On Friday, October 19, 2012 9:11:23 AM UTC-7, Steve Palincsar wrote:
> If only there were a way to make a tire that was (a) fast and supple but > also provided (b) decent resistance to punctures from small pieces of > glass and sharp stone and long tread life. I guess while I'm at it I > should also add, "(c)and cheap." Unfortunately, I think that while (b) > and (c) can go together, (a) and (b) tend to be mutually exclusive. > In fact, wide tires can meet all three demands... a) Fast: We now know that a wider tire is faster (up to a point) or at least no slower than a narrower one, if you keep the casing and tread the same. b) Puncture Resistance: Wider tires are more puncture-resistant, because they run at lower pressures. c) Cheap: The important variable is price per mile, and a wider tire always will be cheaper, because it lasts so much longer, since the wear is spread over more rubber. I don't want to sound like I am advertising here, but the 650B x 42 mm Grand Bois Hetre meets all your criteria. It is one of the fastest tires on the market. It gets far less punctures than almost any tire you can buy (most of us average one puncture per 8000 miles). And it lasts at least 4000 miles, compared to less than 2000 for most 25 mm tires. There are few win-win-win situations in physics, but this is one of them. (The disadvantages of wide tires<http://janheine.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/the-downsides-of-wide-tires/>are too small to make a difference in most riding.) Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly http://www.bikequarterly.com Follow our blog at http://janheine.wordpress.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/ryPskALs9WkJ. 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.
