Category: Ride Reviews

Ride Review: The RockStar Gravel Route

This is a review of the RockStar Gravel Route, which I rode with two other people in late October. We took four days and camped three nights while covering a total of 267.25 miles and 26,503 feet of climbing during the entire trip. The Rockstar gravel route itself is somewhat shorter, but our trip included getting lost and a few side trips.

The RockStar Gravel Route is one of three RockStar routes that go between Harrisonburg and Roanoke, VA. The nicknames of each city, Rocktown and the Star City, respectively, give the routes their name. Rob Issem, currently the city of Roanoke’s Complete Streets and Vision Zero Coordinator, helped create each route and they aim to provide an epic experience showcasing great places to ride and see.

I’m going to try to keep this review high–level and may supplement with some more in-depth discussions of the route and the gear that I used. Overall, the RockStar Gravel Route was very difficult, but a fun and unique challenge worth doing. 

If you are a confident cyclist who has recently successfully completed a longer day ride of 100 miles or more then you should be able to do the RockStar Gravel Route without much additional training. If any day of the RockStar Gravel Route would be your longest-ever ride, or you are not comfortable on a variety of gravel and off-road trails, or you have not camped much then I highly encourage training for distance, confidence, and camping comfortably. I was probably a little undertrained, having done a 100 mile bike ride in April before training for a 10 mile run in August and then mostly not training consistently outside of gravel rides between 30-50 miles on probably 60% of the weekends between August and the trip in late October.

The RockStar Gravel Route 

Good: Varied. Surprising. Beautiful and adventurous. Progressive in the sense of getting easier (relatively) each day. Camping was easy and it was cool to meet friends at Douthat.

Bad: Big difficulty spike on the first day. Section below Flagpole Knob was just not rideable for me. Limited water at times.

Ugly: Virginia DOT needs to invest in better shoulders on several paved sections. Drivers need to chill out and wait to pass.

Day One: The hardest day. Water was a problem. Reddish Knob and gravel just before camp were highlights. Mountain View General Store and Braley Pond are both excellent.

Day Two: Lots of forest service road double track. Some single track. All kinds of gravel. Long day with repetitive gravel climbs. Got lost, which sucked. Camping at Douthat was really nice.

Day Three: More road riding. Riding through towns, climbing, and descents. Some river crossings and more gravel. Worst camping.

Day Four: More road riding. More urban. Carvins Cove has a big forest road climb and the Rockstar route shows off and meanders around Roanoke. Texas Tavern is unique, for me it was a crowded early dinner crowd and pleasant conversation for a short celebratory chili dog and coke.

Gear

  • Bikepacking bags: My Portland Design Works Gear Belly front roll was rock solid. My Outer Shell frame bag was great but I prefer the zipper on my old Revelate frame bag. My Revelate Spinelock 16L seat bag was stable and I liked the pin system. My Revelate and Po Campo handlebar feed bags were very useful and disappeared while riding. My XLab Stealth Pocket 200 XP is great for easy access.
  • Gravel bike: My Lauf Anywhere was the only rigid gravel bike on the trip and held up very well. Lots of mounts that I could have more fully utilized. Stable on descents and comfortable with the bikepacking load.
  • Tires: Using WTB Raddlers in 700×38 front and rear I was the only rider to not get a flat. Tires were good on and off road, even on some single track.
  • GPS: Basic Garmin 520 had the battery life to go all day. Recharged every night. I should have taken the time to create daily gps files.
  • Tent and sleep system: North Face one person tent, REI inflatable sleeping pad, Cocoon drymax sheet, Western Mountaineering sleeping bag, Nemo inflatable pillow. Tent was bulky and basic, everything else was great.
  • Camp food: Jetboil worked very well. Trailtopia Chili Mac was great and Curry Ramen was okay. Trailtopia oatmeal was really good.
  • Clothes: Did two days in road kit and two days in mountain bike kit, both worked well. Adidas Velosamba shoes worked well for hike-a–bike, but got numb on long days. Change of sleep clothes and socks were a great luxury.

I think that’s everything to review. If you are ready for a challenge, then the Rockstar gravel route may be right for you. It is an adventure, with clearly intentional routing to embrace rockstar features such as Reddish Knob, Roaring Run Furnace, and the Roanoke Star.

The Bane of Bradshaw

The Bane of Bradshaw

Narrow Fast Dicey Edge Road

Route 311

When you come to Roanoke and want a great road cycling ride, the Bradshaw Road route is one of the first to come to mind. Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge says, “The Bradshaw Road route is one of the most popular rides for local biking enthusiasts in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.” 

It is 47 miles of rolling hills, gentle climbs, and fast descents. If you’re riding with a group there’s a nice climb to a red mailbox that is also perfect for a sprint. I’d recommend it to anyone coming to Roanoke who wants a great road ride. Except, they have to be okay with a dangerous and scary stretch on Route 311.

On Route 311 there is a roughly 2 mile stretch that is fast and narrow in the worst ways. It is a 55 MPH road. It has areas that might be shoulders that are less than 4 feet wide. There are drop offs and pinch points that place people biking directly in the way of semi trucks, large pickups, and other traffic with that traffic expecting to move at 55 MPH. A 2001 Roanoke Times article, updated in 2019, about the Bradshaw route described this section of 311 as “a dicey road” and said “that anybody, no matter how experienced on a bike, is a fool to try to ride on U.S. 311 at any time other than early on a weekend morning.”

If you are comfortable taking the lane and slowing down traffic or riding in a group that can slow traffic, and ride at an appropriate time, then the Bradshaw route is a great ride and I heartily recommend it. If you are not comfortable mixing with 55 MPH traffic then I can’t recommend it.

311 is a fast road. Cyclists can go 20 mph consistently and groups may go even faster.  But even at 30 mph there is still a 25 mph speed differential, creating tension with people who want to go faster.

The 2 mile stretch of 311 between the Hanging Rock Battlefield and Bradshaw Road is the bane of the Bradshaw cycling route. It is the place where a cyclist feels closest to death. You may not be hit, or passed closely, or lose control off the side of the road, but you are almost guaranteed to be exposed to 55 MPH traffic for some period of time. It is remarkably fortunate that no cyclist has been killed on this section of 311 (at least in VDOT data since 2014), although one person was killed in a vehicle at the turn for Bradshaw Road. For some people, the experience of this section means they will not be able to experience the Bradshaw route, or they might be scared off from cycling by the experience.

Fixing the bane of Bradshaw would be a great boon for the cycling community in Roanoke. It is an awful experience in the midst of a great one. More people new to biking might give Bradshaw a try and like it. More people might feel comfortable biking Bradshaw more often. It is a very approachable longer ride, and fixing this stretch is the key to making it even more approachable.

So, what are some solutions? How can we make the Bradshaw route an approachable ride for more people? 

Here are a few ideas:

Lower the speed limit

  • I feel like 40 mph is appropriate for this road. Likely to have minimal travel time impacts. Tourist traffic to McAffee’s Knob isn’t too time sensitive. Swap out signs. Add feedback signs. Maybe do enforcement. People will probably adjust. I bet the speed limit wasn’t initially based on a traffic study.

Add shoulders and rumble strips

  • This is the most obvious solution. The difficulty is the solution’s expense. It may require acquiring right of way, but there’s also a lot of potential for driveway and drainage improvements for adjacent homeowners. Rumble strips would need an appropriate skip pattern so that bicyclists are not trapped by them. Rumble stripes, where the rumble pattern is made on the striped edge line, might be good due to limited space. Not sure of the actual expense.

Provide a waiting area for left turns

  • At the turn to Bradshaw Road it would be nice to have a small waiting area on the right side of 311. This would allow cyclists to pull over and wait for traffic to clear before turning onto Bradshaw instead of holding up traffic waiting for a gap. This might improve safety as it would allow cyclists to move out of traffic and have more time to find a gap they are comfortable with.

Trail?

  • The 2018 Greenway Plan has a project called the Mason’s Cove Greenway. It’s described on page 56: “4.2.30. Masons Cove Greenway, Map #30, Category 4 The Masons Cove Greenway would connect Mason Creek Greenway to Catawba Greenway utilizing an old railroad bed. Bicyclists could use this route to get up the mountain and connect to Rt. 311 to reach U. S. Bicycle Route 76.” The plan makes it appear to be a theoretical possibility, but there is little information on status other than that the railroad bed exists. Could be worth exploring, but this is likely more expensive than improved shoulders.

Road reconnection?

  • No, there’s a short unconnected road that connects to the Hanging Rock Battlefield, but it’s too short to do much to improve this stretch of road. It could be a cool connection for Just the Right Gear to provide access to the Hinkey Trail, but that would still require a significant reworking of the shoulders and striping along a shorter section of 311.

Restriping?

  • No, pretty confident that the road is actually narrow in places and does not have sufficient width to provide at least 5 foot shoulders through restriping.

Rumble strips only?

  • No, rumble strips only would make what little shoulder exists unrideable. Cyclists would be forced into the travel lane and this stretch of 311 would be even more of a barrier for people not comfortable slowing down traffic or being passed by 55 MPH traffic.