On Sun, Jun 4, 2023 at 12:50 PM Ted Durant <teddur...@gmail.com> wrote:
*1. Can I keep my VO wavy fenders on a gravel bike? Yes, but do you really want to? They'll limit your tire choice and it'll sound like you're shaking a soda (pop) can (let's please not pollute the thread with that discussion) full of rocks all ride long. As others have graphically shown, if it's muddy, you'll just pack the mudguards full of mud. That said, I run fenders on my Breadwinner, because most of my riding is on pavement and, until recently, the roads were frequently wet. If was planning a longer off-road ride, I'd ditch the fenders.* I keep fenders on my dirt road bikes, full on the Matthews, clip-on on the Monocog, since the fenders do help (greatly for the fulls, at least slightly for the clip-ons) keep the dust off me and the bike; our local very fine sand is thrown up in clouds of very fine dust. Hardly any mud here in the high desert, of course, and slick tires on the Matthews and very high clearances on the Monocog. (Actually, one reason I got the Monocog was to have a "snow bike" for the 1 day every 2 years with sufficient snow accumulation to allow a bosque snow ride. Yes, the last time the snow did pack up the Monocog wheels -- and rd and cassette and chain.) *2. Slick or knobby? I can’t even get a straight answer on this. Which is better? If it matters about the rider, this will be for a rider with a healthy fear of crashing.Part of this comes down to what you mean by "gravel". Tread only starts to make a difference when you're in soft stuff, where the edges of the knobs can bite into something to provide more acceleration/deceleration/cornering force. When you take a turn on gravel you're going to have much less traction than on pavement, regardless of the tires. Those pesky little gravel bits are easy to shove aside, and hooking the edge of a knob on them just shoves them harder.* Jan goes into this often and deeply to prove that knobs don't really help in gravel. They do in sand, but I prefer treadless for fast pavement riding and I'll slow in offroad corners. *3. How wide? I have 42s on my bikes now and I don’t feel like they are wide enough. Again, this may be a function of what type of "gravel" you're on. For the crushed limestone trails of Wisconsin at reasonable speeds, 42 is plenty. If you get into softer, sandy trails, though, or you love to fly through hairpin turns, bigger is always better. I ride 48s on my Breadwinner and never feel like I have "too much tire" under me. Unlike knobs, wider tires provide a genuine cornering advantage on loose surfaces, as they spread the force across lots more of those pesky little gravel bits, putting less force on each bit.* This does indeed depend on the type and depth of sand. I've found that for deep and silty sand, 50 mm is my minimum for relatively easy pedaling in the deeper bits (up to 3" with some work or low gears), but 60 mm is very noticeably better, and 72 mm just floats compared even to 60 mm. ~22/18/13 psi for each width. But for firm dirt and gravel, I'd be happy with 44s, but I'm bigger than Leah. *4. Tubeless or no? These wheels are tubeless-compatible but I put a tube in them because I wasn’t riding enough to keep the sealant circulating. But that can be changed right quick.I don't think gravel vs pavement enters into that decision, unless by "gravel" you mean bouncing over baby heads at high speed. One of the big benefits is eliminating pinch flats, which generally result from hitting fairly large chunks of something at low pressure. But you can do that in a Wisconsin pot hole on pavement, too. I'm running tubeless on my Breadwinner, but I'm not convinced it's an improvement, especially if you're not riding the bike frequently. I'm careful about storing my bike, but I still get sealant drying in the valve stems, which makes it very hard to put in air.* IMO, sealant isn't worth the hassle and mess unless you contend with goatheads or other very common puncture agents, or if you suffer from pinch flats with tubes. Me, if I had to patch no more than 1 flat per ~75 miles I'd just buy more Remas. *Tires: what an embarrassment of riches we have today, compared to even 10 years ago.* Amen. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgtMcpuaoKfJupgSZqrb36c99X4rVPK2St2f4sAWxcbxgw%40mail.gmail.com.
