Beautiful A/R Jim! If you ever decide to sell it let me know ;) I really
*really* wish Riv still made a 26er for us tall folk!
*Tires*
I believe we are living in the Golden Age of 26" tires! So many great
options to choose from!
RTP Extra Ligre are my absolutely perfect all round/all road tire. The
lightness of the tire works so well with 26" (more on that later). But if
you're worried about sidewall cuts, Endurance RTP are almost as good and
probably better for those looking for a bit more stability while cornering
(though it's the extra weight giving you that, not the sidewall)
Humptulips are great as a light weight modern MTB tire. I've only used the
Endurance casing, 'cause if you're not shredding with these, go with RTP's
Pana GK SS in 26x2.1 are also a solid all road choice. Can fit these under
fenders, unlike the RTP's in my experience (I have some alu Honjo's over
mine) About as light as RTP EL but less expensive. Bonus you can get them
in fun colors!
Ultradanymico Mars 26 are currently on one of my Romanceur's (mostly for
the red color :) They're just a touch lighter and smaller than the
Humptulips, but roll just as nice :)
Maxxis DTH 26x2.15 are a very solid budget tire. They only measure out to
2" for me on 17 mm internal rims, so a great option if you need more
clearance! A bit heavy, but the still roll very nice! Great commuter/city
option
Sadly, not everything is all roses. One of the best 26" tires are no longer
in production: the Onza Canis 26" were probably the best modern MTB, at
least before RH came out with the Humptulips. I still have a set stashed :)
And then there is a bunch of great looking/sounding tires I haven't even
tried yet:
You got the entire Sim Works line up in 26": The Homage, Volummy, and Super
Yummy!
And, the very retro-cool line up from House of Looptail faithfully
recreating vintage 80's 26": Snake Bites and Comp Deuces! Most excitedly
for me is the Ritchey Megabite Z-Max's that are in production. Definitely
want a set of those once they come out :)
*Regarding WHY 26" is good*
I definitely agree with Keith that '26" wheels on a road bike are REALLY
enjoyable.' But I disagree with his reasoning (which, to be fair, is a
commonly stated one). It's definitely not that they spin up faster (I've
stated it many times and it's a hill I will die on: It takes negligible
effort to spin *any* bike wheel up to speed*) But he is correct to identify
that moment of inertia does have an important role to play. If the moment
of inertia of a wheel is too high, you may find the bike too stable and it
will feel as if the bike is resisting turning ("corning on rails"). As
tires increase in width, they inevitably become heavier. The only way to
counteract this is to make the diameter of you're wheel smaller.
Personally, I find beyond 700x38mm Barlow tires to become too heavy to make
cornering at speed comfortable. But an Extralight RTP? It has about the
same moment of inertia and corners beautifully.** Throw on Maxxis DTH which
weighs almost 200 g more per tire and cornering at speed suddenly feels
uncomfortable to me. I do think which moment of inertia feels "right" to
you is a personally thing and you can probably get used to a higher or
lower one over time. But if a bike feels too stable or too unstable while
cornering, it might be remedied just by changing tires. Now, whereas frame
geometry changes can fix instability issues of having too little of a
moment of inertia, you can not fix too high of stability from high moment
of inertia with frame geometry, only the wheel geometry can do that. That
is the magic of 26er's as road bikes.
*The relevant quantity here is actually something called "moment of inertia
per unit speed" ranges from something like 0.25 to 0.5 kg*m for almost all
modern rims/tires (excluding things like Fat tires and mini velo wheels).
It's *fairly* comparable to just plain old inertia (weight) and so going
from the low end to the high end is like choosing to carry one full water
bottle or not, in terms of acceleration.
**It's actually lower and some might feel that RTP EL's are too unstable (I
suspect some of them are on this very post!). They are actually pretty low
in terms of moment of inertia and those folks might prefer the additional
stability of the weight of the Endurance casing. (The endurance casing
still isn't stiff enough to actually support the sidewall, so you are not
getting stability from that) I prefer the EL's because it also overcomes
some of the additional stability provided by the increased pneumatic trail
of the tire.
Ben in SF wishing he had a 61 cm A/R
On Friday, November 21, 2025 at 12:13:10 PM UTC-8 [email protected] wrote:
> Max, that is a beautiful bike. Congratulations. My AR is about the same
> size, but orange (and thus faster).
>
> Regarding tires: I'm curious to know how much clearance you have,
> particularly in the rear triangle. I'm the third owner of my AR, and not
> sure of the vintage, exactly, but my guess is early 2000s. I run Humptulips
> tires, endurance casing, and love the tires, but I have only 5 mm of
> clearance beneath the seatstay bridge, 3 mm of clearance at the chainstays,
> and 4 mm of clearance at the fork blades. Part of the problem is that the
> rims are Cliffhangers. A different rim might give me a millimeter or two
> more clearance, at least horizontally, but not enough to run fenders.
> Likewise, Rat Trap Pass tires might buy me yet another millimeter, but,
> again, not enough for fenders. Were I to fender the bike, I would certainly
> size down to Naches Pass. (Oh, how I wish for a 47–48 mm actual-size René
> Herse 26-inch tire.)
>
> I use endurance casing on my two 26-inch-wheeled bikes and I find them
> plush and fast.
>
> For those who have more experience with ARs, do you have a sense of how
> actual clearances changed? I specify "actual" because I've combed the
> archived mailers, brochures, and catalogs for AR data and the best I can
> come up with is that stated tire clearance tightened just slightly from
> 2.35 inches in 1995 and 1996 publications to 2.1 inches in 1997 or 1998.
>
> --
> Bob
>
> On Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 9:49:12 AM UTC-7 maxcr wrote:
>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> As mentioned in the CL thread, I was the lucky buyer of the AR from eBay.
>>
>> Here's a bad photo from my basement last night after picking it up. I
>> promise better photos at some point in the future:
>>
>> [image: IMG_8327.jpg]
>>
>> I've always been curious about the early models, the 26 wheels on large
>> frame with a tighter geo, canti posts and great tire clearance made it
>> super appealing to me. The price was fair, larger ARs don't come up for
>> sale often.
>>
>> I'm really happy that my hunch was correct, it's a 59! Which is the
>> goldilocks size for me and more appropriate than 57 or 58.
>>
>> The seller said that the owner was a doctor who recently passed away and
>> his wife has been slowly selling his bikes through a friend who used to
>> work at their LBS (he has a couple of tandems, a Jack Taylor, a Ti Seven
>> and others that he's going to list). The bike has the original owners name
>> in the top tube, which is kinda cool, to keep the legacy going for him.
>>
>> Now the details. The bike is an early model. Based on the serial (JS0030)
>> and the JB in the chain stay, it's a Joe Starck /Joe Bell combo from 2000.
>> It's also number 30. 30 what? I don't know, the 30th All-Rounder ever
>> built? Maybe.
>>
>> The metallic blue paint with the cream head tube is just amazing even
>> after 25 years. There are some minor blemishes and chips as you would
>> expect from a bike that has been ridden, but it's really in top condition.
>>
>> I will probably ride it as is for a bit, but have plans to rebuild it.
>> The Ultegra group with brifters isn't what I want. I will probably keep the
>> drops (they say N Grand Randoneur which I assume is a Nitto noodle variant)
>> but need to see if they will work for me. I also plan to swap out the
>> drivetrain - probably put on a NOS Ritchey Logic crankset that I have or a
>> TA Carmina that I recently acquired paired with an XTR rapid rise RD (or
>> maybe an OM-1?).
>>
>> For tires, I'd love your thoughts. I'm thinking of RH Rat Trap Pass
>> tires, unless you convince me that the Naches Pass or the Simworks Homage
>> are a better option. I might want to keep it fendered, not sure... but
>> these fenders won't clear a really wide tire.
>>
>> Anyway, please offer your suggestions as I rethink this build. It won't
>> happen until next year given my time availability and other projects in the
>> pipeline.
>>
>> As you can see my downsizing isn't going well. I think I'm up to 11 with
>> the latest purchase of that time capsule brown Saluki and this AR. At some
>> point some will have to go, but I have a feeling that the AR is a keeper.
>>
>> Cheers
>> Max in Boston
>>
>
--
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 [email protected].
To view this discussion visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/92aa3316-d4e1-475e-9e13-be81304b203bn%40googlegroups.com.
