specifically devizes/or onwards to bath way.

if you do how do you cope with all the roughness of the towpath on your road bike?

my dilemma is that i would love to be able to ride my road bike to bath and bristol and back once i have some fitness again but the last time i rode my road bike on the k & a to bristol i was absolutely beasted by the towpath. at the time i had 25.5 mm jack brown tires (i now have 28 mm continental gatorskinz).

the issue is that the towpath is perfect for cycling to bath avoiding traffic and once on the cycleway etc the road bike is perfect for the trip.

i have my ht mtb also which obviously is no problem on the towpath but slow when it comes to the road/cycleway parts.

i must add that i do not want to sell either of my bikes to get a gravel bike etc (but cannot afford a gravel bike).

it’s just really annoying as i love riding the road bike (obviously my ht too) and i can go faster/further on it, but it’s the towpath section that did us in when i last rode it (last year it was).

i think i know the answer i will get but just wanted to get other peoples views/tips on riding the road bike on the towpath.

thanks in advance and apologies for the strange question.

Have you thought about road/city/commuter/slick tyres and a bigger ring or a 2x/3x on your HT?

On a road bike. I’ve taken my nice springy steel borderline gravel endurance 30mm tyred road bike on the bit between Avoncliff and Bathford a couple of times. In dry periods. Tbh it’s not that great. In or after rain it would be horrid. It’s worse between there and Devizes, apart from the lock flight, which is probably fine.

If I lived in Devizes and wanted to ride a road bike to Bristol I would do a route through the lanes. Especially on the weekend, way too many morons on the canal.

HT or Gravel bike. That’s what you want for that bit of the k&a. With a bell. And mudguards.

You can always thrash your road bike, just pretend it’s Strada Bianca, which is going to be painful.