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Does anyone have any recommendations for a 26" tire for mixed gravel/pavement? My commuter/gravel bike needs new summer tires pretty badly and I haven't heard anything (good or bad) about any 26er tires besides gravelking SKs. I probably spend more miles on pavement than gravel, but I'd like to change that this summer since I have a lot more route options riding dirt and gravel than pavement. Still, I think it might be nice to have something with smoother tread in the center than the SKs for riding in town.
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Mar 1, 2021 20:44
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 16:01 |
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bicievino posted:Are you going to be riding in the mud/wet at all? I don't go looking for mud and wet, but if it's wet when I need to commute or muddy when I have time for a ride, I don't let it stop me. It doesn't happen a ton, but every year is a little different for precipitation. I've seen stuff like the Kenda kross plus, Kuji bulldozer, Conti double fighter, and maxxis DTH that all look about how I'd imagine a tire that meets my needs would look. I don't really know much about kenda or kuji, but the impression I've gotten about cont and maxxis is that they're reputable brands.
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Mar 1, 2021 23:40
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I ended up picking up some schwalbe hurricanes for the 26" commuter/gravel rig. Smooth enough center tread, a little knob on the sides for dirt roads. Losing nearly 500g per tire from my studded winter tires feels great every year. Makes it feel like a brand new bike.
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Mar 19, 2021 00:07
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I found a muddy patch on a section line.
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Mar 26, 2021 03:39
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ElMaligno posted:
Yo, your bike real good, and I hope you get an immensity of enjoyment from riding it.
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May 11, 2021 01:46
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I've been happy with my Schwalbe Hurricanes as an everyday mixed terrain tire. The smooth center tread is good for commutes, and the chunkier side knobs do fine on girt and gravel roads. No idea how they are descending/high speed cornering though, everything here is flat as hell. Also I'm slow.
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May 25, 2021 17:15
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Does anyone here know how close to printed size gravel kings run? I tried throwing some Kendas that claim to be 28m on my road bike to test it off road, but they actually measured nearly 32mm and rubbed a smidge on the rear brake bridge. I've been tempted to pick up some GKs, but I don't want to bother if they're going to run big too. The rims I'm running are internal width 19mm.
Oldsrocket_27 fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Jan 24, 2022 |
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Jan 24, 2022 15:54
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Thanks for the replies. It's interesting, digging around online I've found a lot about how they typically run large, but for the 26mm and 28mm specifically I see people saying they run small. Someone on reddit was running 28mm on 19mm rims and the actual measure was ~25-26mm, so maybe it's worth a shot.
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Jan 25, 2022 02:43
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Did a big training ride yesterday for my first imperial century (which will be 109 mi of gravel trails) and tested out my equipment setup. Buddy and I zig-zagged section lines and county roads to a local wildlife refuge then took the long way home, 72.6 miles of 95% dirt and gravel. 6 hours, but with 45-50 mins stop time, so right about on target pace. Low 70s F temp, ~5mph breeze all day. Idyllic conditions. Not pictured is a third bottle in my jersey. I was a little worried about the frame bag rubbing my legs, but it wasn't too bad. 28mm Gravel king SK+ were adequate for the most part, though I did pick up a slow leak after a really stony section line ~15miles from home, but I was able to just limp it home by quickly adding more air twice. My buddy's tubeless burped on the same section, so I'm pretty lucky I didn't blow the tube outright (though I had spares).    The refuge itself is probably much prettier to the birds. It is very flat here. Saw a crane, lots of ducks and geese, yellow-headed blackbirds, a hawk. Missed bald eagles this time, but I've seen them there before. We rode a few prettier areas too, including a flooding bridge with some beginning to wash-out road, and some fun rolling hills along a stream (with cows!) but I don't think to get my phone out while I'm actually riding, I just go. Nutrition and water planning was good for this distance, and with the support on the course for the target ride I expect a really enjoyable time. Feeling better about getting through the distance, my legs aren't as ruined today as I thought they'd be.
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May 17, 2022 15:23
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I went and did a thing this Saturday. I said two years ago I wanted to do a metric century the next year and an imperial the year after that, and now I’ve done it with a 109 mile gravel ride from one Deadwood to Edgemont on the Mickleson Deadwood trail at a supported event called The Big Mick. The entire trail is made on former railroad tracks, and except for a few short 4-5% pitches mostly stays around the 2-3% grade area. (Note that the ride went backwards on this elevation map) A friend (we can call him Bob for this trip report) and I drove out with our families for the ride and a weekend in the Black Hills at a cabin near a ski resort. Morning of the event made it down to the trailhead parking lot at about 5:45 am, got our bikes ready and loaded up, and checked in about 6. There were some other riders milling about the lot, including a dude in a Trek travel guide van with lots of fancy new equipment and matching kit along with a guy on a slightly older Bianchi. There were a total of 100 riders starting the event, 70 of whom were doing the full 109 miles and the rest doing 50, though with start time being open from 5-6:30 we didn’t see a ton of them. I ended up bringing my road bike with some 28mm gravel king sk+ tires because it’s a good 11lbs lighter than my other option, and loaded it up with my usual saddle bag plus a frame bag full of extra tubes, tools, and about 3x as much food as I ended up needing. I still had room for two small bottles plus a third in the jersey, all just full of water. I ran 65psi in the front and 68 in the rear, for those who care. The ride was a little bumpy at times, but I felt pretty good about my grip.  Ready to ride/ How it Started Gotta rep dat trash kit Bob made a quick watts/kg adjustment at the trailhead outhouse as the Trek/Bianchi duo powered past. We got started up the trail at about 6:10. Our planned pace was for an average of 13mph for a moving time of roughly 8hrs 40min, and about 10 hours overall. Starting out with a big climb right away let us know that we weren’t going to be going that fast all the time like we could on the flats at home, and we settled in as best we could through some gorgeous wooded mountains. Not pictured: a little babbling brook that followed the trail off and on.  The crest of the first climb The long following descent brought us through a picturesque mountain valley just as temps started to creep into the 60s F from the mid 50’s it had been. It was the perfect time to take in a little scenery and have a snack as we barreled across old railroad bridges on the well maintained and smooth rolling trails.   Peanut Butter Bagel Time for Bob. You make be thinking of a certain Fight Club quote at this time, but I promise that's just the wind in his jacket. I don’t have any more pictures from here until lunch in Custer. There was a water and snack station at Mystic trailhead where we used the facilities, refilled on water, ate bananas and cookies and catted with other riders for 10-15 minutes. The next climb went alright and was over faster than expected after the opener from Deadwood, plus it featured the first of the old railroad tunnels we got to go through. By the time we got into the third climb after Hill City my legs were starting to feel the sting. Our uphill pace had dropped a bit and I could feel myself wanted to cramp up a bit, so we took 5 to shake it off and slam some water and dehydrated/candied pineapple rings (my choice of sugar intake du jour). By the time we rolled into Custer at 11:05 I was thankful for the stop. There were piles of sandwiches, chips, gatorade, water, cookies, and fruit for riders at a cool restaurant/bar/venue called The Beacon. We also met up with the fast Trek/Bianchi duo and had a chance to chat. Trek dude was living as a traveling bike tour guide for the company and his buddy was a schoolteacher and long time friend. They also brought it to our attention that the Bianchi in question was single speed. Dude riding it is a champ whe expressed that he thought the course was “perfect for it.” He chugged along uphill and “you just spin at 110rpm downhill and you can rip at 27mph.” He was not running a small gear, and said when he hit the first really steep part into a hairpin he had to stop to turn around and get a big run at it. We joined them in a lunchtime beer (Bob referred to it as either the best or worst decision we’d make all day) and left ahead of them after a good 45 minute break.   Sammich and beers, plus gatorade in a powerade cup.  The fabled Bianchi. I didn't catch the exact ratio he was running but it’s bigger than I could have handled. The next water stop was in Pringle, and since temps were in the 80s and forecasted for low 90s we took full advantage. We were the first century riders to get there, and as we filled up the fast bois blasted by. We chased them for a while but it was pretty obvious after a couple of miles that it wasn’t sustainable for us. The last we saw of them on the course was from across a valley as we entered and they left.   There were still hills in the terrain here, but much gentler and dotted with old mining equipment. As things flattened out, we also saw more desert plants, including a few small cacti. By 25 miles out by core strength was failing and my shoulders had really started to hurt from the extra weight on them and the trail vibration. I moved my hands back on the bars and stuck with it until the snack stop/check-in at 16 to go. More water, gatorade, and twizzlers and pineapple rings put some pep back in me while my shoulders rested for 10 min and we got into the final stretch.  The view backwards from the Minnekahta trailhead, 16 miles to go. We had a bit of a flat drag for a while in the open heat, and we counted down the trail’s mile markers until we hit 100 miles, the first official century for both of us, and celebrated with shooters of fireball.  Tastes like victory https://i.imgur.com/zjhJnkl.mp4 Responsible adult riding With 6.5 miles to go, Bob cramped up hard on the final little uphill section (we can't imagine why) about 200 yards from the top. It was beautiful up there.   Afterwards it was all downhill between some train tracks and the highway into Edgemont, where were greeting by the mostly-dried-up Cheyenne river and junkyards full of “gently caress Biden” signs as the trail turned into the sidewalk- and shoulder- free small town streets that led to the final trailhead marker in the town’s park.  How it ended We arrived at 2:56. We beat our goal time by over an hour, both in overall time spent and moving time with an average pace of just over 14mph. The event was explicitly not a race, but we were the 3rd and 4th century riders to finish, after the fast dudes. There was a free spaghetti dinner at a little bar with barn fans for AC and wood-burning stoves for heat, where they were clearly more comfortable with a different kind of biker but more than happy to have 100 people and their families walk in and buy drinks. We put back a few rounds and talked with the two fast dudes. According to their Strava data, we climbed 5,874 ft over the course. I’m super happy we came out and rode, it made for a really memorable first century ride and a beautiful day on the bike. I’m hoping I can keep coming back for future years. As a bonus a few days later, the family and I went to Badlands national park while we were in the area and hiked a bit, and also met a cute little magpie friend.     Magpie captured both mid-flight and in ruffling-up BORB MODE
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Jun 14, 2022 04:14
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Apparently there's another trail about 5-6 hours away that will give you a free patch if you can prove you did a 150 mile ride on it, so I guess I know what we're doing next. I mean, it's a free patch.
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Jun 19, 2022 02:21
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Went to a 50 mile gravel grinder yesterday, not realizing until we lined up for the rolling start that it was definitely a race and not just a fun ride. My buddy DNF’d off multiple mechanicals right from the start. Don’t assemble your bike the night before a trip with a few beers in you. I came in 28th of 46 after falling back to try and find him. Had a blast rolling with strong dudes on single speed for a while. I might try to get a better report written up later but I don’t have photos from the ride.
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May 8, 2023 00:48
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I'm not going to bother with a full race report from last weekend, only these bits of advice: it's better to have one hand cold than to be unable to get your hand into your snack pocket, don't get stranded solo if you don't have a bike computer with the race nav, and make sure to wear your coolest jersey if you don't want to have to be good at racing to get your photo taken.
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May 10, 2023 00:05
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 16:01 |
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It is C O R N . T U N N E L season my dudes.
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Aug 11, 2023 15:37
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