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Road orientated – road plus or 700c
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GotamaFree Member
In a bit of a dither. My trusty pinnacle Arkose is on the verge of falling apart and I fancy a new bike. My road miles are mainly an 18 mile each way commute, twice a week, of which part is on some pretty poorly surfaced roads. By this I don’t mean gravel style, just badly pocked through poor drainage installation etc, the usual cr@p UK roads. I am currently running 28c Conti tyres with tubes at around 90psi. For the new bike I am considering the road plus wheelsize on the thinking that it will generally be a more pleasant ride. At the same time I don’t want it to feel like I’m riding an mtb rather than a road bike when pushing on. Options as I see it are 700c with 30c tyre or the plus with something like the WTB Horizons.
Anyone running both and can compare the on-road characteristics?
Bikes I’m considering are Fairlight Strael/Faran, Condor Bivio Gravel and Mason Bokeh although I am a little concerned about the relatively low stack height on the Bokeh.
Lastly I really want a 1x set up. There is a heavily reduced XL Cannondale Slate Force which keeps catching my eye although carrying around the travel seems excessive.
BezFull MemberOptions as I see it are 700c with 30c tyre or the plus with something like the WTB Horizons.
Or 700c with larger-than-30 tyres, shirley? 30 isn’t exactly large.
RustySpannerFull MemberNot a 650b fan but have an AWOL knocking about if anyone wants to try it?
Takes 50mm 700c tyres easily, should work well.
mattbeeFull MemberHave run 700×38 G One, now run 650b Horizon.
The 650b is more comfortable on poor road surfaces and seems more stable cornering at speed (slightly lower bb prob helps there).
As far as speed goes, the smaller wheel seems slightly slower, maybe mph or so. It also loses speed quicker when you’re coasting.
It’s very hard to get a full mudguard to work with the 650b.
I run it as it’s much better off road around here. If I was only on the road I think I’d stick with a fat 700c tyre.GotamaFree MemberThat is indeed an option although I think I start running into clearance issues for full mudguards in winter. I’m pretty clueless on this though! Speaking of which can you get guards for road plus set ups?
I’m also not sure what there is around with large 700c clearance whilst also staying as close to being a road bike as possible. I think the Mason is pretty much there from what I’ve read.
The new Kinesis also caught my eye.
BezFull MemberClearance depends on your frameset and I thought you were getting a new one 🙂
Most gravel/CX/allroad/touring/whatever sort of stuff should comfortably take a 37 with guards, I’d have thought.
My main road bike is based around a Crossrip frameset and it’ll easily take that (I have an identical frame built for off-road use and that’s using 37mm knobblies with full guards).
Guards are easily available, SKS make 700c guards in at least 55m width and I’ve long used 45mm guards with 37mm tyres with no problems.
landslideFull MemberI’m running 700*42c Conti SpeedRide on my Cotic Escapade. On 20mm internal width rims they measure up at ~40c wide. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how easily they roll, and the lower pressures (~45-50psi) that I run them at really helps with rough roads. Haven’t ridden 650b road-plus to compare them with, but I ride a 29er off road anyway, so like the big wheel feel.
The Escapade mightn’t really stay “as close to being a road bike as possible”, but it’s a bit sharper handling than the Genesis CdA that it replaced. Good for commuting, bridleways and pottering about country lanes, unlikely to win the local CC’s evening 10 (even with a decent rider aboard).amediasFree MemberSpeaking of which can you get guards for road plus set ups?
Yes you can, mostly because before they started calling it ‘road plus’ it was already just ‘big tyres’
There are options from SKS, Gilles Berthoud, Velo Orange, Honjo and others.
Bear in mind that a big bonus of large 650B tyres is that diameter wise they fit in the space of 700c so you can, with a bit of careful choice of frame and components, use the same bike with two sets of wheels to have options which are genuinely different to each other in terms of feel and capability.
BezFull MemberBear in mind that a big bonus of large 650B tyres is that diameter wise they fit in the space of 700c
Indeed. Though, equally, the big bonus of a lot of modern 700c frames is that you don’t need to start buying 650b stuff to get decent tyre width 😉
(In other words, 650b might make sense if you were keeping the Arkose, not that I know what clearance an Arkose has, but if you’re buying something new then I’m not sure 650b is necessarily the best route to take.)
GotamaFree MemberClearance depends on your frameset and I thought you were getting a new one
Yes, I am. Just getting in a mess between looking at something like a Strael which will take a 32c road tyre but is limited to 28c with guards or the other options which are more road/offroad orientated and have clearance for bigger rubber. I’m also probably guilt of not explaining myself particularly well!
Interesting Mattbee.
I like the Escapade but at just shy of 6ft 4 I think the large is probably too small.
scaledFree MemberI’m 6’2 on an escapade and it’s fine with me. Chuckable 😀
Welcome to throw a leg over it if you’re round Manc
GotamaFree MemberWelcome to throw a leg over it if you’re round Manc
Thanks but I’m South London / Surrey Hills way.
amediasFree Memberthat you don’t need to start buying 650b stuff to get decent tyre width
True, but I find once I get into 40mm+ on 700c it starts to get a bit weighty, but more importantly (since I don’t actually care about a few grammes) I find that they start to feel bit unwieldy*, possibly worse if you’re a short-arse like me, but going down to 650B restores some feeling of nimbleness and offsets the weight/size.
Horses for course and all that though, you have to find what works for you and the beauty of bikes is there’s pretty much unlimited options for building your own nichemachine 😀
* that so far is the only reason I’m still stubbornly racing a 26er for XC, I’ve test ridden 29ers, and I manged to ride them just fine, enjoyed the extra size for rollover and it probably was a smidgen quicker overall but I just can’t get on with the feel, so until I’m knocking on the podium door I’ll just keep losing a few seconds to the little wheels…
smokey_joFull MemberI’m 5’7″ on a 54cm Saracen Hack running vittoria voyager Hyper in 700 x 38 size – Cant imagine needing anything more comfortable and they’re not stupid heavy. Get a bit of toe overlap though as the head angle is still fairly road bike normal on my bike – some of the newer gravel bikes have a bit more rake or a slacker head angle which would help with this
BezFull MemberI confess I’ve not used 650b at all. 700×37 works nicely for me, though. But then I’m 6’5″ and 14st so size isn’t a problem, I just need enough rim width to prevent squirming in corners.
@OP, here’s one of my Crossrips. Not that I’m suggesting you should necessarily look at a Crossrip (they’ve shortened the top tube since I bought mine anyway) but it’s an example of a whole load of similar framesets around these days, which will happily take fairly chunky 700cs but which will also still behave like a road bike if built up as one. I came to this from a CAAD9 (and a Pacer which, although heavier, had even racier geometry) and it’s never left me wanting in terms of fun handling or responsiveness under power, it’s absolutely spot on. Lighter than I expected, too. I’m sure there are plenty of other things that tick similar boxes.
GotamaFree MemberThat does look nice Bez. I hadn’t considered that bike, mainly because I never thought to look in the commuter section of the trek website which is illogical given my primary use.
TiRedFull Member700×30 G One Speed are excellent tubeless on a road bike. You can go wider if you must, but these are fast and capable. Mine are on a cross bike, but ridden on road. Cross tyres on different wheels for off road activities. Nothing works well on both.
fifeandyFree MemberLike a couple of others, i haven’t tried road+ yet either, but running 700x38c with 45mm guards on my charge plug. A little slower than 23c when doing over 20mph on smooth roads, but actually faster over the all too common terrible surfaces, and so much more comfortable.
GotamaFree Memberfast and capable
Unlike me 🙂
The above and my gut reaction tells me to stick with 700c for my use. Narrows the choices down although I do like the Condor, particularly with the build flexibility.
wilburtFree MemberOver 32mm the additional effort will
noticeable as will the comfort. IME
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