Gravel Roads

[DK Custom Products]

The Haul Road, aka The Dalton Highway up thru the Arctic Circle is the fastest, longest, gravel road we've ridden. You can see a lot of photo's at this LINK of that trip.

Actually, we rode quite a bit of gravel going thru the Yukon also...but it was not as fast as the Haul Road.



Kevin

[windsurfed]

The speed on gravel depends how bumpy and windy the road is.

The corner speed is limited but not so bad in comparison to 2 wheels. There the trike is more stable and tends to understeering. If you have the guts, hit it and compensate with a powerslide. This makes also fun in wet hairpins

For the bumps is a midstep useful. With this, you can stand up like on a adventure bike and compensate the hardest hits. Could be also livesaving on pavement. I had this in Scotland, as our tourguide got with 70 mph over 2 inch pavement bumps. The adventure bikes did not noticed the bumps but with the short spring travel on my Tri Glide, sometimes i flew. There the Legend Gear air suspension and the midstep was livesaving.

The Tri Glide can take more than you think. Its a very robust construction.

thanks for the reply. I also have a mid step. Sounds like it could be an added comfortable addition in the gravel. After I posted my first post, I saw other threads about riding on gravel with the TG. Very interesting what everybody has to say and very helpful. One thing for sure going through all this is now I know I can ride gravel roads with the TG. Some say nothing ever happened to them and some say otherwise. But it looks like 85% of the time nothing ever happens. Those are pretty good odds if you were a gambler. It’s just a matter of getting your feet wet and getting used to the water.

[MDF48]

I don't ride on gravel roads at all unless a paved road turns into gravel...then I turn around and go back. However, about 2 years ago after riding about 150 miles on some our good 2 lane roads with rural settings, I evidently picked up a small rock that was big enough to get in the rear basket or possibly in the front sprocket area. When I got back home and did my after ride look over, I happened to notice a groove/gouge about 1/4 inch wide right in the middle of the drive belt and all the way around it. It was about half way through the belt and I never heard anything out of the ordinary. There is always a few pieces of gravel on these roads that come from the side of the road etc and I guess I was the unlucky guy that caught one just right.

I said all of that to say this. The cost a a local HD dealer to replace the belt was $1,440.00. At that time their labor charge was $85.00 per hour. Luckily my State Farm Comprehensive insurance paid for it. Sine then the sight of a gravel road when on my trike gives me chill bumps.

[kingfish108]

I don't ride on gravel roads at all unless a paved road turns into gravel...then I turn around and go back. However, about 2 years ago after riding about 150 miles on some our good 2 lane roads with rural settings, I evidently picked up a small rock that was big enough to get in the rear basket or possibly in the front sprocket area. When I got back home and did my after ride look over, I happened to notice a groove/gouge about 1/4 inch wide right in the middle of the drive belt and all the way around it. It was about half way through the belt and I never heard anything out of the ordinary. There is always a few pieces of gravel on these roads that come from the side of the road etc and I guess I was the unlucky guy that caught one just right.

I said all of that to say this. The cost a a local HD dealer to replace the belt was $1,440.00. At that time their labor charge was $85.00 per hour. Luckily my State Farm Comprehensive insurance paid for it. Sine then the sight of a gravel road when on my trike gives me chill bumps.

Know the feeling. I collected a rock and the belt snapped late on a Friday afternoon. Dealer closed and I was three hours from home. Since a belt had to be ordered, it took two weeks and $1125 to get my trike back. That was two years ago and I just again started riding very short distances on gravel late last year. I will add that if this happens again, I will probably have the trike towed all the way home. The car ride home (with my wife) was painful.

[rhino 2]

Know the feeling. I collected a rock and the belt snapped late on a Friday afternoon. Dealer closed and I was three hours from home. Since a belt had to be ordered, it took two weeks and $1125 to get my trike back. That was two years ago and I just again started riding very short distances on gravel late last year. I will add that if this happens again, I will probably have the trike towed all the way home. The car ride home (with my wife) was painful.

I feel your pain....Been there more than once......

[GARYD]

I had no idea it cost so much to replace a belt. That's ridiculous. I guess I'll just stop riding so much. TIC

[MDF48]

I had no idea it cost so much to replace a belt. That's ridiculous. I guess I'll just stop riding so much. TIC

Hey Gary. Yes it is a lot of labor involved and the whole primary side has to come off. Of course they charge for all new seals, gaskets, fluids etc. and any other things they they replace. The belt alone was $221.14. I am sure they charged me the full "book amount of hours" for the repair since Insurance was paying for it. The final bill was $1,482.91 with tax. The labor charge was 12 hours at 85.00/hour for $1,020.00. They have to make sure the rear end is aligned correctly etc. I am sure a good HD mechanic could do this in 8 hours, but like a lot of places they probably charge the book amount regardless.

[kingfish108]

I had no idea it cost so much to replace a belt. That's ridiculous. I guess I'll just stop riding so much. TIC

It wasn't the cost for me. It was the timing of when it happened and getting towed to a dealer that was closed and did not have a replacement belt or a sense of urgency. Not that any time is a good time to have the drive belt break. Anytime after the dealer closes kind of sucks.

After I got mine back I was somewhat apprehensive about taking long trips. I decided that I needed to ride it or get rid of it. Two years, 24k miles later I have probably just jinxed myself.

[kingfish108]

Hey Gary. Yes it is a lot of labor involved and the whole primary side has to come off. Of course they charge for all new seals, gaskets, fluids etc. and any other things they they replace. The belt alone was $221.14. I am sure they charged me the full "book amount of hours" for the repair since Insurance was paying for it. The final bill was $1,482.91 with tax. The labor charge was 12 hours at 85.00/hour for $1,020.00. They have to make sure the rear end is aligned correctly etc. I am sure a good HD mechanic could do this in 8 hours, but like a lot of places they probably charge the book amount regardless.

I was charged 6.8 hours which completely surprised me since I was expecting 10 to 12 hours for labor. I was somewhat concerned until the technician explained that he had done more than a handful of trike belt replacements.

[k-dog]

looks like someone would come up with a belt that clips together , a least to get you to a repair shop. seems like i remember when belts first came on hd there was something like this.

[rhino 2]

looks like someone would come up with a belt that clips together , a least to get you to a repair shop. seems like i remember when belts first came on hd there was something like this.

Those were made for automobile fan and power steering belts ....I doubt they would make it 100 feet on a Trike......

[Jack Klarich]

looks like someone would come up with a belt that clips together , a least to get you to a repair shop. seems like i remember when belts first came on hd there was something like this.

I don't think HD even sells those repair kits any more, tho you can sometimes find then on E Bay