Hugh, I don't know about the Xpress tires from Soma, but I've ridden two Soma tires that are similar: the New Express 700x37C and C-Line 700x38C.
Very different tires. The New Express 700x37C is nice and fat (have not actually measured, but I don't doubt they are a true 37 if not 38C. It also has the Hypertex casing. It also has a tread pattern like the Pasella. I did not care overly much for this tire. Felt it was heavy and slow. But I'm sure it offers good puncture resistance. Since the new C-Lines became available, I switched to those. What a difference! The C-Line has no hypertext, is much lighter than the New Express, is a true 38C wide, and is fast. While I like the ride characteristics of the C-Line (which is the same as the B-Line in 650B I'm sure), I have also flatted twice in under 300 miles of riding. The flats did not occur on dirt. One was from glass, one from an industrial-size staple. One thing I've observed about flats, however, is that they can be random occurrences. That is to say, I've ridden tires for a thousand miles with nary a flat, and then the next few hundred am plagued by several. Hard to figure. I'd say that so far, the best combination of ride quality combined with low rolling resistance has been the Jack Brown Greens! Go figure. These are by far my favorite tire, on road and off. They've been the fastest, most fun, and most able to fend off flats. I can't explain it. I just enjoy them and don't ask questions. In your case, if you want a fatter tire, I'd go with the Soma B-Lines if you're done with the Hetre experiment. They're plenty fast, if they're like the C-Line. Unless you're riding in Goat Head land, I think they ought to be pretty good for flat protection. On Saturday, December 28, 2013 6:27:09 PM UTC-8, Mike Schiller wrote: > > It's not surprising that your Express tires measure ~35mm at best. From > what I've heard and read the hypertex casing is good for flat protection, > but keeps the casing from expanding fully. The B-lines without the casing > will stretch out to a full 38mm after a while but have no more flat > protection than a Hetre. > > I still think you were just unlucky with your Hetres. I'm not giving up > on mine for most rides. For an extended dirt tour I'd probably run the Big > Bens, which run about 46 mm. > > ~mike > > > -- 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 post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
