Four riders come to a river in the night. There is a narrow bridge, and it can only hold 2 people at a time. They have one dyno bike and, because itâs night, the bike has to be used when crossing the bridge. Person A can cross the bridge in 1 minute cos 700c X 28, B in 2 minutes cos 650 2.1, C in 5 minutes cos fat beik, and D in 8 minutes cos 4 panniers. Can they all get across the bridge if rider with the dyno is determined to drop them all
Darn, picked up some Conti Grand Prix in 28c to replace my rotting GP4000 28s. For one, skinwall tires look really ugly on black rim brake wheels (the black/tan/silver/black is a bit much). But when Conti updated their molds apparently they changed the reference rim for measuring width, the old tires were measured on 15mm wide rims and the new are on 17 or 19? So my new 28s actually measure 25.5.
Iâm curious but waiting to see what BRR says. More interested in the claims of increased grip and puncture resistance. There should be a review of one of the models soon.
Each individual friction-generating contact point is in contact with the surface for more time, for each wheel revolution; since the contact patch is longer for the 32" wheel/tire. This also decreases the peak pressure at any point. Which means that when a rider is right on the edge between traction and slide, they are able to put more power through the tire into the surface before crossing over into slide.
This would also necessarily slow down the slide velocity of the tire when it does loose traction, which should make for easier recovery.
I think rubber compound and tread pattern are around as powerful as this variable, so itâs not quite as presumptive as currently discussed.
This is of course all old-hat to people who lived through the 26"/29" changeover but I wasnât around for most of that. 32" seems to have more, and more function-focused, champions than 650b/27.5 ever did so it will be interesting to see where it goes. Reading the news it seems like itâs going to take over XC immediately.
As much as the industry is struggling, itâs clear there is a mass of consumers who are not, they may be able to effectively bring this into permanence.
Shit. I donât think Iâve ever seen a picture of someone actually ON one of those crazy-ass bikes. Thatâs even more amazing than just seeing them on display.
Imagine being asked your inseam so someone can decide how big to make your wheel.
I guess a prototype Genesis bike at iceBike. Was posted without context by Willow bikes over at the framebuilder forum yesterday and then the article above popped up this morning.