Or, for those of you who speak the King's english, Tyres. Actually, I intended to talk about rims this time, but in my last post, I said just about all that needs to be said. Round, smooth, strong, light weight. Beyond that, a rim is a rim.
Tires (tyres) on the other hand, actually make a difference. And the biggest difference is whether or not they go flat. Maybe its really how often they go flat, since all of them seem to do that. I look at the catalogs, peruse the magazines, and search the web pages, and there isn't really much said about that.
I run with tubes, mainly because I'm cheap and tubeless is one of those things that would lead me to replacing the whole bike, but also because tubeless tires seem to flat a lot more than tube tires. On group rides here in Phoenix, it seems like the flats are almost always tubeless. Folks use gooey stuff like Stans (whatever that is) or Slime, but the flats keep coming. I've had pretty good luck with tubes, only flatting 3 or 4 times since I moved here in August. Since having fun on a bike depends on air in the tires, I'm good with that.
In the world of mountain biking, there is a vast array of tires to choose from. There are compounds, tread patterns, threads per inch, kevlar and wire beads... Its all too confusing. I like to keep it simple. I look for kind of a blocky tread and a price tag at or below $14. Right now I am riding a set of Panaracer Fire XC Smoke Something or Others that I found for $12.95 each. They wear pretty well and the traction is good. The only drawback is that when gravel on the trail is a certain size, these tires pick up rocks and throw them all over the place.
Rolling resistance is one of those criteria bandied about in tire reviews. In my case, the largest cause of rolling resistance has something to do with the 212 pounds I carry around, and probably a lot less to to with the way tires are made. I cut rolling resistance by putting a whole lot of air in the tires, like 40 psi front and 45 psi rear. Although it makes the bike skittish, it also makes it roll easy. High pressure also seems to minimize flats, which goes back to one of the most important things about any tire, keeping air on the inside and foreign objects on the outside.
Its looking like a great evening for a ride, temp will be 75 in another hour or so, and I'm rested up from this morning's "Dam Good Run/Walk/Hike" up at Lake Pleasant. One of the give-aways at the event was a can of Red Bull, something I've never even tasted before. I'm debating whether to drink it before the ride. Could be like turbocharging a '62 Ford Falcon without fixing the brakes.
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Three things:
1. You sure are playing up this luddite angle, except that I don't think that being cheap and resisting the Vista upgrade makes you a luddite.
2. I rarely flatted in the 'nix running fairly low pressure on big tires(w/ tubes), and boy does it make a difference in how a bike rides. I spent a good chunk of change on my front tire before we even made it to the valley and it's still going strong early three years and who knows how many miles later. I'm a little more budget minded about rear tires because they would only lasted me about 5-6 months on the rocks.
3. Be careful with the Red Bull, I only drink that stuff when I need a little pick me up on the road and for a non coffee drinker that mix of copious amounts of sugar and caffeine gets me just buzzing after one tiny little can. I'm sure I damn near killed myself downing 8 or so during my 28 hours solo drive from the 'Ville to Spokane a few years ago. By the time I got to Joe's I was both incredibly wound up and more tired than I'd ever been in my life. Oh yeah, it also tastes like crap.
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