I’ve been out of touch with road cycling for years so it is still crazy to me to see 28mm tires be considered narrow and also being used on TT bikes.
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Not that they were ever abundant, but trying to replace the ancient 21mm tire on the front of my old track bike was more difficult than I remembered. No one seems to sell a clincher smaller than 23mm these days…and there are many fewer of those around.
Time to go 650c for bar spins
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Back in 2005, we only had one 21mm tire in the shop. I thought they were nearly extinct even then.
goddamn these challenge tires take a lot of sealant to actually seal
i still like byways too
Wait till you go looking for 19mms
What’s your take on the Bicycle Rolling Resistance Wet Grip test?
It seems to match up well with the real world, at least for tires I’ve ridden recently shown below.
Tires in the 60s suck when it’s wet, 70s are good and 80s are phenomenal.
I recently started riding the GP5000 All Season and it has unbelievable traction, even compared to the Pathfinder Pro. To say nothing of shit-tier tires like Panaracer and WTB.
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Pathfinder Pro is a damn good tire atmo.
I hate challenge.
Why did you make your tubeless cross tires worse to mount than your tubulars?
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Update: tires got mounted. I used a tire lever more than a little bit.
HY went to a teammates house and he was having an opposite problem. Tire bead was stretched and he couldn’t get it to seat. I remembered a YouTube video I watched years ago and suggested putting a strap around the circumference of the tire to hold it on the rim and then use the compressor. Worked 1st time and I looked like a bike genius.
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“Challenge tires: Always a Challenge” ™️
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My friend doesn’t get it.
It’s ok I don’t get it either
he got TIREd
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This trend of making gravel bikes 700 only has me worried. What do the industry people here know. Is 650b dying? Do I need to start stock piling my favourite tires.
See at OPEN, the new bikes will be 700 c only, they are increasing the fit to a massive 44mm on the new model ZEN. The UP will be a little larger. I guess they still have the OPEN WIDE.
I’d say this has been the case for the bigger carbon players the whole time. Losing OPEN is a gut punch though.
I do love my 650x50 conti tires for underbiking. Everytime I start thinking I need bigger than 40 on my 700 wheels, I put on the 650s for a specific ride and realize I’m just fine with my short wheelbase “all road” setup the rest of the time.
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Yeah. My spez fasttracks 2.0 are my most used tires I think. They seem to be getting harder to find in 650b though. I actually measured the difference yesterday. BB was 1 cm lower with the 650bs compared to 35 mm Bon Jons. I never get pedal strike though with the 175 cranks. If anyone has recommendations for a 2.0 XC styled 650b, let me know. A 2.1 would be too big. I guess everything is trending large.
What’s stopping one from putting 650s on a “700c only” bike?
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Yeah. I wondered that myself. Maybe its just about optimization, so rather than being optimised for 650/700 x 38 mm its 700 x 38/700 x 50 mm. Hence going down to the smaller wheel would just mean a lot lower BB ?