I was out riding a nice 50 miler and about 20ish miles in came across a road work ahead sign. Mind you I was in a rural agricultural area. About 3 miles later I came across a half freshly graded road. Which obviously turned the road into a soft sugary super undesirable surface. By the time I went out hit the loop and was headed back the entire 10 mile section of road had been graded. Totally sucked, there was a few hundred feet that was completely unrideable and I had to walk it. In all my miles I have never run into this before. Anyone else ever have this issue?
Grader turned a nice compacted segment into a 10 mile sufferfest
byu/Fl_moto ingravelcycling
by Fl_moto
7 Comments
Yeah, freshly graded roads are terrible to ride. Our county does a really great job of keeping the gravel roads in great driving condition, which makes biking them horrendous a few times a year. I’d rather have the washboard than ride the day it was graded.
That’s the Zamboni.
Been there, done that. It’s unfortunately the price to pay for nice roads most of the time. When I see they’re regrading, I just turn around and accept my losses. The road will be great again in a few days.
I live in N Vermont. My area just got slammed with the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. Lots of roads just got washed out. I am expecting to be dealing with lots of freshly grated roads. Granted I doubt I will be dealing with any stretches as long as what you have. Ours are very hilly. Going uphill on a freshly grated road is rough.
So after grading everyone seems to drive in the middle of the road unless they encounter another vehicle. Some vehicles get pissed off at us for not riding on the edge of the road. They don’t realize (or care) that we sink in the unpacked freshly grated road.
Yes. Life in the country. It’s even more fun after it rains and the ATVs have at it! 😳
Gravel groomers!!
A few weeks ago I was riding my favourite loop from home and the grader went past in the opposite direction, and the road was randomly very nice to ride just after being graded which was a surprise.