I'll take the other side of the argument on this one. While light supple tires perform well riding unloaded, on a long tour in the summer, with 25-30 lbs of gear, expect significantly more flats than you are used to. Perhaps not sidewall cuts or other structural damage but punctures from tire wires, small bits of glass, thorns, etc.
For a trip such as you describe, I would go with something from Schwalbe. Yes, they will weigh considerably more than the Compass. 40 mm Marathon Supremes are 500 grams, & their offerings go up from there. They are not supple like Compass. But you will get far fewer flats. It just depends on your tolerance for fixing flats. Especially with long, back to back days of riding, with a load, the decrease in tire performance will not be a hindrance. In fact, if you don't overly inflate them, Schwalbes can be cushy with a load. Once you get home from the trip, change back to the high performance tires and your bike will feel like it's old self, especially without any load. dougP On Monday, May 1, 2017 at 7:21:48 AM UTC-7, Tim wrote: > > So, I absolutely love my Compass Barlow Pass extra light, 700x38s on my > Hilsen. I've been riding them for 2-2 1/2 years. I'm planning on riding > from KC to Phoenix in a couple of weeks. I'll be on pavement. I'm around > 230-235 lbs (30 lbs too heavy currently) and I'll have some gear since I'll > be camping some, with hotels a couple nights per week. No cooking gear. > I'll try to keep my load down to 25-30 lbs. I know many people would never > tour with such a "fragile" tire, but I don't want to give them up. I would > definitely carry an extra tire (along with the usual tubes, patches, etc.) > because I had to abandon PBP after 1000K due to a sidewall cut (I found out > that tire boots simply will not hold a Compass tire. I used 2 boots and > paper money to boot it but still had 7 flats over around 100K), so I > wouldn't make that mistake again. I don't plan on any gravel but wouldn't > be afraid of some short sections and even an intentional jaunt or two > (although I've yet to develop much of an affinity for gravel.) Ok, so, > what's the group consensus? Compass for a fat guy on tour or not? Thanks! -- 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.
