The Right Bike for This Ride

The G.A.P. trail is hard-packed dirt and gravel, and is well maintained.

Taking a Road Bike on the Trail

A road bike is absolutely fine too, but you will need to stop by your local bike shop and temporarily install some wider tires. Look on the side of your road bike tires and you'll see the size, which probably looks something like this:

700x23

It's that "23" number we care about. It describes how fat the tire is.  The larger this second number, the fatter the tire.

(Hybrid and mountain bike tires are sized differently -- no need to head down that rabbit hole right now!  If you are riding a hybrid or a mountain bike your tires are already the right size for this ride.)

The tires that came on your road bike are typically 700x23 or the slightly fatter 700x25, and they get bigger from there. For this trail, do not ride on anything skinnier than 700x28, and even tires as wide as 700x36 would be nice if they fit your bike.

You do NOT want to wait until the week before the ride to do this -- not all tires fit all bikes.  For example, my own road bike will not accept a tire any wider than 700x25 -- that particular bike would not work for this trip. In other words, YOUR road bike may not work for this trip -- NOW is the time to check!

The issue here is if wider tires will fit on your road bike without rubbing against the fork or brakes, and there's no measurement you can look up or table you can check to see if wider tires will fit. The ONLY way to do this is to take your bike in person to your favorite cycle shop and ask. Do NOT order wider tires online -- unless you're a bike genius, you really don't know if they'll fit! Please trust us on this -- we've seen what happens when people try to do it on their own without bike shop help!

If you are traveling with kids the tires that come on a Burley trailer or tag-a-long will be fine on this trail.

SO... what sort of bike should you ride for this trip?  Your choice!

Any hybrid around-town bike is great, and the tires that are on it are fine (assuming they are in good shape).

If you have a mountain bike that's good too. (You can ride giant knobby mountain bike tires if you wish, but they are not necessary).    

Road Bike

Mountain Bike

Hybrid Bike