New to gravel bike this year. I mostly ride fire roads and quad trails in S Alberta. One of my usual routes has been really torn up by quads a of late and I find myself spinning out on the climbs. Any tips? I try to pick the most packed line but not always possible.
by lolanr
15 Comments
Pretty sure this particular gravel is too brutal to ride
If there’s room for it, dropping your tire pressure a bit would help. Otherwise, it’s also possible you’re leaning too far forward. You don’t want to flip over backward obviously, but the wheel does need weight on it to maintain traction.
If neither of those, grippier or wider tire
Drop pressures, maybe choose some more aggressive tyres and stay seated on the climb to keep your rear wheel weighted.
I ride backroads in near northern Ontario, and some the connector trails (atv/snowmobile) are like this
This is loose stone, not so much gravel. I just slow down and take my time (and try to find a direct line like you commented on), and walk it if it gets real sketchy (especially on climbs). I ride on 40mm tires that are designed for hardpack (which is 95% of of rides, this stuff only make ups a few KMs on say a 70 / 80 km ride, and walking a KM or so is good variation, or so I tell myself). If it makes up more of your regular rides then you might want to consider a wider tire, on 50mm I be more confident for sure
Better tires, bigger tires
Stay seated and keep your pedaling as smooth as possible. Changes in torque will break your traction.
What is the gradient, to put the image in perspective?
Lots of good advice in here but are you taking good lines on this kind of stuff? If that was me I’d be sticking hard to the right on this trying to ride that line, not heading down into that deep chunk
Cyclocross it and go for a jog.
Basically you want to keep your ass/weight over the backwheel as much as possible, spinning might feel easier but it might not be allowing your tires to dig into the ground as much so you spin out. In this case it may be better to go into a harder gear to be able to put some torque down and spin at a slightly lower and smoother cadence.
To add, pick a wise line. Avoid those little rollers.
Channel your inner mountain biker.
Don’t stand. Pedal as smoothly as you can in a gear you won’t need to change. Also keep your weight back as far as you can while still remaining seated, but smooth and steady power is really the key here.
Surprised nobody has mentioned a lower gear ratio. What’s your gearing currently? An easier climbing gear will help you pedal more smoothly to keep your traction.
Stay seated and pull up!
There is a MTB trick for this (not very easy, and a bit counter intuitive): when you’re about to push the pedal down, quickly send your weight backward, in a synchronized fashion.
Mathieu Van der Poel (he comes from MTB) used this trick in a Flander race to climb a wet and slippy cobblestone paved ascent, when all the other racers were struggling.
Even more than stay seated you may need to slide back in the saddle. There is a balance to this because you could also be loosing traction on the front tire as well.