I think the choice depends a great deal on what you personally want from a tire, since any tire is a tradeoff. If you want to ride on firm gravel or dirt as well as pavement, then a 40 mm tire with sturdy casing may be the best. If you want to ride fast on pavement, a narrower but suppler tire may be better. If you want an allrounder tire that can take you over 3" of sand, a very fat, soft tire is best. If you want off road traction, a knobby; and so forth.
My own preference is for very different pavement and allrounder and dirt tires. For pavement, I want the narrowest tire that is supple and fast rolling, sufficiently flat resistant and that fits; this means I don't need any more width than 26 to 28 mm; and in fact I am riding 22s and 23s as a pis aller -- I sacrifice night-time rim protection gravel-scattered roads and some bump comfort but little else. For allrounder, I want something that is not a huge dog on pavement but that will take me over the sand I encounter near the Rio Grande and on Albuquerque's westside -- skinny 45-50 mm tires don't do nearly as well in sand. If I rode in more technical singletrack, I'd want knobs to improve the loose surface cornering -- the one big defect of the 65 actual Big Apples I do use. And so on. So my bikes have either skinny, fast pavement tires or grossly fat sand-capable tires. Are there times when I'd like a 38 or so? Sure, but in my situation, these occasions are far fewer than those where I want narrower or fatter. I do like the 30s (labeled, 29 actual) on my grocery carrying Motobecane, but I don't have any reason to put on wider ones even for occasional firm dirt and gravel -- this old racing bike just *might* take JBs with fenders, I think, if I am careful in mounting the front, and I might just try some when the IRC Tandems wear out. BTW, both my skinniest-tire'd bike (22 mm Riv commuter) and my fattest (Fargo) have fenders with ample room. I'd rather fix more flats than ride very stiff casings. The BAs are very strange and wonderful in that they roll very, very well for their grossly excessive weight and thorn resistance, but not all skinnies are more flat prone than all fatter tires, oddly enough. On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Bob <[email protected]> wrote: > Much is said about Rivs taking big tires, those advanced, low rolling > resistance, low pressure tires that absorb shocks, stop flats, survive > long tours across the tundra, and eliminate potentially hazardous > resonances in areas of lipid storage. But when do you get too much of > a good thing and your king of the road turns into a beach cruiser? > Aside from Riv gatherings where riders compare tire widths, when is > bigger not better? > > -- > 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. > > -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW at [email protected] -- 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.
