I'm pretty much in complete agreement with Jim about the Ram and tire size. When I bought mine (2005?) the Riv fliers boasted about using 35mm tires for trail riding. But if you add fenders the bike won't handle a true 35. It is really designed around 28mm tires and road riding. My two favorites on this bike have been the Ruffy Tuffy and now the Grand Bois Cerf, Green. With those tires the bike is an absolute joy on decent pavement or good dirt roads. I'm 200 lbs and ride mine at 80 & 90. When I know I will be doing lots of gravel roads or urban debris I ride my Ebisu, which is very similar to an AHH with Jack Browns, at 70/80. Yup, there's a trade off in performance but they feel really nice going over rough ground and offer excellent flat protection.
BTW, in the course of my cycling life, 35+ years I've had almost as many pinch flats as puncture flats. Riding two low a pressure over broken pavement or rough gravel, may add to comfort but doesn't feel good when your standing around in the middle of a dark rain storm changing a tube. I love BQ, and have great respect for Jan Heine, but I'm not riding long brevets and don't need to obsess over a few pounds of tire pressure any more than a few grams crank weight. On the tandem, we head out with a bike and rider weight of 400+ lbs on Marathon racers 26x1.6 at 70/80. Mostly on dirt roads and a very sweet ride. Michael On Sunday, June 10, 2012 12:04:01 PM UTC-4, Cyclofiend Jim wrote: > > Late to the party with a couple of thoughts - > > First, when the Rambouillet was designed, 28's were pretty much the > upper end of the scale. I remember putting a pair of (Speedblend!) > Rolly Polly's on a bicycle which had never seen anything large than > 23's and thinking - "Whoa! Those are some beefy tires!" My point > being - arguably, and probably much more subtly than I can feel - that > the design of the Rambouillet optimizes performance with tires that > size (28). Now - there are waaaay too many variables to make that > point anything other than a sidebar. How you ride, where you ride, > the pressures you run and alla that there stuff is going to make it > perform in a way you like or dislike. That's what you have to trust. > Dropping to BQ guidelines just because it says so is the other end of > the scale to what we used to do - each tire to max pressure plus a bit > for every ride. > > Secondly, since my past habits were just that (max pressure +5-10) I > probably have a tendency to run higher pressures for my weight. Plus, > where I ride, the topography tends to have a fair number of sharp- > edged rocks embedded in the trail (and I dislike pinch flats). So, > the Hilsen with JB's tends to be reset to the 85# range. But, I'll > also let it settle down as low as 50/60 if I'm doing more road miles. > I've run them as low as 25, which is (IMO) dangerous, but was > instructive. > > http://ramblings.cyclofiend.com/?p=208 > > - Jim / cyclofiend.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/-/SzOUjFbid4cJ. 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.
