The Ultimate Gravel Survival Guide

foreign it means lots of different things to lots of different people think along the lines of checked shirts Epic Adventures peace tranquility denim shorts Dusty bikes one by group sets long bumpy tracks and super fun and versatile bikes gravel riding is an absolute blast however there are still loads of people out there who are still missing out on all of that fun so I've managed to convince someone to give it a go someone who once said they would never ride gravel and someone who also said they would never ever be in a gcn video [Applause] Chloe my wife hi [Music] that way we can show you guys at home what it is you're missing out on we can also highlight some of the basic steps to get right and also discuss some of the fears which might be holding you back from trying it I'm a bit scared don't worry it'll be all right we got it so Chloe first thing I think we need to do is introduce you to the viewers so this is Chloe the better half of me someone that has to listen to non-stop talk about bikes and Tech now in terms of cycling on the road I would rank you as a pretty solid Road Rider you're absolutely smashing it but in terms of on the gravel how will you rate your experience zero the total beginner but willing to give it a go which is fantastic news because I've signed us up to do the 100 mile gravel ride slash race which is big sugar in America but don't stress about that just yet because we've got like a hundred days to prepare for it we need to focus on the immediate challenge which is riding 25 kilometers or about 15 miles that way to go and get lunch in order to ride gravel you're going to need a gravel bite which thanks to Manon and SRAM you've got you've got your bear Terror SRAM of tricked out with their latest entry-level gravel group set you've got the Apex one by gravel specific hydraulic disc brake electronic shifting access group set with zip 303s Wheels I have no idea what you've just said but it sounds great well that's actually a really good point right because this group set couldn't be simpler to use you've got no front derailleur to worry about and the gears are super intuitive so left hand button to go into an easy gear right hand button to go into a harder gear so before we actually get riding what is it that worries you about a gravel riding everything everything no I think as a road cyclist um you suspended time or everyone tells you to avoid gravel don't break on gravel don't descend on gravel but now it's doing the complete opposite so you want me to ride on gravel break and gravel climb on gravel so as a road Rider I can understand those bits that you're talking about but here on the gravel we've got quite a different bike we're like big chunky tires and a few little different tweaks to help overcome those bits but what are some of the individual aspects are you thinking about I think mainly breaking skidding and or crashing and just riding on like a looser terrain rather than tarmac okay well we're going to get the practice in we're going to do our route and then discuss a lot of that stuff as we go so we can conquer those fears and enjoy gravel Ryan to his best right let's actually get cracking on the bike shall we [Music] let's move so hello first gravel ride is well underway how um how's it going [Music] [Music] yeah it is actually really bumpy this bit this bit particularly so but that is kind of the general Vibe of gravel riding but one of the most important things you've got is Bumpy to get right is your tire pressures right and the tire pressures are confusing to get right but can be easy to do that so um we're gonna stop up here in a second and I think both of us are going to adjust our tire pressures before we get bounced off the bike now your tires are acting as a suspension on our gravel bikes meaning that they're going to improve the comfort and they're also going to give us grip over this loose surface that you're worried about sort of crashing on so on gravel we use these big chunky wide tires which is quite different on the road yeah I'm pretty like big compared to the very tired yeah they are now on the road bike what kind of pressures do you normally put in your tires about 70 PSI yeah so quite High I think most people would probably use say 70 PSI maybe upwards for that so on the gravel bike because we've got this wider Tire you see science tells us that for the tire to feel the same as perhaps it does on the road we need to use a way lower pressure number still so what sort of pressure would I need in my gravel tires that is a good question because it's going to vary for everyone depending on your body's size and shape and the weight of the rider there's lots of charts online where you can put in how wide your tire is you're in body weight and then it's going to give you an indicator of the pressure that you should go for I've used sram's own tire pressure calculator and it recommends about 23 PSI which might sound really low but remember bigger tires need less pressure and it helps smooth out those bumps and give us more grip at the moment you add 35 Plus hopefully a bit smoother that's going to be it's going to revolutionize your bike riding with our tire pressure sorted it was back to the gravel oh tires were so much better like way more comfortable yeah yeah that's good um one of the things I guess I'm still a bit concerned about is skidding when braking so have you got any tips or things that like I should avoid like do's and don'ts I guess you could say um well the principles for breaking on gravel remain the same as what they do on the road apart from what we're doing is we're trying to just regulate our speed a little bit sooner and do everything in a slightly more uh like gradual and gentle process purely because the surface that we're on is looser and therefore we've got a little bit less grip so you feel the things that you're doing like breaking and regulating your speed before you get to the corner so that you're at the correct speed because on a looser surface if you start trying to turn at the same time as braking quite hard that's when you're going to find that your wheels are like losing traction and sliding out from underneath you which is going to result in a crash which we don't want um but other than that I think it's a case of just being gradual and taking time to get used to it okay um now in a minute we've got a little corner coming up so we'll stop and have a look at that and put that maybe into a bit of practice and also it leads into a bit of a climb which we can take a look at so how are you feeling about climbs um I'm not too worried about crimes if anything I'm probably more concerned about going downhill yeah okay um well we'll stop and chat through it and we've got a fair bit of time before we get to that big descent so um well we'll see you when we get there sure right let's do [Music] [Applause] Okay so I thought it'd be a good point to stop here you see because we're about to try and navigate our way up that fairly steep tricky climb which feels like a good point to talk about climbing but also the gears that you're gonna need to use in order to get all the way to the top because it's quite different isn't it yeah so I noticed only one chain ring on the bike of them used to having two and I'd be getting ready to go into the small chain ring if I was on the road bike yeah so is their benefit or a reason why there's only one chain ring on gravel bikes yeah well so the idea behind it is to try and make everything as simple as possible because when you're trying to ride up gravel It's Tricky you know you've got to look out for big rocks look out for loose bits and concentrate on what you're doing and at the same time as that you don't want to be trying to think oh should I adjust the front derailleur now do I use the gears at the back it just makes everything a lot simpler because you've just got to use the left and right levers so that means that you can spend more time focusing in on avoiding the rocks and getting to the top and then in turn that's going to mean you spend more time riding your bike rather than like pushing out the hills okay but does it mean that having one chain ring does that mean I'm gonna run out of Gears whether they're easy or hard gears well no and the reason the answer is no no to that is because the size of the cassette at the back so generally you've got a smaller chainring at the front to compare to say your road bike but that's because the speeds are generally a bit slower than on the road but the reason you don't run out of Gears is because that cassette has got a wide range you've got really big sprockets so that we're good for climbing up hills and stuff like that which you're going to need to use in a minute and then it goes all the way down to the small sprockets that we can use when we're riding along On the flats or the downhills that actual cassette on the new SRAM Apex is an 11 tooth at the bottom so teeny tiny up to a 44 at the top which by like road bike standers and what your road bike looks like is quite a lot bigger so yeah shall we let's do it as long as it's cool and I'm actually getting quite hungry what do you want for lunch sure all right well we've got lots of gravel to decide engaged engage the wide range cassette [Music] how's the gravel situation so far for you yeah so far so good yeah not as scary as I would say I'm thinking it was going to be yeah it's actually really nice to kind of slow down a bit um and like taking the surroundings a bit more yeah off the road I think in traffic it's quieter yeah it's nice sun's out we've got no potholes to avoid no that's one thing on the normally on a on a ride on the road because he's pointing out potholes or rocks it's here it's like it's like it I used to ride over the Rocks yeah it's got a big chunky tires for it yeah we've got lots to change [Music] foreign [Music] just stopped um a little bit short of where this big main descent is halfway around our ride I thought it'd be a good point to stop because I know you're a little bit concerned about it so what is it about I don't know fast or technical descents that you are worried about I guess just know what I meant to do like breaking yeah like body position okay so in terms of breaking well your bike has got disc brakes on it which if people may be not familiar with by using disc brakes it means the rider has to put less Force into the brake lever and you're still getting an effective break down at the wheel it also means that the brakes are going to work sort of Fairly consistently across all different weather conditions and I think disc brakes are a good thing so that's going to mean that you can regulate your speed and resist sort of like the bike building up too much momentum now in terms of body position you've got two options here you generally going to want to ride most descent stood up out of the saddle because I guess you've been doing it seated as well so far yeah um so bringing your body position up out the saddle means you can use your arms and legs as suspension and then shift your body weight further back because we're going to be going downhill you don't want all your weight over the front wheel that's going to help the bike feel a little bit more stable okay so that's good um now it's also a pretty good point because we're at a Crossroads here now Straight Ahead down there down that way is one minute to lunch down that way is about a 15 minute detour to launch so it begs the pretty important question I think you know what's coming there are you going to tackle the Big Technical descent well a little bit challenging or do you want to go the long Safeway I think I give The Descent a go but um I was going to take it steady yeah steady I think that's safe we can um we can take our time we can stop if you want and um well I'll follow you down we'll make sure we're safe plan yeah fears let's do it cool oh [Music] nice and relaxed shoulders keep your arms and elbows loose that's it [Music] look out for those rats use your arms and legs and suspension good job oh I'll take the wrong line we've basically made it we made it how was that um it was okay actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but um my legs did such but they were going to crank off at the end because being out of saddle for so long I think so yeah just like not position them used to and my hands and arms ache a bit just from being on and off the brakes because I was going quite steady yeah it's quite a long descent to do certainly for like um someone's new to gravel and I guess the more well like basically all of the skills we've spoken about the more you practice them the better you're going to get at them and then the more relaxed you'll be and the more natural everything will feel I just starve It Anyway that'd be good let's go get lunch um lunch on you today is it yeah all right cheers well uh our Chloe goes to get some lunch let me tell you some more about this bike [Music] so this is the new group set it's called Apex and it sits at the fourth tier within sram's range it's designed for people who are perhaps newer to the sport maybe entry-level cyclists or perhaps just people who don't want to spend a fortune on their bike setup this version is called the Apex access which means you've got Wireless electronic shifting and there's also a mechanical shift version coming very shortly too as well as yet another option for if you're running a bike setup using a flat handlebar when it comes to the gearing of this bike all of the group sets are one by only so you can wave goodbye to that front derailleur now you've got more options yet when it comes to the rear Gears of the bike this bike is using the explore rear setup which means you've got an 11 to 44 tooth cassette and a rear derailleur to suit this gives a nice balance between the wide range that you got on the cassette and the jumps between the gears suitable for going uphill as well as downhill Hill and then you've got the close ratio between the gears for when you're riding on the flat or say perhaps on the road the other option for the rear gearing is the eagle access and that means you've got an even wider range cassette so it goes from 11 up to a 52 tooth and it has a slightly different derailleur to cope with that wider range of Gears small trade-off to pay here is that the jumps between the gears on the eagle version are going to be even greater so maybe say perhaps not so suited if you plan on riding on the road more often essentially this group set is drawing on all the technology from sram's Top tier stuff but packaged into a slightly more affordable price point around the 1200 pounds marker I'll put exact prices varying currencies up on screens as well right I better see what lunch clothes costs I'm absolutely starving so good lunge Chloe oh fantastic right all we've got to do now is jump on the bikes we've got one more one more gravel sector to go we'll have a little blast along there shall we yeah and um well we'll keep chat let's do it after you oh way we go [Music] okay so Chloe this is pretty much our gravel ride draw into a close I've got to say I think you have done brilliantly throughout the day you've really like progressed and developed and hopefully built your confidence so what would you say to people thinking of giving gravel a go um yeah go for it like you know the start of the day I hadn't ridden on gravel we're now just completed our first Loop it was great fun I'm super pleased to hear that you have proved that regardless of how anyone deems their ability or experience in gravel you can enjoy it okay can I a couple of quick questions actually for you what was the best bit about the ride um I think at the start I was like quite nervous and a bit worried about doing the gravel ride but now I feel you know like I've accomplished it and I'm way more confident which is really nice feeling oh I'm super pleased to hear that yeah what about maybe a bit of the ride that you didn't enjoy so much uh probably the downhill it was my least favorite but I still did it but yeah I wouldn't be rushing back again that good well there you go if you want to see our progress and our preparations as we build our way towards Big Sugar I guess and subscribe to gcn and also I just want to say big thanks to SRAM for tricking your bike out with the latest Apex group set Khloe do you have anything else to add don't forget to like and comment what should people comment though what they're you know if they're going to get into gravel like how their Adventure was oh yeah and don't be mean to us you said you don't want anyone to be me yeah right okay rabbit see you later

Channel: Global Cycling Network

Views: 125,073

Keywords: beginner, gravel, gravel riding, gravel bike, gravel tyres, gravel cycling, tyre pressure, bike tyres, bike tyre pressure, how to, newbie, gravel newbie, new to gravel, how to gravel, wife, wife and husband, husband and wife, roadie, gravel fears, scared of gravel, road to gravel, GCN, Global Cycling Network, Sports, Cycling, Bike, Bikes, Bicycle (Product Category), Road Bike, Road Cycling, Cyclist, GCN Cycling, sec-feature, gc21s, ꗧ, ꤬, r1, ꗶ, Ղ, n1, ሙ, ସ, ଙ, 𐒎, 𖭤, ዩ, Ꮽ, Ա, Լ, Ծ, Ձ, ፕ15, ಓ, 5149

Id: y8UcY-woD0s

Length: 20min 0sec (1200 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023