if not that steep try rolling down the hill feet on ground hand on brake with the engine off. start it up when you feel safe. ride back up and try again eventually it should seem easy.

 

Wrong, wrong,,no front brake going slowly down a Gravel drive..feather the foot brake(rear) you're going down hill so coast in neutral.

If you over brake with the front by error the gravel may shift the direction of your front tire,,thus tipping over..

The family house in boone has a horrendous gravel drive and very steep, what I recommended is how I negotiate that steep driveway. Haven't tipped over yet on it.

 

Even the very worst thing that you imagine happening, isn't that bad.
You wanted to ride a motorcycle, this is part of it. Butch up, and ride the damn thing, or sell it and move on.

Oh and, on gravel going down hill, stay off the front brake...

 

I have to agree.. no matter what we tell you, no matter how we try to calm your fears, fear is exactly what it is, and only way you can break through it is just do it already.. or as Gat said, you can just sell the bike and be done with it

 

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie

 

I live on top of a hill on a dead end gravel road. Me and my daughter both ride our bikes up and down the hill with no problems.
NEVER NEVER use your front brake on gravel!
You can do it. It just takes a few times to gain confidence. Stay in the tire tracks. One other key thing is to keep some speed up. If you go too slow, the bike gets squirrely.
Coming up the hill, even with my wife on the back of the bike, I keep my speed between 15 and 20 MPH. Going down hill is easy. Just keep it rolling, use the back brake if you need to.
You can do it. :-D

 

I don't mean to be condescending but when in doubt just walk it down. (which will probably be more difficult than riding it) I don't know how long your driveway is but eventually you'll get tired of walking it and start riding it.

Do as the others have suggested, except perhaps for the front brake. Eventually if you ride enough you're going to encounter gravel. Better to practice on your driveway then plowing through 25 miles of it out in the middle of nowhere.

BTW: When you brought your bike home how did you get it up the driveway? If you rode just reverse the process going down (Okay, now I am being condescending ;-)

---------------------------------

 

Gotta get some positive thoughts going. You can do this thing. Worse thing that can happen is you fall down, I bet I'm not the only one here that has done that. Got a friend that says "You ain't done s@#t till you pick up your brand new Gold Wing from the dealer, ride to the coffee shop (where you hang out and everybody knows you), get off, step away from the bike, and it follows you cause the side stand is still up." Do this thing. Stay safe, have fun.

 

Just pop the clutch in the garage and continue through the gears not letting the front tire touch the ground lol J/k
naw don't grab the front brake in a panic and you'll be OK. If your that nervous about it don't pick your feet up all the way and stick to a low gear.

I got the chance to ride a nice large curb on my first trip. Now i know why trains don't turn so well

 

first time I rode in 20 years was my ss750, 3/4 miles of dirt with dips, washouts, steep hill and if wet it was gumbo clay. Never had a problem

 

Practice, practice, practice......

 

Take it slow and NO FRONT BRAKE.

 

Ok well everyone telling her to just ride down, don't use this brake, use that brake ain't going to help... it's obviously an irrational fear... logic doesn't work and we all have them so no looking down on her.

Any friends that can ride the bike down for you? Watching someone else riding up and down several times might take the irrational thoughts out of your head so you can try it without the panic attack.

 

Not stupid...scared. I assume you're probably fairly new to riding, as I am. I have many parking lots around here (some flat, some with the entrance/exit on a hill) that are gravel or dirt. I know I look like a newbie when I do it, but I just go slow and have my feet down for the "duck walk". Don't care what I look like right now. If I'm not dropping my bike and I'm not being a hazard to myself or anyone else, who cares. My confidence will grow and I'll stop relying on that as I get used to navigating different road types. Yours will too. Get out there and try it. Go at your speed and if you keep your feet down as you do this, oh well. Each time you'll feel more comfortable doing it. Don't listen to naysayers. They don't know nothing! You can do this, if you want to. Tell yourself "I can do this!", repeatedly, while you're doing it if you need to. You've already gotten a lot of advice above. The most important one is practice, practice, practice.

 

Or you could just get the driveway paved. ;-)

 

I'm sorry to hear you have been ill, of course you don't feel confident with a bloody great bike on a loose gravel slope..

Is there any possibility of having the drive concreted or paved..concrete is cheap and most people can do it..maybe a drop of readymix..

John.

 

I would also say no front brake. That and keep the engine on and in 1st in case you need power. Give it a go on a nice dry day and take it slow. If I listened to all the negativity I get about riding (too rainy, too windy, too cold, too blah blah,) I would never ride so just ignore it. Good luck!

 

You can do the duck walk for low-speed stability through the difficult stretch and still use a rear wheel "brake." With the engine off put the bike in first gear and slip the clutch just enough to allow the rear wheel to turn slowly. By modulating the mount of clutch you use you can control the speed of your descent and keep it to a slow walk.

I use the clutch "brake" technique when backing down the ramp of my toy hauler because it allows both my feet on the ground.

There's nothing wrong with being leery of a descending curve on gravel. It's one of the most difficult situations you can encounter.

 

I assume you don't have trouble going up the drive. If that's the case, then try breaking it up into a number of small stretches. Pick a tree or a bush or some marker that's part way down the drive and just ride to that point. Get off the bike, turn it around and ride back up. When you feel confident doing that, pick something a little further down. Just keep doing that until you make it all the way out.

The key is to start doing something. Even if you ride on the grass next to the drive instead of on the gravel, you need to get on the bike and do something. Just thinking about it will never solve the problem.

Happy Trails!
sanoke

 

Even if you ride on the grass next to the drive instead of on the gravel

A warning: Wet grass or several layers of dry or wet leaves on grass can be very slick. I have seen experienced riders just doing a first gear walking turn and still have the bike slide out from under them.

 

Sorry the word drive means something different here..our drives are the little bit that is on our own property, usually about 20 or 30 feet..

If you are talking about a short road I can't think of a way to help...sorry.

John.

 

Watch somebody else do it first. Trust me...

 

:shock: Back down it. That way you're not looking down a hill and you can use your front brake! :lol:
Seriously...put your big girl thong on, get on the bike and ride it down the drive. Leave the bike in 1st(neutral gets, actually, kind of dangerous going downhill), no throttle, no front brake, control the speed by slight “feathering” of the clutch and go down the drive.

My MIL lives on the side of a huge hill. The driveway is about a ¼ mile long with two curves. I ride eight miles of gravel, dirt and mud everyday just to get to the blacktop so I’m no beginner on gravel. But the first time I went to her house I didn’t think a thing about it pulling in and going up the drive. When I went to leave and looked down...whoa. Even with 55 years of riding under my belt...I felt a little tightening. You’ll be fine. I'm always more cautious going down hill than I am up. There is something about falling down that is more terrifying than falling up. Your fear is well founded.

You need to just go out and spank that monkey Honey! :-D

 

I agree, just do it. It's easy if you go slow and don't panic. You'll wonder what you were so worried about in the first place.

 

All of this help and not one response from DragonGal. Maybe she's laying in the gravel somewhere!

 

:lol:...:shock:

 

First things first, DragonGal YOU CAN DO IT! You've been riding and we all know the fears associated with riding. I myself am still getting used to a new bike and yep it's intimidating. Believe in yourself, you got this. Just take it slow and easy. When reading your comment my first thought was duck walking it down. Take it back to the basics take it slow. Before you know it you'll be cruising down that driveway wondering what you were ever concerned about.

 

You might as well sell your bike and move on because if you can't handle this, you can't handle riding. Sorry to be so blunt, but a scared rider is an accident waiting to happen.

 

i dont go down gravel lanes..... too dangerous.


unfortunately for me, my mother-in-law's driveway is gravel.

 

Gravel is no more or less dangerous then many other roads/ surfaces. Me I don't like grooved road surfaces during construction, but they are perfectly doable, even banked sharp exit ramps. The thing is, long before there were modern roads, riders dealt with some pretty harsh excuses for "roads".. and those of us in NH still do at times