Top 5 reasons road cyclists need to get adventurous

Roadies – want to really improve your bike handling skills, fitness and have some downright fun on your bike? Take yourself on an adventure. We guarantee you won't regret it!

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1. Improve your skills

There's nothing quite like riding a fully rigid bike with skinny tyres and drop bars off-road on grass, gravel and mud to really hone your bike handling skills. While cyclocross or gravel tyres aren't quite as grippy as mountain bike tyres, you'll certainly notice the improved traction over skinny and slick road rubber. So take yourself off into the woods on a gravel adventure, or try a little cyclocross! And if you are unlucky enough to take a spill, trail rash is generally less painful than road rash.

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2. N 1

If you were looking for an excuse to buy a new bike, here's a good one. If you want to really get adventuring, you'll need a bike with a frame that can accommodate fatter tyres and wheels with corresponding wider rims. Now, while many modern road bikes are versatile beasts, if you have a thoroughbred race bike you might want to get something a little more suited to gravel, mud and wild times.

3. It's a whole heap of fun!

Riding in the rain on roads can be more of a chore than a laugh, but take the same ride into the woods and suddenly it's a whole different kettle of fish. There's just something about riding through puddles and getting completely mucky that harks back to childhood days spent splashing through the mud.

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4. Get away from other roadies

Endless chat about weight and an unwillingness to get your bike dirty; as roadies, we're all guilty of this. But take it off-road and concerns about the minutiae of weight saving and aero gains fade away when faced with a rutted farm track with hub-deep mud.

5. Because adventure!

This world, despite its frequent frustrations, is a beautiful, eye-opening place, and you don't have to travel far from home to see something new. So get off that road you've ridden fifty million times, turn left instead of right, and take yourself off for an adventure. You won't regret it!

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Got any other reasons we've missed? Pop them in the comments below!