Gravel Basics | Riding Skills, Tips & Tricks

In the second instalment of my video series focusing on gravel riding, I look at the basic skills you need to master and explain how to go from road cycling to off-road. With gravel cycling tips for beginners and explanations of what tyre pressure to use, whether to ride on the drops or the hoods plus body positioning, cornering, descending and climbing this video gives you all the motivation you need to get started riding a gravel bike.

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[madisondeans]

Hilarious, with Daves background commentary!

[phillippitts]

Woke up to 6 inches of snow! Riding in the snow is always a blast

[supremeuppercut]

I love that you're perpetually smiling. It's awesome.

[davehoover]

I come from years of mountain biking and now do some gravel riding and bike packing too. All of your points were well presented and pretty much right on the money. You could have been talking entry level MTB! The flat corner is the hardest thing for people to adjust to on loose terrain. It also hurts the worse when they go down. I would urge you to make another video really emphasizing bike/body separation and show a lot of examples of what that looks like. Burma’s are fun, easy and fast, but they don’t have them on gravel roads. Downhill, off camber, loose gravel is a real challenge to ride well! Thanks for the great video!

[TerryMcGearyScotland]

Thanks. WE all knew what you meant. The business of keeping your body vertical and letting the bike incline under you was interesting. I don't have a gravel bike (just a Claud Butler urban hybrid type) but I've used it on some forest trails quite successfully. Extra tip from experience: if you have to put your foot down to stop sideways on an incline always put your uphill foot down. I didn't and rested my foot on rotten wooden edging before falling over sideways on the slope! "Is he alright?" walker shouted to my son, lol! My dignity was not intact! Good video!

[DavidsInsights]

This is my first year in cycling and I love the tips in this video, Juliet! I feel like the cornering section was the most applicable to my current skillset. Not too long ago I feel off my bike and I know there was much more wrong with my approach than the speed. My body was high up, my body was leaning into the turn, and I was using mainly the back brake. My assumption with braking was if there is too much of a front brake I would fly over the bike but I think this would be too hard on gravel. I learned so many things and now I am trading in my Marlin 7 (hardtail) for a Obed Boundary (gravel bike). Oh, and my shoulder now has a slight sprain. CANT WAIT TO RIDE on the new bike!!

[colinmcdonald]

First time viewer. Subscribed immediately.
Great tips for all levels of gravel riders.

[AlisonAdventuring]

Just saw this as getting into gravel.. so helpful thanks!

[j.s.]

My inspiration for exploring gravel riding on my Diverge in Arizona for the last year, and and am in admiration of her style, technique and endless riding adventures. Catch some ZZZs and ready to go tomorrow. 🚵‍♀️

[stephenjones]

Looks like a great day, more to gravel than meets the eye

[justinlynch]

Really good comments, succinctly put. Nice one Juliet!

[lolgrant]

oh and quick tip is to add a pair of CX top bar brake levers which you can pick up for a tenner in E-bay for extra control

[robertgordon]

They say you never forget how to ride a bike. Well it turns out from watching this I never learnt 😂. Looking at buying my first gravel bike so these are great tips. 🙏🏾

[haraldg]

look through the corner is not "another good tip" it's equally important as outside pedal down (or pedals level as in mountainbiking). nice basics gotta bookmark it for further reference for people I convince to try gravelling. for those commenting, they feel uncomfortable changing to the drops when going down: that changes, took me about two years to do it always and there still are short moments where I think uhohno... :) for these moments I will try to hear juliet saying "enjoy it, it's the most fun part"

[elizabethcollins]

Juliet, since finding your channel you have inspired me to continue getting out on my bike through the winter! I invested in cold weather gear for the first time...ever. I also live in a beautiful place, and love riding, so no excuses! If we can ever travel again and you ever get a chance to come to the states, check out Colorado!

[ross-morozov]

Think you, I definitely learned something! 🙏

[sarahstreet-rose]

Thanks, some very useful tips there. Just need to get my confidence descending now as I tend be be heavy on the brakes.

[mikecortes]

Thanks for the video! Long time fan:) I’m a roadie that just built up my first gravel bike and love all the new spots it’s taken me! Definitely a wonderful new way to have a bike adventure!!

[grmusica]

Great vid! Another reason to get used to descending in the drops - if you're like many of us who ride our gravel bike "like a mountain bike" i.e. in some pretty rough stuff, your hands can feel like they'll get bounced off the hoods descending with speed if you hit an unexpected bump. The drops gives you a safer grip in that scenario.

[bbanga]

Great video Juliet. More of these please. I am going to try some of your tips out tomorrow on the trails.