Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnon
The key word here, in my opinion, is 'unstable'.
You don't need to stand up on gravel roads unless you are racing where the surface should be considered unstable for the speed at which you are riding.
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Maybe not just racing? My back wheel spun up on the Leeds ring road just now. Probably a combination of a low quality repair to the fully sealed road surface and oil or diesel leaked from a poorly maintained vehicle. Was I going to fast? Certainly or it wouldn't have spun up. Could I do slower? Not unless I want to replace the three pointed star on the front of some 40 tonner.
There are I think times when you can trade the energy of getting on the pegs and making some progress against advantages such as not having logging trucks passing you. There are other times when 8 hours at 25 mph sitting down is going to work out better than 4 riding like a nutter followed by a long rest to get over it.
I think the trick is knowing when to stand and for somewhere like Australia it could be critical to save the time on the pegs for sand and not waste it on gravel. Personally I probably do stand when I don't need to, but for the short (relative) distances (2 hours tops) it probably only makes a slightly positive contribution.
Andy
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