After reading Jan's article about fatter tires in the latest BQ, I decided to try it on my All-Rounder. I'd gotten this frameset about three years ago and built it up with drop bars. (Although the height of the frame was a little short for my legs, the top tube was the right length for drops.) I've ridden it on numerous city and country rides and have done a couple of bike-camping overnights on it (longest rides on this have been several metric centuries). I have wrestled with the feel of this bike since building it up with 26 x 1.25 Paselas. Although the tires help up well, the feel of the 1.25 width seemed sort of harsh, and worse, squirrelly.
In the absence of a pair of T-Serv tires just sitting around, I installed some 1.5 Paselas, and ran some errands while at work. I noticed the difference in handling pretty much right away. The bike rolled easily but cornered more gently and without as much of the squirrelly feeling I'd had with the skinnier tires. Just for fun, I also raised the handlebar about 1/2". Now the bike looks sort of odd because the handlebars are so close to the saddle; but I have a really short torso and had let go of the "classic" look of a road bike long ago anyway. What I have now is a more comfortable bike with a mellower ride quality. Do I feel slower? Well, I felt slower already but that's totally on me. The ride is smoother and more stable and that matters more to me than speed these days. I think this is a good experiment to do on bikes with 26" wheels. I'd like to hear from others who are running wider tires on 26" bikes they ride mostly on pavement. Beth http://bikelovejones1.blogspot.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
