Ann, of course there is the possibility that you are drawn into friendship with very sensitive people!
It may also be bike set up and design - too much weight on the arms or too much on the touche. Bikes w/out much fork rake will be less happy on dirt roads, and despite claims and evidence to the contrary I find Al frames less forgiving. Dirt road riding requires a lighter touch, e.g. downhill calls for lifting the touche a bit and just holding the outside of the bars lightly enough for control. This will minimize the vibration that goes from the bike to the rider. if you don't do that you will be less happy. But, as has been pointed out there is a widespread bias against dirt and gravel roads. Here in VT. all the recommended routes avoid them even though they provide some of the most beautiful and enjoyable routes in the state. I live in a town with only one paved road so I do ride the dirt a lot. As for tires, at 195 lbs, I'm OK on dirt roads with Grand Bois Cerfs and regularly ride and enjoy the dirt roads on Jack Browns. I trade up to Avocet 38 mm for badly paved roads. Even on the loaded tandem with 400+ lbs marathon racers at 1.6 are just fine on gravel roads. I'm remembering a vacation two years ago at a B&B in rural Quebec. We headed out on the gravel roads for a 45 mile loop on the Marathon racers, while another couple loaded their tandem onto the car top to go search for paved roads. To each is own. Michael Westford, Vt, where it's not blistering hot today On Sunday, August 5, 2012 11:32:43 PM UTC-4, Anne Paulson wrote: > > Replying to my own post: > > I was just reading the Bicycle Quarterly blog, noting that they say > that Paselas (which I was using) are fast-rolling tires, whereas > Schwalbes are both slow and harsh-riding. So maybe that's the > explanation of my riding companions' complaints. They were using > Schwalbes. > > On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Anne Paulson <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I just last week got back from a 2500 mile tour, Mexico to Canada via > > the Sierra and the Cascades. Once again, as often happens, my riding > > companions sometimes complained that about rough roads. And once > > again, in the main I didn't notice the roads being rough, although the > > dirt detours that I took a time or two and my companions didn't were > > pretty bumpy in places. > > > > I'm at a loss to understand what I'm missing. This was a loaded tour. > > I was riding my Atlantis with 26 x 1.5 Panaracer Paselas, which should > > be comfortable tires, by my companions were riding fine touring bikes > > (Surly LHT, Co-Motion Americano, other touring bikes) with reasonable > > touring tires (mostly Schwalbe Marathons, one guy had Vittoria > > Randonneurs I think). Why are these fragile flowers noticing bad roads > > when I don't? What are they doing wrong, that they're riding touring > > bikes and complaining about chipseal? > > > > When I ride at home on unloaded bikes, my friends sometimes complain > > about bad roads when I don't, but I chalk that up to their insistence > > in riding 25 mm tires pumped up to 120 pounds while I'm happy on my > > Roadeo with 28 mm tires. > > > > -- > > -- Anne Paulson > > > > My hovercraft is full of eels > > > > -- > -- Anne Paulson > > My hovercraft is full of eels > -- 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/-/6ZRtdgD1tlQJ. 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.
