Oooh. That's a cool bike. That would be a cool bikepacking machine. Honestly, though, I use the 2.1" Nanos on my mountain bike and they are fine for almost 85% of my riding. I went for a 3 hour ride a week ago in the snow, slush, and fire roads of my area, and they did fine. 3" seems (to someone who has not had a 29+ or 650b+ bike) unnecessary for MOST conditions. On the other hand, if I rode more in the High Desert, where the roads are an awful mix of washboard, supersandy sections, and rutted wreckage, I might feel different.
35 mm seems to suffice for anything that is packed, relatively free of rocks, and uniform. Once there are ruts, depressions, and a mix of packed and soft dirt, I think a 40-60 mm is better. I pay a lot of attention to what types of conditions call for which tires, and sometimes I choose the wrong bike for a particular ride. Where I live in the eastern San Gabriels, there is a tremendous variety of road and offroad conditions. There is a section of potted rocky debris-strewn fire road on one of the lower top ridges of the mountain I live on that is, despite being a "road", is far scarier on skinnier tires when descending than the true offroad trails nearby. If I ride it with anything like a 35 mm, it frankly sucks since I have to keep very slow. Heck, it is rough on a 29er hardtail with 2" tires. These distinctions matter less if you subscribe to a "bigger is better" philosophy that seems more popular among the Riv crowd, many of whom appear to be running 45-50 mm tires for just general riding, but I like to go fast on the roads, and that does seem to be more difficult when running fatter tires. On Sunday, December 27, 2015 at 1:12:52 AM UTC-8, cyclot...@gmail.com wrote: > > A lot of buzz for the Pine Mtn... less than $1K for a B+ bike that's > decently put together isn't half bad. > www.marinbikes.com/us/bikes/description/2016-pine-mountain-1 > > On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 12:46 AM, Mike Shaljian <mikesh...@gmail.com > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Can confirm, the 3" tires are amazing for off-road riding! I have the >> Bontrager 'Chupacabra' and they're fantastic for everything, from >> washboarded gravel to decently technical mountain biking (the bike is >> great, I'm OK ;) Riding the 3" tires on severely washboarded gravel in the >> summer feels like cheating. The versatility and surprisingly low rolling >> resistance of the plus tires is really something else. >> >> On Saturday, December 26, 2015 at 5:11:18 PM UTC-8, Mojo wrote: >>> >>> I am with Mike (and his Jones Plus). Off road tire size for me this year >>> has been 3 inch. For on-road or light dirt I went with performance tires, >>> the 2.3" Super Motos. >>> https://www.facebook.com/joe.ramey.90/media_set?set=a.10208278459298399.1210921748&type=3 >>> >>> Joe 'in snowy GJT where tis the season for 4" to 5" tires and yes I will >>> ride to work Sunday morning with a forecasted low of -6F' Ramey >>> >>> On Wednesday, December 23, 2015 at 9:46:25 PM UTC-7, Mike Shaljian wrote: >>>> >>>> Check out this new offering from Schwalbe, the "Big One": >>>> http://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/schwalbe-big-one.html >>>> >>>> I've been running 60-622 Super Motos tubeless on my Jones and they are >>>> pretty great for gravel and packet dirt. When I can track down some of >>>> these with the Snakeskin Sidewall I'm going to switch, as it's 150g per >>>> tire of weight savings and tubeless setup is supposed to be much easier >>>> with SnakeSkin tires from Schwalbe. They also claim it's the lowest >>>> rolling >>>> resistance tire they've ever made. I would imagine the LiteSkin model run >>>> tubeless would be the ultimate for a fast and supple fatty for the rough >>>> roads. I'll be sure to post my thoughts on the Big One when I've given it >>>> a >>>> spin. >>>> >>>> - 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-bun...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com >> <javascript:>. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > > -- > Cheers, > David > > Member, Supreme Council of Cyberspace > > "it isn't a contest. Just enjoy the ride." - Seth Vidal > > > > -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
