful.
Just curious to know how many other riders just point they’re road bikes off road with gay abandon?
Not so much gay abandon, no. But when I used to do a lot of road riding we had a Club routes that indeed did go "awf road" and we were limited to riding our road bikes and no CX/Gravel bikes allowed. It was fun, TBH it was slower than the hacking we would normally ride at but still huge fun.. Obvs the bikes could fit 25C's but still... I remember BITD where 19C would be good enough.
Lets not forget the early incarnations of Strade Bianche, with I did on my then Orca with aero wheels on.. like a lot of others.. but as time moved on my R5c has glided over the white roads many times.
Anything NCN route signed and the CX'er has come out...
Yep.
I won't go out with the express aim of lots of off road on the road bike, but the odd bit here and there is grand.
I've done it but it's rubbish. That's what MTBs are for.
Yep
Ride on dirt tracks without a second thought, not exactly that rough though...
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Do it a fair bit, Trek Domane with either 32mm slick or 33mm knobbly. Have done the SDW with the 33mm tyres on my carbon Domane. Wasn’t great to be honest. Also done the Ridgeway and a Kinesis UK GravelCross ride, Goldrush I think it was (Salisbury area anyway).
The Goldrush event had some ankle deep rutts for about a mile, that was definitely where I wanted a hardtail. But it was generally bridleway or road. The Domane was fine.
I don't worry about the strength of my road bike frame or components, more the tyre clearance and it just being a bit of a jarring experience.
I used to race cross on 16/18 spoke wheels. I think some people have unrealistic non-expectations of actually how strong bikes are.
I’ve ridden my Merlin off road a bit and done RVV and P-R on 23mm tyres.
Nowadays I go big tyres. 47mm for rough is where it’s at 😉
A few weeks ago in Oz, but with straight abandon 🙂
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It was a case of when your only tool is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. Needless to say there was a fair bit of h-a-b. 🙂
However, being on a road bike has never stopped me venturing up an interesting track. After all, once upon a time all bikes were road bikes and we still rode in the mountains RSF style.
What Kerley says about tyres is right. Get stout ones.
Although the RSF seemed to spend most of their time carrying their bikes rather than riding them...
footflaps
Although the RSF seemed to spend most of their time carrying their bikes rather than riding them…
That's when you take the photos, when you're not on the bike.
I have very few photos of me riding a bike but loads of it leaning against a rock in various scenic spots.
However, I do ride my bike, honest. 🙂