While our new townhouse is buing built, I am in temporary housing in near the airport in Philadelphia. Right across the street is the John Heinz Widlife Refuge that includes a perimeter trail for walking /running / biking. It it light trail with some areas of a stone path, packed dirt, etc. Nothing too crazy. Is there any reason I couldn’t put 28mm tires on my Felt Z85 road bike and ride it there until the end of October? I’m trying not to push the trigger on a cheap CX bike right now. Riding on the roads in that area is just too unsafe. The 28mm tires will be wide enough, I just worried about the frame being robust enough. Any thoughts?
I used to have a loop that included a very low maintained dirt road in the middle for a couple of miles, my CAAD8 on 25 Conti Duraskins never had a problem. Pot holes, washboards, it was much worse than a semi smooth dirt trail.
You should be good to go. I’ve ridden all my road bikes on a crushed limestone path for years (sometimes for extended miles). Included in my bikes are an aluminum Felt (F75) and Caad10. I never ride tires bigger than 23/25 and use about 95psi for my 165lbs.
Thanks. I have a set of Mavic CXP12 wheels in storage that I use while on the trainer in Winter. They are pretty tough wheels with 32 spokes. I think I’ll put some 28mm tires on them and just make do for now. I appreciate your response.
Thanks everybody. The initial test was a success! 28mm tires on a set of durable 32 spoke wheels. First gravel ride was a lot of fun on my road bike, much more comfortable, and faster!
Last week I took my aero road bike through our local MTB park on the more benign single track (only way to cut through between a couple roads)… you’ll be fine. Careful chosing of where you ride will make it work.