Im heading over the ditch from NZ for Seven Gravel in WA next month. Does anyone have intel on road surface conditions? From what I’ve seen appears to be lots of dirt road with fine gravel bits in areas, maybe some farm track - dirt / grass in there too?
Just weighing up tyre options as don’t really want the admin of bringing multiple sets over 
Any intel would be great! Thanks.
I’ll be running the Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RC in a 45 at the moment. the tricky bit will be if they get much rain between now and then. This year also has a fair portion of tarmac road which may influence some if it stays dry. If you’re on BookFace there are a couple of official and not so official groups were I’m sure you’ll get options from people.
Hi Chris,
thanks for the intel, probably a pretty safe bet with those Pirellis regardless of the conditions Id imagine.
will be watching the weather forecasts!
cheers
Great to hear you’ll be coming over to our little corner of the world @lester_perry There’s no sandy sections on the course, nor is it particularly muddy (really only one segment I can recall that gets a bit sticky in the wet), everything else is fire-road, farm-track and a bit of bitumen for this year. @Chris_Norris’s choice is popular, as are Pathfinders, GravelKings, Riddlers … there’s also a “Gravel Grinders in Western Australia” bookface page too. At a higher level, most people have historically run 38-45 mm tyres, very few have gone wider yet … but that might change as awareness of CRR increases.
@adamralph great, thanks for that info Seems like a bit of “anything goes” from what I gather from trawling the web, everyone seems to have a favourite. Does sound like conditions are similar to what I’d normally ride over here so thinking of bringing over a couple of options and decide once we see conditions on the ground… thanks!
I should have added there’s a decent amount of gravel road as well, forgot about that 
My only further thought is that if you’re coming from a MTB background, I’m sure you’ll find it pretty tame. A legend of the local scene did Five (shorter version) on a roadie with 28mm tyres a few years ago, placed in the top 10. The regulation banning road bikes is named in his honour 
Pea gravel can be a bit slippery if you haven’t ridden it . I ride vittoria mezcals (45) but a lot on pirelli. Gravel king in dry but you can slip on the corners . I have Inserts as well like on mtb . PSI at 28-29
I suspect the over 50mm can run closer to mtb pressures
Course is different getting ready for worlds but you can have off camber corners and some steeper drop ins to them .
As mentioned look at book of faces . Lots of chats
The issue is wildlife rather than tyre width (I’d go for a fast 45mm). Unfortunately, the event is scheduled during drop bear mating season, and they’re even more savage than usual. Always keep a bike ahead of you when passing through the forested areas; the drop bear usually attacks the first human it sees.
Yea those drop bears .. nasty . Vegemite behind your ears makes them slip off before they cut your throat
are there particular colours of clothing that are best to ward off the drop bears, or are stickers of eyes and some zip ties sticking up from my helmet the best bet - apparently these work for Magpies?
Vegemite smeared behind your ears and neck works a bit. Drop bears aim for the neck or face so zip ties attached to your helmet won’t be effective. A full-face MTB helmet with goggles is an option. But I refer to my previous advice - keep someone else in front of you. It’s like using a loo in WA. Let someone else find the redback spider.
Also, use short cranks on this course. Makes it harder for the hoop snakes to bite your ankles.
Covered all the bases there @Campbell_Fuller … just need to caution about the Bunyips too 
nothing a hoop snake , zombie sheep or nearly extinct katapo wouldn’t take to either . What would Ricky Baker wear ?
Are you coming from South or North ? Hero dirt like Rotavagas or hard pack and mud like CHCH ? ( and anything in between !!)
Enjoy your trip . Our customs Guys are still pretty strict , not every part of your bike and shoes like NZ , but they go past just looking at tyres.
honestly, everything over there is just trying to kill us!
Coming from North, small town Te Awamutu, we have a bit of everything here… Good shout on the cutsoms, Im always so concerned about this when returning home, but always forget about it heading the other direction!
Well done on the weekend @lester_perry - slick time and great to see your Q. Hope you had a good trip, see you in Oct!
hey Adam, thanks!
Great trip, looking forward to taking learnings from that race and course to see what I can do in Oct!
Looks like an amazing area to ride bikes!
Alrighty - figured it might be of interest to some if I updated with what I actually ran in Nannup… Maybe.
I ended up on Schwalbe G-One RS 50mm front and rear (file tread through the middle, with side knobs of sorts). 26psi front, 27psi rear (I’m about 80kg loaded). In the end, I figured if I was on the main line, I was probably good on these tyres, and if I was off it (which I was a few times!) then extra knobs through the centre wouldn’t have made a lot of difference.
Luck was on my side as it ended up raining a little in the days leading up which likely meant the surface was a bit grippier than normal, so better for this tyre than if it was super dry.
The RS was awesome for any time maintaining speed was necessary, rolled really well over some of the shorter, punchy climbs, and on the couple of road sections, they spun up really well and carried good speed.
I broke traction a few times more than I’d have liked while climbing out of the saddle, but I reckon I would have on any tyre.
While descending, they were pretty manageable. I had a couple of small hairy moments where everything almost turned to custard while off line in the softer pea gravel along the side of the road, but thankfully kept it upright. Again, I’m not certain a tyre with more tread would have helped in these situations, rather me reading the road better!
All said and done, the Seven course was awesome, it was great to race somewhere new, and after hearing all the chat about the climbing I was pretty nervous with what lay in front of me - ended up it wasn’t as bad as I thought, and although there were some tough climbs, most were short and not too steep (although there were steep sections) - there was just a heck of a lot of them, my Wahoo registered 32 actual climbs 
Now I know what I’m in for, I’m looking forward to being back in October (hopefully!), think I’ll go back to 45mm tyres for weight alone as the kush of a 50mm I don’t think is needed on that course, and I’ll be leaving most of my spares at home - this time I was prepared for all eventualities, tube, chain breaker, chain link, 2x tyre plug tools and spare plugs, battery pump and 2x Co2’s…. I’d figured in order to qualify, first I had to get to the finish!
Ideally I’d have no hydration pack and rely solely on bottles, but with no feed support this time, that wasn’t an option, so pack it was. Fingers crossed we (the Kiwis) can line something up for Worlds to keep the weight down!
bring on october!
Congrats on qualifying, bragging rights over Daniel Lloyd too!