IME, even very supple skinny tires can be surprisingly smooth if not pumped too hard; I recall being surprised almost 35 years ago at how smooth 23 mm Specialized 26X1" Turbos felt compared to overinflated 35 mm Fatboys (I thought then that the label max pres was the correct pressure). Much later, Michelin Pro Races at 22 mm actual on narrow rims felt surprisingly comfortable at 80 f/90r, and today's 28 mm (actual, skinny rims) Elk Passes feel almost pillow-like at 55/60 except over the damned 8" to 12" expansion bumps on my access road that I keep meaning to complain to the city about.
Speaking of which: I'm curious about others' preferences for air pressure: what pressure for what tire -- width, type of casing -- on what surfaces. I recently started riding my ~49 mm (27 mm IW rims) regular casing Oracle Ridges at 17 psi, down from the 20 that felt harsh over horse hoof chop and stutter bumps, and yes, 17 feels smoother over small bumps while not compromising the road-tire-like handling (on the Matt #1) on pavement -- the ORs handle like the slick Soma Supple Vitesse SLs on pavement, and both tires make the bike handle as I'd asked Chauncey to make it handle, much like my Riv Roads. Current preferred pressures for max bump comfort with pavement cornering precision: ORs ~49 mm actual, combined pavement and (sandy) dirt: 17 psi. Extralight 559X42 mm Naches Passes, mostly pavement, brief firmer dirt: 30/35. I expect I could use as low as 25/30 but this bike sees 30-40 lb rear loads. 175 gram 559X28 mm Elk Passes: pavement: 55/60, and were it not for expansion cracks I guess I could drop 5 psi from each. I used to put 20 psi in the 61 mm paper-thin sidewall Big Ones but now I'd drop that to under 17; cornering on pavement be damned, they never did corner crisply, and I expect that at 15-16 with 27 mm IW rims the sidewalls would remain stable. I rode the 72 mm actual WTB Rangers as low as 12-13; since these were ridden almost always on sandy soil, and I'd have used that as the norm except that these were tubeless tires on ~20-21 mm IW non-tubeless rims, so I usually kept them at 15. Patrick Moore, who wishes that the Elk Passes measured closer to the labeled 32 mm on the admittedly 13 mm IW rims. On Sun, Jun 2, 2024 at 9:58 AM Jay <jason.bike...@gmail.com> wrote: > I know a lot of roadies, who don't mountain bike, who have never tried a > tire about 30-32mm. Before these nice, supple tires became more readily > available I had mountain biked and had tires for riding that bike on the > roads (off-season), and then I got into cx bikes I had 32mm (ish) tires, > and they were all awful (and over-inflated!). When I went up to 40mm that > was an improvement. A supple tire of anywhere north of 32-35, on a bike > that is not overly stiff, pumped to the right pressure, tubeless if you > like, is magic. > > Nice article! > -- 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/CALuTfguoancOWAK7wV7CB5FOEX_ZMr-VGyw%3Dp1mM%3DwMJkA6DEQ%40mail.gmail.com.
