As with gearing and saddles, so with tires; tastes vary vastly. I know experienced riders who can't be bothered to figure out their gears; if they can find a gear that is pretty good in most riding situations, they're happy -- they look blank when you ask them what rings and cogs they are using. Likewise with saddles: some love B 17s, others dislike them after much use.
I used the Big Apple for years and miles, 559 and 622, and for a very durable and flat resistant tire they roll very well indeed. Back when I was using up a box and a half or more (each box has 100 patches) of Remas each year I rarely had to patch tubes in my Big Apples because they'd resist 100% of goatheads when riding on dirt and 95% (those are metaphors, not measurements) on pavement). Recall often coming out of the bosque trails and skimming scores if not hundreds of goatheads off f and r Big Apples before hitting the pavement. But the light version of the similarly sized Big One is day compared to the Big Apple's night. Schwalbe said it was their fastest rolling tire of all, including racing tires, back when they first came out. And: 450 digitally honest grams for a new (new!) 622 X true 60 mm tire! Versus 900 for the BA, 800 for the "Liteskin" version. And the RH 26 X labeled 1.25 Elk Pass, 27 to 29 mm on road width rims. I switched to these from the very good Michelin Pro Race 4s, these in turn better than the Conti Grands Prix of the time (funny, retrospect, the MPR4 was about like the ~2000-era Specialized 26 X 1" Turbo); sorry, no contest, the EP just require less effort to maintain a given cadence (and speed) in given gears in given conditions, repeatedly over the years. I used 26 X 1.25 Paselas, non-Tourguard, light at 240 grams (a wee bit fatter at about 30 mm vs 27-29 mm for the EPs) but tho' not bad, they rate more or less like the 1.35" Kojaks with puncture belts, these in turn much like the Jack Brown Greens on my 2010 Sam Hillborne; decent but the EPs are altogether on a different level; together with the lightest Big Ones the best rolling tires I've used (tho' I'm still trying to decide if the Soma Supple Vitesse SL is as good or only nearly as good). The extralight Naches Passes don't "feel" as fast-rolling as the Elk Passes but they certainly feel faster than Kojaks or those Paselas, or than Tioga City Slickers or Fatboys; perhaps like the Michelin Pro Race 4s and Turbos. On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 10:31 AM Wesley <brooks.wes...@gmail.com> wrote: > In fact, I think it was Grant (or maybe Sheldon Brown?) who turned me onto > the idea that wide tires are great, especially when they're NOT knobby. For > the past 15 years, it's been Panaracer Paselas for my road bike and > Schwalbe Big Apple/Fat Frank for my commute/errand bike. The idea that > there are noticeable gains to be had from tubeless or RH tires seems like > pure hype to me, but I may be wrong. Certainly the Schwalbe tires are crazy > heavy and that must affect my acceleration. But once I'm up to speed, I > doubt it matters. > -Wes > -- 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 rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgvop3EFEYpsgfCpvvXZdLjo7K92M6in%3DE%3DS3baoMwZH1g%40mail.gmail.com.
