Since this is a "non-scientific tire test" I'll throw in some data to confuse the issue further. My wife is a small, light person who's ridden for a long time on an aluminum Trek with 700c wheels & Paselas marked 28 mm, measure 26 mm at 80 psi. On her 26" wheeled Atlantis, I installed some 1.25" wide Panaracer Urban Max (even the name sounds heavy!) and inflate to around 60 psi. Both bikes weigh the same +/- a water bottle.
Her downhill style is sitting bolt upright and coasting, so which bike "should" roll faster in this real world roll down test? We ride a lot of local bike paths that have underpasses where my considerable greater mass gets me going a lot faster. She nearly keeps up on the 26" wheeled Atlantis, while drifting painfully behind on the 700 wheeled bike. Bigger wheels roll faster? Maybe not the entire answer? While it provides hours of amusement to speculate, I'm happy she loves her Atlantis and the Trek is now a "guest bike".. dougP On Feb 26, 7:54 am, Patrick in VT <swing4...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Feb 25, 2:56 pm, William <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > A lot of comfort is bike fit, though, and the 700x28 wheels won't change > > any of my fit points on the bike, so maybe I'll feel just as good. > > Who knows? > > Depends on the roads, no? most of the long rides I do happen to > include a lot of dirt - I really like 650b for these rides because it > is definitely more comfortable when the pavement ends. > > for road rides, my 700c bike with 25s is just plain faster. every now > and then, i'll take my 650b rig (which is actually a sporty bike - > columbus spirit-for-lugs tubes/pari-motos/white industries H2s laced > to aerohead rims) out with some fast friends (who i can normally put > the hurt on) and it's a struggle just to keep up. the pari-motos at > 50psi just don't accelerate like a narrower tire at higher pressure - > and it's very noticeable when you need to get back up to 25mph in a > hurry. this is what "fast" means to me. > > just cruising along, I don't really notice a difference - i'm as fast > as my legs and lungs are strong on any given day. but the bike/wheel > choice becomes pretty clear given the type of ride i'm about to do: > rough-stuff mixed terrain or long brevet - 650b!! spirited road ride > - 700c!! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
