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Looking over the posts for the Dorset Graveldash I thought I might ride the southern section of the route.
Studland to Corfe, down to Kimmeridge up to Bere regis and back to Studland.
Should I ride this on my trusty hardtail with Conti Mountain kings or go all out and ride it on my gravelly CXer with Maxxis mud wrestlers?
Anything to look out for or avoid? Quite alot of road work but also so banging off road descents
Either is fine. Hardtail if you want to give it the beans on the descents, but nothing is particularly technical. Gee won it on a hardtail anyway, if that's a guide to the optimal bike.
Look out for stunning scenery, scorching sun, probably an ice-cream van somwhere. The final descent from the cliffs back to Swanage would be a bit hairy on a cx bike. (I can't remember the name of this descent).
Couple of corking descents, but i rode it all on rigid Salsa Fargo and enjoyed. Beautiful scenery and great event
Done it both CX and fatbike - scared the bejesus out of the CX'ers by simply letting-go on the descents on my fatbike. Some of the descents can be a bit 'choppy' in places, so really down to the rider but even one of the local riders broken their leg on the descent into Swanage this year.
Have ridden some of it on the MTB. Those big whalebacks are a hoot. Just thinking about the back section which is quite roady
dovebiker - Member
Done it both CX and fatbike - scared the bejesus out of the CX'ers by simply letting-go on the descents on my fatbike. Some of the descents can be a bit 'choppy' in places, so really down to the rider but even one of the local riders broken their leg on the descent into Swanage this year.
That was Charlie the Bikemongers head mechanic, so he should of known better!!
..didn't want to name names to protect the afflicted 😉
It'll be fine on a cx, you just have to be a bit careful in a couple of places. Last year herself rode the 50/50 on a RLT9 with 35mm xplor tyres and it was fine and I rode it on a Trek Portland with 33mm PDX - which was also ok, although it really showed up the handling issues of the Portland.
This year I rode the 50/50 on a Fargo with Teravail Sparwood tyres and it was fine, again a couple of places were taken a bit easy, but the rest was ok.