How big is too big? How soft is too soft?
The Rider is the best book ever written about Cycling. I don’t mean that figuratively, I literally mean that literally. I say this despite having had my hand in writing our own Book about Cycling. What makes this book great is not just the prose, which is immaculate, but the spirit of the Velominatus that permeates the work. My friend @ErikdR recently sent me a copy in the original Dutch and, to my amazement, the English translation loses very little of the subtext that most translations do. Still, some expressions as they are written in Dutch carry so much meaning that it is impossible to translate into a foreign tongue. This is the essential underlying art, the intangible essence that separates language from communication.
Early in the book, Krabbé rides a short warm-up and upon reaching his turn-around point, climbs off to answer the call of nature. As he remounts, he carefully wipes his tires clean before setting off back towards the start/finish line. I had never noticed that bit of the book before but the Dutch version used a particular turn of phrase that expressed, if not a love, then an unusual degree of care given to an inanimate object.
And I realized, at that moment, that Cyclists today don’t love their tires anymore; clinchers have desensitized us against the miracle of riding on a membrane supported only by air. Tubulars, on the other hand, make you work to appreciate their miracle. You have to huff some glue (technically that counts as a win-win), you have to align the tyre properly, you have to keep the glue off both the braking surface and the sidewall, which seems like a paradox to the uninitiated. Tubulars make you work for it, they help you appreciate that a tire isn’t a bit of disposable kit; it is a commitment towards mutual benefit.
I was raised like every other Merckx-fearing Velominatus: on a strict diet of Rule #5, long hours in the saddle, and 19mm tires pumped to the highest number the sidewall said to pump them to. Which was usually around 10 bar (150 psi). Simple physics: less surface area meant less friction, and everyone knows friction is an asshole.
Until the last few years, I’ve ridden 23mm tires at 8 bar, no questions asked. In the past few years, however, we’ve come to understand that lower pressures and wider tires provide some significant benefits, like being faster and more comfortable, to pick two. I have accepted this transition like a toddler “accepts” his vegetables.
Like Grandpa adjusting to color film in his camera, I have gradually moved towards wider tires at lower pressures. I’ve been experimenting with 25mm, 26mm, and 27mm tires for the last few seasons, pumped up anywhere from 6.5 to 8.5 bar. (On the cobbles in Northern Europe, I ride them at 5 to 5.5 bar, depending on the conditions.) Empirically, the difference in ride quality by tire pressure comes down first to the quality of the tire and its materials, the weight and riding style of the rider, countered by the road conditions.
Mileage may vary based on your weight and tire, but for now I’ve landed on 26mm tires at 7.5 bar. Now I’m just waiting for my order of Gianni’s Digital Lezyne pressure gauge to show up so I can really get down to business.
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Since owning a pair of open paves(still not proper tubs I know) I have become much more attentive of their condition and find myself regularly checking for cuts and debris far more than I did with the Conti's I had on before ;even keep giving the sidewalls a wipe over to make that green stripe stand-out.
The only downside(well apart from the cuts they seem to pick up) is that the lettering is upside down if placed next to the valve.
Next step though is some nice tubeless rims like some Reynolds Assaults with some Schwalbe ones;anyone want a kidney?
@fenlander
I tried tubeless for a while before going back to running tubes in the rims (Campag Shamal). It seems to be very flinty where I ride and I kept getting punctures that would not seal so in the end I gave up on running tubeless. I think the current sealants struggle at road tyre pressures. I also ran Schwalbe Ones for a while. Loved the ride but they did seem quite puncture prone and I ended up switching to Ultremo DD though currently running Open Pave.
One thing about tubeless tyres I did find is that fitting and removing is an absolute bitch compared to clincher tyres. So if you do puncture putting a tube in is not as easy as with a clincher tyre. The Open Pave are a doddle in comparison.
Do not ride silk tubs in the wet.
I'm still running the cheapy 23mm clinchers that came with the bike. I reckon by now I might as well run them into the ground before replacing them with something half decent. And 25's seem to be the way to go, probably Conti Gatorskins as it's what my LBS recommended and they're not to pricey.
I tend to pump mine hard (110-120psi) as I'm a heavy rider and I'm convinced I get more punctures when my tyres are soft (although I've not had one on my new bike in over 1,600ks of riding).
I found that 28mm and 5 bar on the cobbles/kassen/pave certainly helped my vegetables to the point that I can still make toddlers.
Frank set me the homework exercise of reading the Rider - managed in two sittings.
My 22 will now always be as clean as a whistle
"Cyclists today don’t love their tires anymore"
A very astute observation. Bike 1 has been a reet biatch recently for punctures. Sitting and inspecting the tyres carefully showed a bunch of cuts, bits of glass and one tear deep enough to go through to the tube which caused a pinch puncture on her last ride. Conti 4 Seasons with 2500km under them.
The nine bike is seeing more action at present. Cheap Kenda OEM tyres that so far have shrugged the awful glass mud and thorn strewn roads of the North East of England.
I'm gunna make cleaning my tyres part of the evening routine from now on.
Moving to tubulars was the best thing I've every done for my bikes. Hands down, no contest.
Reasons: a 24mm Pave Evo CG tubular has a ride quality like a big fat 32mm clincher, without all the weight. They don't puncture, even when ridden repeatedly over shards of glass. I can ride gravel or mild singletrack on them, no problem. Need to bunny hop a pothole onto a broken bottle? I've done this more than once, sans problem.
The mechanical work of mounting the tires brings you closer to your bike. You must understand the machine, understand the interface, and care about it and love it enough to learn how to make it work. Once you've glued a few tires, it's no longer a chore. Ignore the sturm and drang about how gluing a set of tires takes 4 days and requires sacrificing a chicken and whatnot. Once you've got the hang of it and a nice base coat on your rims, a tidy and strong glue job can be accomplished with 30 minutes' work, most of which is spent drinking beer and waiting for the glue to set up a bit.
Back in the day when roads were often not surfaced there was a reason they used these.........
Oh no, the much feared "gate" has entered the cycling realm. As a U.S. historian, there is one "gate" and it involves Tricky Dick. It doesn't involved a misshift by Andy Schleck, it doesn't involved some underinflated pigskin. Nope, just the sitting President lying to the nation.
Along those lines, just because I buy your grill/bbq, doesn't mean I'm part of any "nation"; I just want to cook a fucking hot dog in my backyard.
Excuse my giving a shit but, I just see this as part of the trend to declare every single fucking thing as a big deal, as epic, as the greatest/biggest/craziest/wildest _______ of all time. It's like we're happily ignoring all of recorded history and focusing on making right now the biggest fucking deal to ever occur. The sad part is that in twenty years, more Americans will probably remember cheating in a football game than the actions of Milhous. On that note, fuck it.
One thing I really enjoy about The Rider is that I can pick it up and start reading from any point and be entertained. I've read it a few times from cover to cover, but picking it up before bed and just reading a few pages here or there is an excellent preface to a rest.