Jay, I think Gravelking SK 45mm on the Leo might be a good idea. I ride urban SF Singletrack with those on my Hunq. I had had true MTB tyres on it up until recently, those being Schwalbe Thunderburts in 2.15". Going down 10mm I did lose a little confidence, but not much. I can still rip thru the Golden Gate park SS, which is pretty similar to what you described. In fact, Ronnie Romance came out and hosted a ride with Adam Skylar this summer, and it brought out a bunch of trailer rippers. I was mostly able to keep up with them, but I only blame my fitness and skills, not the tyres.
I guess there is the question of riding the Roadini harder than it should. Definitely the frame of a Sam or Homer would be better designed for the increased loads of off-road riding. But a lot of it also comes down to your bike handling. On Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 1:57:19 PM UTC-7 Jay wrote: > I ride off-road plenty with my Roadini, but what I'm thinking about is a > little different. > > Leo's main wheels have 43mm GKSS. These are great on multi-surface rides > including pavement, rail trails, and small sections of dirt/gravel trails > where I take it easy on the corners. > > I have a trail system in town, mainly gravel, built through small forests > connecting a lot of neighbourhoods with a creek being the constant. The > trails are up and down (steep as 19%); twisty, with some sharp, off-camber > turns; sometimes the gravel is loose, and there are little ruts after rain > storms. It's as fun as MTB'ing on singletrack. I ride a Salsa Fargo with > 2.2" tubeless gravel tires on these trails. I can fly through the > 'course', however, that bike is about half as comfortable as Leo. > > Like a cat, Leo is light and nimble, playful, but if you push her, she's > not happy. My Fargo is more like a dire wolf, butting sitting upon him, > I'm just not comfy. And who doesn't want to be comfy. > > So I'm thinking of outfitting Leo with some aggressive tread 45mm tires; > lots of knobs, supple, confidence inspiring. I would then take her end to > end on my local trails and see how she compares to the Fargo. Less volume > may hurt, but maybe I can make up for that with work on my skills? > > Alternatively, I give occasional thought to buying a Hillborne. I want > drop bars, I want as similar to Leo as I can get, I like the idea of > fenders with some narrow tires (maybe) on one wheel set, with another maybe > going up to 48mm. I'm just now sure it's worth it. But if I can get it > as comfortable as Leo, then I can dedicate Sam to the trails, shoulder > season (roads more likely to be wet) with fenders and maybe winter tires. > -- 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/7f98244d-55d2-4332-8ada-50c410a46943n%40googlegroups.com.
