Originally Posted by
msu2001la
This. I am always weaving around riding on both sides of the road looking for the smoothest sections. The gravel roads I ride typically have very little vehicle traffic and you can see/hear them coming from a long ways off, so that isn't much of a factor for me.
Also, an alternate solution: don't ride on washboard roads or trails that are too rough to be fun. I like a challenge as much as the next guy, but I have little interest in rattling my fillings out on washboard roads. If something sucks to ride on and I don't have good confidence that it will be for just a very short stretch, I'm just going to turn around and/or find an alternate route. This is recreational gravel biking, not Paris Roubaix or Dirty Kanza, I don't really need to be torturing myself or trying to prove anything to anyone.
Hi, my name is mstateglfr and I wear earbuds when riding.
You mentioned being able to hear cars approaching, so I figured I would add to that part of the discussion since I also mentioned the obvious downside to picking your line- you potentially block traffic.
I can hear vehicles on pavement, even with ear buds in, so I dont think twice about it. I ride consistent and they pass- easy and solved. WIth the sound of rocks/dirt under the tires, I cant hear vehicles as well on gravel roads. I think it has to do with wind direction too.
Anyways, last week I splurged and bought a Garmin Varia. Its a super cool bit of tech that is well worked thru at this point so my late adopter mindset was at ease. It picks up on vehicles that are 150 yards away and gives both a visual and audio cue which allows me plenty of time to move out of the center of the road. Really neat tech. And the rear light reacts to vehicles by flashing a different pattern when it detects a car, in an effort to help make the cyclist noticed.