Took a ride with my touring bike with SPDs today and felt the distant pangs of an old injury coming back to haunt me. I think I have to swear off clipless for good. What flat pedals should I put on this new bike?
Also, should I upgrade to 43mm gravel kings, or keep the 35mm stock Ritchey shield tires and buy my own upgrade from a better selection than what the shop has?
Gravelkings feel real good compared to cheap tires. Not the best, but nice for the price. But I’d not go past the 38mm. In the last few years I’ve gone from 38 to 35 to 32, all at 40-45 psi.
Why not past 38?
Giant slick tires are a fad. In 5 years were gonna look back at 40mm+ slick tires and 60cm wide drop bars and shake our heads.
When I went down in size all I felt was faster. Ride didn’t change at all. I was just spinning less weight and putting slightly less rubber on the ground.
I don’t think I’ll go under 32mm though. Seems like a sweet spot
Rotating mass. I’ve played around with slicks up to 48 (the rent-a-herse ones) and didn’t find any improvement over Nomad 28s or Confreries, but I did find that they made my bicycle feel like a slowly accelerating truck.
(Gravel King 38s are fine; not as fast as Pari-Motos, but they’re a lot less fuss to set up tubeless and they aren’t flat magnets.)
Oh the ones I was thinking about are the SKs not the totally slick ones. I wouldn’t want a huge slick tire.
in my experience the 3 to 4 cm range is the sweet spot for multipurpose tires.
for context, on two of my other bikes I have a 38 front 35 rear
I’ve been riding good 30mm tyres on my roadie for the last 10 years and it’s been great. New/old roadie only fits 25mm and you know what? It’s fine! They ride really nice at about 80/85psi. I honestly don’t feel Like I’m missing out on anything unless the road surface gets really bad.
At least some of this is weight dependent, I love some 38-42 tires for the ability to run all-day comfy pressures but still avoid pinch flats.
By chance last night, I watched this youtube video: https://youtu.be/N9AayNvYyVE?t=523
Which says in certain terms that Specialized shoes (which I use) have a tilt to them that causes knee pain. This is my biggest issue in cycling, because I really fucked up my knees after a three month tour 12 years ago. I had to take extended time off from riding and for a while I had trouble walking up even one flight of stairs. I’ve mostly recovered, but every now and then these injuries come back, and I have to take a month off from riding.
Here’s an old thread about this issue on bike forums.
Think I can just try another brand? Or is SPD too risky?
Get u a fitter that can do both
When I last ran SPDs, like 8 or so years ago, I had some little wedges under the cleats for that reason. Felt good.
Then I realized I hate clipless and flat pedals are great.
Personally I found the 43 mm SKs quite slow, but very robust, and easy to set up tubeless. I’ve set them up a couple of times but only use them for events where Im on marginal terrane and using 700 wheels. Usually I’m on the 650bs, in Specialized.
what size shoe do you wear? i have some shoes I don’t like that I’ll donate to your cause if you’re a 43
Thanks, but I’m a 42. Also I was mistaken about the brand - for some reason I really thought my bontrager shoes were specialized. After looking at my cleat position and talking to my PT brother I think I have different issues than I thought. Cleats were all the way forward and my right foot, when my knees are straight, is naturally a noticeable and consistent amount offset clockwise (through the whole range of motion) than my left foot. The right side is the side with issues. Left foot just faces straight forward. Not sure exactly how to adjust everything but I think I have good data to work with and I’m optimistic I can eventually use clipless pedals without injuring myself if I have professional help aligning things.
my cleats are always setup with both toes slightly outside of my heels, gently rotated out, helps me reduce IT band straining
Yeah I need to do this with just the right shoe. I rode 96 miles this weekend in sneakers with flats with no issues and tried to keep an eye on exactly what i was doing down there. Left foot straight right foot heel inward towards the chainstay.
It’s probably an imbalance further up the system like your hips.
