It's supposed to bea nice weekend, finally.
Problem is, I have to go to the "cabin" for a bit of maintenance. One day trip.
I would love to take the bike ( 1200 Custom) as it is a great drive in the car ( about 40 miles, take a ferry across an ocean pass, then about another 40 miles on the other side.
Problem, last 5 miles are hard packed dirt/gravel road.
I know the bike will be fine, but do I subject it to the dust & crap that will get kicked up???
On the way home, there is a car wash, I can stop & spray the crud off before I get back to civilization.
I've kept her pretty clean so far, never been on a road like this with it.

If I don't take the bike, I may not get any riding time in this weekend. First real nice w/e of the year.

SO, Do I take it or the cage??? ( ps , I save about $100 bucks in Ferry charges if I take the bike)

 

Take it....and don't hose it off. You may get water in your electrical and it can be a PITA. Just clean it when you get home.

And be CAUTIOUS on gravel. Don't be afraid of it, just pay attention.

 

x2 you bought it to ride it right? It won't stay perfect forever, plus you'll save a hundred bucks. It's a no brainer to me.

 

+1 When I go to the other side of the state to visit my bro I have a few miles of the same stuff just before his house. I go slow & pay attention. The only thing I worry about are those farm trucks who are used to flying down the middle of the road at warp speed.

 

Lol...if you could see mine in person, you'd understand why I can count on one hand with room to spare the number of CHROME parts I have....and why everything is rattlecanned black and painted with rubberized coating. My whitewalls are actually off-white walls, and even though the entire motor is clean enough to eat off of, I can assure you that at any given time most of the other surfaces are NOT.

I love it too, it looks and feels ridden. Can't beat that feeling.

 

a piece of advice:
lay off the front brake in gravel. the wheel can lock/skid very easily on a loose surface.

 

i took my road bike, the one in my sig, off onto loose dirt bicycle trails at the sante fe dam in irwindale, CA on my lunch break once. it did fine and i didnt lose it. but you have to have some dirt or offroad experience to control smooth tread in that kind of surface.

you should be fine, go easy on the brakes and keep upright as much as possible, slow in the turns, you want a lot of contact for that loose surface. dont slam on any of the brakes or you will go down.

watch out for rocks getting stuck in the belt. you dont have a chain so you dont have to worry about lubing it. dirt mixed with oil and grease in a chain turns into a lapping compound and you can consider your chain toast after that.

when you clean your bike, do it entirely by hand. maybe you have seen the dozen or so posts here about people who hosed their bikes and now have a bunch of electrical problems, obviously the bike isnt waterproof.

 

......your the one that has to ride......I don't know your abilities........

.....why don't ya flip a coin??................and how can we really answer that question????????..............maybe even eni-meni-myni-mo??................B.

 

Ride the bike, use a small part of the $100 saved to get some cleaning supplies and just give her a good detailing when you get back.
As far as the gravel, just ride as fast as you are comfortable with.
Sounds like a great ride!

hmmmm...gotta get me some of that rubberized coating.

 

I ride lots of dirt road. As long as it is well packed and not too many potholes, its not a problem; I don't find that much if any crud gets kicked up on the bike.

The only time its really bad is when the road crew has just done grading and the surface is loose. And the XL suspension isn't good on potholes. And rain/wet dirt is bad.

As long as it isn't raining, I"d say go for it, just go slow and easy.