On May 14, 10:31 am, JoelMatthews <joelmatth...@mac.com> wrote: >Living in Chicago I have little chance to do either, so tend to jumble >the two in my mind.
you have quite a strong opinion for having little frame of reference! >As I understand the history of 650b, the constructeurs liked the size >as it allowed them to build bikes around wider tires that were more >comfortable riding over cobble stone streets. The whole 23 mm road >tire thing was not in their thought process. Not sure why a tire that >harks back to the 650b golden era is silly. the current "rene herse" rando bike is optimized for a tire in the 29-32mm range. VO recommends tires in the 25-30 range for its rando bike. go to the alex singer website and have a look at the tires they set-up the "randonneur sportif" with - or any bike except their camper, for that matter! 38mm tires are a far cry from that. nothing wrong with using them for that kind of thing - hell, I rode the hetre on a 600k. but if tires that fat excel at anything, it's mixed terrain riding/camping/ exploring/etc. > Again, I have never, and hope to the bike gods will never, participate > in any sort of race. good thing you're buying "event" tires, just in case! > However, reading Heine's accounts of the P-B-P > and similar events for which many of the people ordering 650b builds, > it seems wider tires are the norm. of course most 650b builds use "wider" tires - it's all that's available! but i wonder how many people used the hetre (comparable in size to the pari-moto) on the last PBP? maybe 5 (was it even available - anyone know)? for that matter, i wonder how many 650b bikes were even there - maybe 10-15% of all bikes? it must a very relatively small percentage. i bet the vast majority of riders use a tire between 25-30mm. in any event, most 650b'ers i know enjoying riding their bikes off- road. it's part of the fun! and, as long as we're invoking the word of J. Heine, here's an interesting little excerpt from his test of the grand bois cypres: "I mounted the tires (the 650bx32 cypres) on my alex singer touring bike . .. over two days I explored BACKROADS, including a fast descent on GRAVEL ROADS, BROKEN PAVEMENT, .. .. and finally the UNPAVED iron horse trail. I found no noticeable wear on either tire, showing that the tire will withstand many miles of HARD RIDING on ROUGH SURFACES." i take issue with some what I read in BQ, but i find myself agreeing with its tire findings more often than not. > Not unusual I am out of the loop, but I am not aware of a 650b x 23 > tire currently on the market. i referred to the challenge triathalon, 700c x 23mm. it was the fastest tire in BQ's tests, which included 650b tires. -- 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.
