On Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 3:15:22 PM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:
I love pavement. But I’ve been on two gravel rides in the last month and I rode a Platy either time and it wasn’t my favorite for that bike. But, I have my old 2019 52 cm Clem L, and it doesn’t have a dedicated purpose right now and shouldn’t that be the bike for rough and tough stuff like gravel? It will be as great for "gravel" as it is for any other surface! 1. Can I keep my VO wavy fenders on a gravel bike? Yes, but do you really want to? They'll limit your tire choice and it'll sound like you're shaking a soda (pop) can (let's please not pollute the thread with that discussion) full of rocks all ride long. As others have graphically shown, if it's muddy, you'll just pack the mudguards full of mud. That said, I run fenders on my Breadwinner, because most of my riding is on pavement and, until recently, the roads were frequently wet. If was planning a longer off-road ride, I'd ditch the fenders. 2. Slick or knobby? I can’t even get a straight answer on this. Which is better? If it matters about the rider, this will be for a rider with a healthy fear of crashing. Part of this comes down to what you mean by "gravel". Tread only starts to make a difference when you're in soft stuff, where the edges of the knobs can bite into something to provide more acceleration/deceleration/cornering force. When you take a turn on gravel you're going to have much less traction than on pavement, regardless of the tires. Those pesky little gravel bits are easy to shove aside, and hooking the edge of a knob on them just shoves them harder. 3. How wide? I have 42s on my bikes now and I don’t feel like they are wide enough. Again, this may be a function of what type of "gravel" you're on. For the crushed limestone trails of Wisconsin at reasonable speeds, 42 is plenty. If you get into softer, sandy trails, though, or you love to fly through hairpin turns, bigger is always better. I ride 48s on my Breadwinner and never feel like I have "too much tire" under me. Unlike knobs, wider tires provide a genuine cornering advantage on loose surfaces, as they spread the force across lots more of those pesky little gravel bits, putting less force on each bit. 4. Tubeless or no? These wheels are tubeless-compatible but I put a tube in them because I wasn’t riding enough to keep the sealant circulating. But that can be changed right quick. I don't think gravel vs pavement enters into that decision, unless by "gravel" you mean bouncing over baby heads at high speed. One of the big benefits is eliminating pinch flats, which generally result from hitting fairly large chunks of something at low pressure. But you can do that in a Wisconsin pot hole on pavement, too. I'm running tubeless on my Breadwinner, but I'm not convinced it's an improvement, especially if you're not riding the bike frequently. I'm careful about storing my bike, but I still get sealant drying in the valve stems, which makes it very hard to put in air. Tires: what an embarrassment of riches we have today, compared to even 10 years ago. The revelation for me was Kirk Pacenti's Pari-Motos, at 650x38B, which caused me to audibly gasp on the first downhill. Since then, Grand Bois, Compass/Rene Herse, Ultradynamico... all of them have pretty much the same thing going: super supple tires made by Panaracer in Japan. Start with size, then narrow it down by tread, casing strength, color, and price. I'm a dedicated Rene Herse tire fan. The Gravel Kings I put on my Sam #1 are outstanding, too. I'm looking forward to trying Ultradynamicos on my Sam #2. Ted Durant Milwaukee, WI USA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/308feaee-6c53-469d-aef7-61881d4bc831n%40googlegroups.com.
