The pavement wheelset for the 2016 Matthews road bike for dirt is shod with 51 mm actual on 27 mm IW rims/48 labeled Soma Supple Vitesse SLs, 360 digital grams, and tomato skin thin. You’d think they’d roll like butter on ice.
But compared to the former 61 mm 450 gram ultralight 700C Big Ones, they “feel” as if they require extra effort to keep moving; this consistently over ~18 months in identical conditions. (I jettisoned the Big Ones because, while Schwalbe called them their *fastest rolling tire, bar none* when they came out ~10 years ago, and IME they lived up to this description, they made the bike wallow in turns. The Somas make the bike handle as I asked Chauncey to make it handle, like my Riv Roads; at least, as close as 29” fat tires at 17 to 23 psi can do that. I chose the Somas as allrounder tires that would ride well on pavement but be fat and soft enough to handle at least shallower sand. They handle very well on pavement, roll somewhat sluggishly on pavement, but their rounded profile ploughs in sand; not good. So, since I do have a second, Thunder Burt wheelset for off road, I don’t need 50 mm tires on pavement; thus the questions: 1. Would I gain any advantage in handling, or even rolling resistance, do you think, by swapping them for narrower road tires; say 44 mm Snoqualmie extralights (I’d use tubes)? The Rims — Velocity Blunt SS — are 27 mm wide inside. Extrapolating from the information on the SP web page I’d guess these would measure 45-6 on the Blunt SS rims. 2. The bike was designed for 700C tires between 50 and 60 mm (with fenders) and 650Bs up to 75 or 80 mm wide, tho’ ‘ve never used the latter. I realize that this is a very general qeustion, but is there a rule of thumb for how narrow you can go on a given frame designed for wider tires without degrading handling? Note: if you don’t have statistics, anecdotes welcome! Anecdotal case in point for degraded handling: on NORBA-type rigid mountain bikes, designed for 50s, 35 street tires felt OK tho’ handling wasn’t sparkling. With 23 mm tires (26X1” Turbos) it was bad indeed (oddly, degraded both straight line stability and cornering stability), tho’ they made the bike fast in a straight line. OTOH, with 60 mm actual Big Apples my old Diamond Back handled superbly on pavement, if a bit staidly. Any thoughts? Thanks, Patrick -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgvJur0boQY6ONs_JV_ttnTAhUSqWDXVyZy6NzTg_zuPiQ%40mail.gmail.com.
