The motion of a spherical particle along a rough bed in a simple shear viscous flow is studied experimentally for a wide range of parameters, varying the particle size and density, the fluid viscosity and the shear rate γ. The instantaneous particle velocity is calculated in the stream, transverse and vertical directions, using a high-speed video imaging system. It is found that the normalized streamwise mean particle velocity U/US, where US is the Stokes settling velocity, depends only on the dimensionless shear rate μ γ/(Δ ρ g d), this relationship being independent of the particle Reynolds number Rep. This result holds for small Rep, which was the case in our experiments (Rep < 10). The characteristic amplitude and frequency of the velocity fluctuations are also given and discussed. A model is then proposed for the mean streamwise velocity, based on ideas of Bagnold (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 332, 1973, p. 473) and calculations of Goldman et al. (Chem. Engng Sci., vol. 22, 1967b, p. 653) for the velocity of a particle close to a smooth plane. From this model an equivalent bed roughness and an effective friction coefficient are deduced.