John Tolhurst
Zen MBB Master
The guys in our local hpv group like touring. They are preparing their bikes for a few weeks up north of western australia, so in preparation a local tough course was chosen as a shake down. I rode with the group for a short section, I chose an unmodified sofrider. While the others had quite a load up, I had merely a spare tube and some sunscreen.
The test course is displayed here (check http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Keating-Road-touring-test-route and choose 'Show-Elevation Graph'. Note that the climb is 3% average grade, with some sections looking like about 4 times that,judging by the map.
The road surface is notorious, with the European Rally Championship tour drives expressing relief when the Western Australia stages were taken off the agenda. For even the worlds best drives, the pea sized round marbles is tricky. We have some of it in the garden, its like this, but with sized ranging up to half inch diameter.
Absolutely loved the ride!!!!!!! I let the tires down to about 30 psi and the bike handled like a dream. The uphills were tough. To counteract wheelspin I moved forward in the seat as far as I could, meaning I went 1.5" further out on the adjsutment. I made sure I kept a steady cadence and was able to climb in first gear pretty well. I had to stay on the harder surfaces, avoiding the gravel humps. Twice I needed to dismount and walk, but I was going little more than walking pace anyway. The flats and downhills were exhilarating, havn't had so much fun in ages, whoo-hoo. :mrgreen: The tires just floated perfectly across the gravel, allowing me to choose the lines I wanted. Some steep decents were tricky. I remember thinking: "gee, better be careful here, if I come off its probably going to hurt, sliding down across that gully (eyes check gully for an instant)" The steepest had me adjusting the rear brake the whole time to keep it from locking, and looking for more and more from the front. But never a wrong foot. Oh, maybe once, I took both feet off and did a bit of slide here and there to keep balanced, legs swing side to side to get the bike in the line I needed.
maximum downhill speed over the gravel, don't know, probably high 20s mph, high 30s kph. When you consider the surface, that is fast, even if I do say so myself.
Most caution needed is in the steep and curving decents. Make sure you learn what braking is available to you, don't leave it too late, because you only have so much lean on this stuff and no more.
Handling limits are easy to discern, if you are braking, rear will lock first then you manage it from there. If you are cornering and braking, you will need to load the front up, but with the forward weight transfer from braking downhill, that is possible. It will take a good load before starting to move sideways on the gravel. Sideways movement is gradual - you will need to back off either the lean or the brakes - time to look for a new line through the corner eh? There are options, let the bike go across a corrugation or even a bit of a washout if you need to. Better option though is to take it a little slower once you feel the limits.
OK, so maybe next time I will take it a little more easy. Nah, just bring gloves. Wouldn't want to cut my hands up in a spill!!! :twisted:
So how did it compare to the others? On the uphills I rode with a home made LWB with fairing and wide tires. This bike might be mentioned in previous posts. He had a full load on, tent, water, etc. We gained a lot of time on the uphills, didn't see the others till we had stopped for some time. Then on the downhills, the LWB with it 20" front wheel and suboptimal weight distribution was disadvantaged. Quite a lot. Very easily the sofrider just rode away, gave huge confidence and was outragiously surefooted. Now I think I know what Moose has been on about. :shock:
If you want some big fun on your sofrider or freerider, take to the gravel paths and enjoy what 50-50 weight distribution and two big wheels can do for you. Make sure you go with someone else, just so you know. For the loose stuff, remember to deflate the tires, that extra contact area to work with is gold, it transforms the ride. If you don't do that, the bike overly responds to every surface message, so you are reacting also to keep things on track. This is not relaxing. So make sure you adjust your tires to suit the terrain.
The test course is displayed here (check http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Keating-Road-touring-test-route and choose 'Show-Elevation Graph'. Note that the climb is 3% average grade, with some sections looking like about 4 times that,judging by the map.
The road surface is notorious, with the European Rally Championship tour drives expressing relief when the Western Australia stages were taken off the agenda. For even the worlds best drives, the pea sized round marbles is tricky. We have some of it in the garden, its like this, but with sized ranging up to half inch diameter.
Absolutely loved the ride!!!!!!! I let the tires down to about 30 psi and the bike handled like a dream. The uphills were tough. To counteract wheelspin I moved forward in the seat as far as I could, meaning I went 1.5" further out on the adjsutment. I made sure I kept a steady cadence and was able to climb in first gear pretty well. I had to stay on the harder surfaces, avoiding the gravel humps. Twice I needed to dismount and walk, but I was going little more than walking pace anyway. The flats and downhills were exhilarating, havn't had so much fun in ages, whoo-hoo. :mrgreen: The tires just floated perfectly across the gravel, allowing me to choose the lines I wanted. Some steep decents were tricky. I remember thinking: "gee, better be careful here, if I come off its probably going to hurt, sliding down across that gully (eyes check gully for an instant)" The steepest had me adjusting the rear brake the whole time to keep it from locking, and looking for more and more from the front. But never a wrong foot. Oh, maybe once, I took both feet off and did a bit of slide here and there to keep balanced, legs swing side to side to get the bike in the line I needed.
maximum downhill speed over the gravel, don't know, probably high 20s mph, high 30s kph. When you consider the surface, that is fast, even if I do say so myself. Most caution needed is in the steep and curving decents. Make sure you learn what braking is available to you, don't leave it too late, because you only have so much lean on this stuff and no more.
Handling limits are easy to discern, if you are braking, rear will lock first then you manage it from there. If you are cornering and braking, you will need to load the front up, but with the forward weight transfer from braking downhill, that is possible. It will take a good load before starting to move sideways on the gravel. Sideways movement is gradual - you will need to back off either the lean or the brakes - time to look for a new line through the corner eh?
There are options, let the bike go across a corrugation or even a bit of a washout if you need to. Better option though is to take it a little slower once you feel the limits. OK, so maybe next time I will take it a little more easy. Nah, just bring gloves. Wouldn't want to cut my hands up in a spill!!! :twisted:
So how did it compare to the others? On the uphills I rode with a home made LWB with fairing and wide tires. This bike might be mentioned in previous posts. He had a full load on, tent, water, etc. We gained a lot of time on the uphills, didn't see the others till we had stopped for some time. Then on the downhills, the LWB with it 20" front wheel and suboptimal weight distribution was disadvantaged. Quite a lot. Very easily the sofrider just rode away, gave huge confidence and was outragiously surefooted. Now I think I know what Moose has been on about. :shock:
If you want some big fun on your sofrider or freerider, take to the gravel paths and enjoy what 50-50 weight distribution and two big wheels can do for you. Make sure you go with someone else, just so you know. For the loose stuff, remember to deflate the tires, that extra contact area to work with is gold, it transforms the ride. If you don't do that, the bike overly responds to every surface message, so you are reacting also to keep things on track. This is not relaxing. So make sure you adjust your tires to suit the terrain.
