I am thinking of getting a second wheelset for the 2016 Chauncey Matthews "road bike for dirt" to supplement the very nice, very all-rounder-type 48 mm labeled/50 actual Soma Supple Vitesse SL wheelset. The second wheelset would have knobbies for sand, since the Somas just don't have the float and directional stability that I need for our sandy trails.
Riv content: I told Chauncey to measure my 2 (at the time) custom Riv Roads and make the new bike handle as much l like those as possible. (And with the Somas it does, wonderful; the 60 mm Big Ones wallowed and wandered --- not horrible, just not Rivendell-like -- tho' they floated well over sand.) I am thinking of using RH knobbies -- since the reportedly once superlatively light and fast Thunder Burt has gained oz and stiffness compared to its first edition. *(730 grams for the 700C X 2.35!!* The 2.35 Big Ones are a digitally true 450 grams, and the F Freds that the TBs replaced were a true 360 at a true 50 mm.) The 55 mm Fleecer Ridges (per specs ELs would probably measure very close to 60 tubeless on my 27 mm IW rims) for max float; but this would mean removing the Kelpie fenders. I like fenders. I live in the high desert with an average 9" of rain a year but we have a *lot* of dust and full fenders keep a great deal of it off my legs and off of the bike. Also, the Matthews was one of my 2 "rain bikes" -- puddles and snow melt included. I used these fenders with 60 mm Big Ones, but those were smooth tread and even so barely cleared under the seatstay bridge; about 5 mm. Obviously, using ~60 mm knobbies with these fenders would be foolish, and I've been thinking that perhaps the Oracle Ridge might work with them, at barely 50 mm extrapolated from the website; the 50 mm Somas have perhaps just shy of 2 cm of clearance at that tight spot under the seatstay bridge and 3 cm+ under the fork crown. (The Big Ones measured ~29 1/2" tall, the Somas ~28 1/2" tall, so 1/2 inch/~12mm difference.) So I'm curious if any of youse use fenders with knobbies and: 1. What is the minimum gap your require? 2. how big are the knobs? IOW, are small, even knobs as on the RH knobbies safer with fenders than the big fat knobs on real mtb tires? 3. What do you say in particular to ~50 mm Oracle Ridges under full fenders with the clearances described? I cannot use the aftermarket stay breakaway systems because the Kelpie stays are 50% fatter than the stays they were designed for. 4. If I don't use full fenders I will certainly install "motocross-style" fenders, but those I've seen are fugly. 4.a) Are there non-fugly clip ons? 4.b)Share photos? 4.c) Source/link? Thanks. -- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* -- 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/CALuTfgu1219m%2BRiKkpE9Q58vQrxY1F0_bep-tVXarWeaANFe1g%40mail.gmail.com.
