Max Turn Speed on Gravel

Let's say the sign for cars suggests 30 mph for the curve.

What's your speed on this?

 

Personally for me it would be around 25 or 30, I get no enjoyment on roads in that condition, best or craziest rider I've ever seen on gravel just happens to be a moderator on this form

 

The VFR/Interceptor is definitely not at home on this stuff. Wiggles.

 

Uh, look for a newly paved road around it?

 

I would walk in stead. No way I would put my bike on that road.

 

Orders

My GPS wants me to do dirt roads, even when they're listed as avoidances. My wife tells me to obey my GPS. I obey my wife...

 

depends on your lean angle .........

 

i would never even consider leaving the tarmac unless it was just to pull off the road...even at slow speeds sticky tires pick up rocks, which in turn, get thrown onto your fairing lowers. VFR's don't belong offroad imo.

 

Lemme see now... I walk at about 3 MPH, so I could probably push the VFR at about 2.5 MPH, except I would be in my gear...

2 MPH, tops.

I have occasionally been 20 or 30 miles into a paved road, and gotten to an area of major repairs that was dirt/gravel for 1 or 2 miles. 10 MPH was about the fastest I would push it. Like NorcalBoy pointed out, the gravel gets flung all over the place. It hasn't happened with the VFR yet, but now that I've opened my big mouth, it will probably happen soon.

 

Are you nuts?

 

Dude,
Find another way!!!!!!!

 

Lean Angle On Gravel

I decided that hanging off the bike at 20 mph had the potential to do more harm than good...

Maybe that's one for Nungboy... If no one is in the woods to see a viffer hanging off his bike at 20 mph on a gravel road, does he still look like an idiot? :biggrin:

 

30Mph seems reasonable, quite often have to navigate long bits of gravel road works or gravel and sandy link to roads like the Bonang where we ride a good hard sandy road then a bad winding gravel road alone an open ridge line before starting 60 miles of the most magical tightly winding twisties possible.

The trick is to build up speed and confidence slowly, keep the bike as upright as possible, gentle on the inputs and not panic about the bike moving around a little, in my case a few years of mountain biking background helped. :wink:

Good hard sandy part winding to the distance:


The bad gravelly bit starting:

 

Tip re stone chips is to use the Silver grey duct tape on your fork legs and leading edges of your fairings belly pan, have also noticed those that have converted their VFR's to USD forks are more hesitent to ride on gravel roads.

 

Me and a buddy got caught on a "secondary" road out in the middle of NV, it went from paved to gravel, back to paved and ended up as a dirt road. It turned out to be a 126 mile long dirt road. I went as high as 70mph through some sweepers and down to about 30mph for the tighter ones. Lots of drifting with both ends. It was fun for the first 20 miles, then we saw rain clouds coming and lots of lightening strikes and we were the only metal around. Then it was a race to beat the weather. Ride as fast as you're comfortable or capable of.

 

The Real Problem

You nailed the issue reg. Trying to stop this puppy from tipping is an invitatition to an automatic broken leg, or worse. I goose it on gravel from a stop, just to remind me of the traction loss of the power you mentioned. We have road works here now and plenty of gravel at intersections, the best place for that stuff of course...

 

My rule on Fairing bikes is 5mph below posted, now naked bikes, & in a more upright position, I'd probably bump it up about 5 over posted.

When in Alaska, it is commen for de-tours down dirt roads around paved way construction repair, & as said, one should alway's carry Duct tape & it works great to protect fairing plastics.

Then if on a SuperMoto or DualSport (which is what should be used on those type of roads), well then it's just the same as street paved postings @ 2 to 3 times the posted speed.


p.s. as for USD forks, plenty of aftermarket ways to protect them, especially since most dirt bikes & SuperMoto's come with USD shocks & have them :wink:

 

Probably worth mentioning to use a quality PVC Duct tape and NOT the adhesive cloth tape which tends leave a hard to remove residue.