William, Are yours the Express or b-line? The b-line is the version with out the hypertex and more like a plain passela, but in the 650bx38. I know they make the Express in 700c, but something more like the b-line in 700cx38 no hypertex and the fun colors offered for the Express would be really nice.
Rob On Jan 24, 7:09 am, William <[email protected]> wrote: > The Soma New Express 650B tires that I purchased from Rivendell are > great tires. On the 200k brevet I did this weekend I was alongside > many 700x23, 700x25, 700x28 riders on some pretty rough pavement on > Sir Francis Drake and elsewhere. I noticed lots of grunts of pain and > loud knocks and rattles from the skinny tired bikes and their riders, > while my 650x38 Somas took the bumps in stride. I didn't feel any > penalty on the rolling resistance side, catching plenty of skinny > tires bikes on descents when just coasting. On one descent in > particular, I was braking to not run into the group in front, and the > skinny tired rider next to me was pedalling. This isn't scientific, > but qualitatively I felt no penalty. On the climbs there were riders > faster than me that disappeared into the distance, and riders slower > than me that I passed. I didn't feel my tires had anything to do with > it. > > I've got about 1000k on these tires and have had zero flats, after > getting 2 glass flats in Pari-Motos in about 100k. I plan on using > the Pari-Motos a lot more in the summer when glass isn't invisible on > wet roads. > > I'm still a new 650B road rider, but I've ridden Gran Bois Hetres > about 50 miles, Pari-Motos about 50 miles, and Roly-Polys about 50 > miles. The Soma New Express seems to fit right in there with the > other wide tires. 70psi was too hard for me, but 55 in front and 60 > in back seems to work great for mixed quality pavement (I'm about 175 > lbs). I'll try to do a better comparison with the skinny Roly Polys > and will also try the Soma B-Lines which have an unreinforced casing. > I can't say that I expect a profound difference in "suppleness" at the > same pressure, but I'll try to have an open mind about it. > > If you want to use a 650B bike as an all-road machine, and want an > great tire at a great price, I strongly recommend the Soma New > Express. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
