Souplesse Casings and Bike Soup - The Tire Thread

[halbritt]

@Shiny_squid_green

Schwalbe launches 38mm Pro One tyre

Looks promising. My only real reservation is availability and the difficulty associated with getting precisely the Schwalbe tire one wants to purchase.

[EndpointBraden]

@halbritt

…me running tubes would be a bike that I wanted to keep around that I didn’t ride very often. FWIW, I’ve ridden latex, which is good, but annoying in that it has to be aired up every time you ride, TPU, which isn’t special enough to justify the cost, and butyl. If I were going to run tubes, I’d probably use the Conti race variety, but I’m not sure that would solve the problem of not being delicate.

Counterpoint… I rode some dumb stuff with chunky gravel and whatnot on some Challenge handmade jawns and have lived to fight another day with zero flats, plugs, or anything else. To @iwillbe 's point… this is the way. These tires are super annoying to mount at first, but I did ride the same bombed-out fire road that killed a Reen tire on my last go there. So there’s that. Never giving up the soup.

[halbritt]

First non-dumb ride on the SpeedKings, long flat gravel. Tires were at mid 20s PSI. I noticed two things. They were smooth as hell on flat gravel, as to be expected, I suppose for a high volume tire. Felt like pavement, better than pavement. The ride was out and back with a stiff head/tail wind. They weren’t terrible in the head wind. With the tail wind, I was able to sustain 20-25mph pretty easily and wow that felt fun as hell. Nearly overcooked a long sweepy corner that would’ve been silly to take a spill on.

Verdict so far: much fun, no sluggish feels, wow

[drandalls]

@drandalls

Anyone know anything about these tires? Old stock/non-US market? Not on the Vittoria site and stock number listed doesn’t bring anything up. Is G+ the first gen rubber compound?

I was wrong about this tire. It seems to be a genuine Vittoria tire.

And it’s a fantastic tire. Supple, fast rolling, and with incredible traction. Lighter than spec, my two were 562g and 570g. Excellent buy at the price.

[emory]

OT, but the same eBay store has this seat post:

Bontrager Approved Carbon Fiber MTB Road Seatpost // 27.2 x 250mm 8mm Offset...

just as cheap as the other eBay carbon, and a :air_quotes: real :air_quotes: brand attached.

[halbritt]

Pulled the Tufos off my 700c wheelset and threw these 32mm GP5ks on:

'course they’re fast, but what’s amazing is that at 60PSI rear, they’re not any faster than the SpeedKings at 27PSI on pavement. Obviously more aero.

First ride on these and I’m a bit bummed. Handles just like a road bike should. Still looking for Goldilocks tires, but I suppose I threw these on there for winter/wet/fender use, so I suppose that’s fine.

[Crustradamus]

@halbritt

'course they’re fast, but what’s amazing is that at 60PSI rear, they’re not any faster than the SpeedKings at 27PSI on pavement.

Smilingjan.jpg

[halbritt]

@Crustradamus

Smilingjan.jpg

What I was thinking as well, but Jan is wrong. At least in some sense. I think tire construction matters more than size. Fatter ain’t necessarily faster, nor slower, even. This is what got me on these tires:

Yes! Rolling resistance is very very low. Much lower than all other mountain bike tires tested to date. At an air pressure of 25 psi, rolling resistance is 19.1 watts. This is 3.2 watts less than the Schwalbe Thunder Burt (read review) which was the previous record holder. Compared to the Continental Race King (read review), rolling resistance is 3.3 watts lower. At higher pressures, the advantage increases to 3.5 - 4.0 watts. This tire will fly on asphalt.

What’s interesting is that if you use the Speed King in a tubeless configuration (read tubeless comparison), rolling resistance at 55 psi will be close to 12.0 watts. 12.0 watts means it would have less rolling resistance than a Continental Grand Prix 4000S II road bike tire (read review) at 120 psi.

These things are really, really delicate. I’m surprised they survived one ride through the streets around my house.

[Crustradamus]

He knows this intuitively even if he won’t say it. His tires shred both literally and figuratively because of how light the sidewall construction is. That’s why I can’t stop riding them on my fop chariot. I buy these fat tire slicks solely based on weight and no one has beaten him yet (though these Schwalbe tires that I could not get to set up tubeless were on par both in feel and weight).

[iwillbe]

GP4K s II at 120 psi. How about at a pressure normal humans currently use, Jan?

At 400 psi these tires feel terrible!

[halbritt]

@iwillbe

GP4K s II at 120 psi. How about at a pressure normal humans currently use

That was a quote from BRR. 12W is a GP5k 28mm at 55 PSI, which is a perfectly reasonable tire and pressure to run. Also among the top 5 fastest tires in the world.

[iwillbe]

yup, I was reading the bottom of the second thing quoted in your post.
I’m saying that comparing anything to a 120psi tire in TYOOL 2023 is kind of misleading

[Shamp]

@Crustradamus

Smilingjan.jpg

[halbritt]

This is interesting:

Are Wider Tyres a total WIN? The Aerodynamics.

Kinda settles what we’ve all been figuring out these last few years. He tests a 28 vs 32 GP5k on multiple wheels.

On the right rim (rim wider than the tire) and with pressures adjusted for coefficient of rolling resistance, the 28mm and 32mm are nearly identical. On the wrong rim, there’s a massive difference. This reinforces the thing Josh Poertner wrote about.

It only begins to matter at speeds >30k.

At all speeds, it’s critical to start with a tire that doesn’t suck. I was gonna try those Corsa N.EXT guys, but now I’m not gonna.

[emory]

but didn’t you hear

[Master_Stabby]

This is why runny arse tires are so comically undersized, not because Jan can’t use calipers.

[LASER_BEIGE]

Are hetres still relevant

[drandalls]

Yeah bc Crust sells them

No bc not tubeless

[panda_heavy_metal]

@LASER_BEIGE

Are hetres still relevant

Insomuch as I have a set on my bike that won’t die: yes.

[cousinmosquito]

@halbritt

…er than the tire) and with pressures adjusted for coefficient of rolling resistance, the 28mm and 32mm are nearly identical. On the wrong rim, there’s a massive difference. This reinforces the thing Josh Poertner wrote about.It only begins to matter at speeds >30k.At all speeds, it’s critical to start with a tire that doesn’t suck. I was gonna try those Corsa N.EXT guys, but now I’m not gonna.

He did a bikerumour podcast recently on graphene. I can’t tell if it’s science or marketing.