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Hmmmmm so just for plops and giggles I decided to set my rigid stache up with 2.35 big apples on the mulefut 50mm rims.
Rode to work this morning and 8 mins quicker than my cdf with 35mm conti speed kings (drop bar cx/gravel/whatever you want to call it).
Hmmmmm confused.com at the moment. Should not have been quicker but strava does not lie. Felt better and so much more comfortable.
Anyone else find that rigid mtb / flat bars are quicker for them*?
*carbon licking lycra oil bums this is not aimed at you as you probably are way faster than me.
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got something new on it's way to do that with.
ace.
Don't have a road bike but I've taken my Krampus with Knards on the road and it was a lot quicker than I thought it would. Must be the momentum of those big wheels.
Aweosme Ton... Do tell me more 🙂
Rene 60-1 yeah I love the krampus! Awesome bike. Momentum definately plays a part plus the confidence the huge tyres gives me... Oh and flat bars.... Super quick handling plus being able to see over car doors etc (sit up and beg).
surly ogre, to replace my disc trucker. 8)
Ah love the ogre! Awesome. Big and semi fat (but not too fat) is the future. More well fed vs hungry rather than eat everything in sight (like I do).
Honestly 29+ is a niche that many people have not explored but it really is great.
Big tyres have lower rolling resistance due to minimal carcass deflection / hysteresis, so once you get over the inertia they just keep rolling. It's taken a long time for the roadcycling world to get over its skinny tyre obsession and expect it will take the same for the MTB world - particularly as skinny MTB tyres also have to push soft ground out the way.
Have a wheelset for my Fargo (Jones loops not drops) with Super Moto's set up tubeless.
Very flattering performance
This is interesting. I used to commute on my 29er (Trans am) and found it quite heavy going. Then again it has the mass of a small planet which probably works against it.
Big Apples have pretty low rolling resistance, perhaps you had a favourable northerly tailwind today that made the difference?
I still have some segments where I've got quicker times using my Jumbo Jim wheels, rather than my 29er Marathon Cross wheels, despite the ~3Kg total wheel weight difference.
2'' big apples on Planetx. £5.99
To be fair goaty yeah wind was on my side and was proper dry for a change. Also was not carrying laptop etc. Overall perhaps not much difference in time between the cdf / monster but I felt so much more in control and comfortable on the huge wheels.
I should say that I was wrong in my OP (I had a couple of ciders that were distorting my brain function).... The cdf currently has wtb nano 40s on (tubeless) vs the 2.25" 29 big apples on 50mm rims.
I am starting to turn against my cx unfortunately, as for the riding I do, it's just not the best tool for the job (despite all my praise a year or so ago). I reckon a lot of people overlook a decent rigid mtb for commuting with something like the big apples / suoermotos on.
2'' big apples on Planetx. £5.99
Cheers Ton 🙂
Just ordered a set for my hybrid.
I reckon a lot of people overlook a decent rigid mtb for commuting with something like the big apples / supermotos on
I made this mistake! I bought a CX bike and after the honeymoon period I realised it wasn't the best tool for me. The Pinnacle hybrid I bought 2nd hand is far more versatile IMHO, YMMV.
strava does not lie.
It tells you **** all on its own though.
As above, heart rate, effort, wind....all sorts of other factors to consider.
Gives you estimated wind factor for your ride and the top of the all-time leaderboard for a segment, with free account linked to your Strava account.
I wish the fat wheel rims on my Wazoo were a little narrower than 80mm (my RDS front, to use when carbon fork gets fitted any day, is 70mm), in respect to I have a pair of 2.35" Big Apples and 2.35" SuperMotos in the garage from when my Pylon8 was on the road.
I'll be damned if I'm paying £107 for a single Vee Apache Fatty Slick http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/VEETIRE-APACHE-FATTY-SLICK-MTB-26/2457 ! 😯 😯
I've got a pair of those 29x2.3" BSC Type 1 (Vee Speedster re-badges) in the spares box, they're ~780g each (so ~210g heavier than a 38c Marathon Cross), I keep getting tempted to fit them. More than anything for the extra gear inches I'll gain at the top end, but I would be surprised if they roll better than the 5/6 Schwalbe rating of the Marathon Cross (making them a steal at ~£16 at PX currently for all-rounders).
Big tyres have lower rolling resistance due to minimal carcass deflection / hysteresis, so once you get over the inertia they just keep rolling.
True
It's taken a long time for the roadcycling world to get over its skinny tyre obsession and expect it will take the same for the MTB world - particularly as skinny MTB tyres also have to push soft ground out the way.
Fat tires aren't fast though, plenty of people have taken them to XC races for poops and giggles and not won. At best the fat tyres are "not as slow as they look".
2.3" might be faster than 1.9", or 25c (or even 27c) might be faster than 23c, but you equally rapidly hit the point of tyres weighing more, and being less aero.
It's all down to tyre development, back in the days when people talked about "safety bicycles" big tyres were a necessity because no one made small tyres that could take 100psi+. Then things swung one way towards 18-19mm tyres, because they were faster. Then tyres developed so that 23c's were comfortable without a loss of speed, now a 25c tyre at 95psi rolls with less resistance than a 23c at 100psi. Likewsise offroad, 2.1" was the upper limit for a long time because 2.3" was just heavy and draggy.
TLDR; roadies aren't idiots, fat tyres are still slow.