Pete I'm a scientist and an engineer, by profession and by DNA. I'm wired to be curious. I'm wired to tinker and to question. I'm not obsessed with increasing speed, nor am I obsessed to get the ride over with. On brevets, when you ride fat 650B tires, you'll get a number of people on 700c road bikes ask you "Why would you want to slow yourself down like that?" They just assume that my 584x41s are absolute pigs. I've never been more comfortable on a performance bike than I am on my Hilsen with fat 584s. At the end of a 10 hour day, my back, rear end, arms shoulders, hands and feet all feel great. Once my legs catch up I have no doubts that my body could handle the longer events. Having found a new plateau in comfort, now I want to test the assertion that my fat 650B tires are actually significantly FASTER than 700x28s. It's hard for me to believe it, so I need to see it for myself. What I know is that my Hilsen feels much faster than my Hillborne, even though it has much fatter tires (650x41 vs 700x33). That equation has too many variables for sure.
It would be fascinating to me to find that the more comfortable tire choice is also the faster tire choice. I don't know if that's what I'll find. I expect that the data will be inconclusive, too close to call. For sure I expect I'll continue using fat 650Bs for all my long distance events. The comfort is way too much for me to pass up. A lot of comfort is bike fit, though, and the 700x28 wheels won't change any of my fit points on the bike, so maybe I'll feel just as good. Who knows? Curious folks like me think this way. Speaking of curious people being wired differently...If you really want to blow your mind, ask Grant what the perfect rim diameter is. He has an answer that he will defend emphatically and his perfect size rim has never been produced. So, don't misconstrue Grant's 'enjoy the ride' rhetoric to suggest that Grant doesn't sweat the details on bikes. He's one hundred times more technically nitpicky than me, and I think that's a very good thing, and one of the myriad reasons I like buying Rivendells. On Feb 25, 11:34 am, Peter Pesce <petepe...@gmail.com> wrote: > Very cool idea to have one bike that works for both sizes, and a > stroke of minor genius to think of up-sizing the 650B bike, rather > than down-sizing a 700. I was hoping I could convert my Sam to 650B, > just to see what all the fuss is about, but it only took a few > measurements to see that it wouldn't really work. > > I am curious to see your test results, but can't see how they'd be in > any way meaningful - jut too many variables. > > I can see how speed matters on a brevet, and to some degree on commute > (especially a 35-miler) but I, too, keep coming back to Grant's > question (paraphrased): "If we all like riding so much, why are we > always in such a hurry to get it over with as fast as possible?" > > On Feb 25, 1:04 pm, William <tapebu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > OK so I made a sort of self-indulgent mod to my A. Homer Hilsen. I > > set up the normally 650B bike with a 700C wheelset and short reach > > brakes. It's a wheelset I already had, and a short-reach brakeset I > > already had. So now I have a single bike that can easily be taken on > > a ride with 650Bx(whatever) tires one day, and taken on the same ride > > with 700x(23-28) tires the next, or whatever. > > > I bought the bike because of the feel of 650B, and I'm thrilled with > > it. Like most of you, I've been skeptical of the claims from Jan H > > and others that fat tires are faster. That said, on brevets in the > > last couple of months, I've been surprised at how quickly I catch and > > pass riders on coasting descents when I'm on 650x38 at 50psi and they > > are on 700x23 and I presume 90-110psi. That's anecdotal, and doesn't > > necessarily mean anything, but it was surprising. > > > So, now I think it will be fun to do a pseudo-scientific spot > > comparison between 650B and 700C. My commute to work is a 35-mile > > hilly ride through the east bay hills from El Cerrito to South > > Hayward. A good chunk of that is a non-stop stretch. I can usually > > get from my front door to a traffic signal in front of Castro Valley > > High School without stopping or putting my foot down. The next 10 > > times I do this commute, I'm going to alternate between the two > > wheelsets, and record my time for the same non-stop stretch for these > > ten rides. The 650B tires will be hetres at 50/45psi, and the 700C > > tires will be continental gatorskin 28s at 85/80psi. > > > Anyone care to guess which will seem faster? Too close to call? > > Impossible to test unless the rider is blind to the wheel > > configuration? Any advice on keeping the data clean? > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
