likebike23

I am in agreement with the sentiment that really large tires on the road are a drag. For me, I like 32-37mm tires on my road bikes. With those widths, I feel the difference in comfort without the drastic speed penalty of 50+mm tires. In addition, I like the ability to ride mixed surfaces with 32-37mm tires. I also feel that braking with a wider tire is better. 23mm tires with powerful brakes are downright scary to me with their tendency to lock up and skid. So, I can definitely see and feel the advantages of wide tires, but you don't necessarily have to have balloon tires to realize those advantages.

Papa Tom

From the Original Poster:

OK, so in 40+ years of cycling, this is the first impulse buy I've made and also (it seems) the first MISTAKE I've made. The pair of Big Apples cost me almost 100 bucks. That bothered the heck out of me last Fall when I plunked down the cash, but as I weigh this episode of poor judgement against all the positive experiences I've had cycling, I'm thinking I should just cut them loose, put my narrow slicks back on the bike, and ride off smiling into the freshly-arrived Spring air.

'Sound like a plan?

bikemig 

Buy a pair of vernier calipers; it will make working on bikes for the next 40 years as enjoyable as the last 40 have been,

bikemig 

I'm running a pair of 26 x 2.0 marathon supreme touring bikes on my commuter (a drop bar mtb conversion on fairly wide rims, sun rhyno lite). I like 'em; they're remarkably stout tires that can handle a lot of abuse. That said, I think I would prefer a bit narrower tire, say 26 x 1.6.

RubeRad

I think you've paid your penance. You've learned your lesson, and in the long run, one bad purchase over 40+ years is an excellent record.

I hereby give you permission to treat yourself to the tires you should have bought before, and sell the BAs on eBay as lightly used for $40. Or maybe an interested party reading this thread will PM you an offer.

PaulRivers

A few weeks ago I was mountain biking in arizona. To be fair by "mountain biking" they were basically dirt roads, there were no tricks, it was a path up the side of a large hill and down it, so tricky technical stuff. Still, it's definitely an offroad unpaved dirt path.

Had a bike with 2.2" tires, my dad was riding a cyclocross bike with 42c tires. He went through everything I went through no problem. Again, not "technical" terrain exactly, but clearly not a road, not paved at all, just unpaved and hilly desert path. He was a lot faster on the uphill parts. I was faster on the downhill, but part of that might just have been him being more cautious.

I think the idea of "needing" anything over 42c for rough road riding is completely bunk. I tried riding his bike and it sure moved a lot faster than mine.

Medic Zero

+1 On Vittoria's! The Rando Pros in 26 x 1.5" are hard to beat. Inexpensive (and sometimes on sale at Nashbar) compared to their German equivalents, very flat resistant, very durable and ride quality is just fine. I usually run them fore and aft on my tourer and as a rear tire on my city MTB. I have been trying 2.15" Schwalbe Big Bens (Big Apples with a slightly deeper tread) for almost a year now and for me (a 270lb Clyde on an old rigid MTB) what I've found is:

Pros:
* less road vibration
* no worries whatsoever in crossing railroad tracks. I do it at any angle!
* able use nearly any terrain for shortcuts; railroad ballast, soft soil, etc (a good chunk of my commute is through industrial areas with some weird non-connecting streets, being able to ad lib is pretty awesome. I can do this on 1.5's to a degree, but not loose ballast)
* surprise potholes that jump out at me in the rain and darkness are much less trouble

Cons:
* they bob under hard acceleration unless they are at the sweet spot for pressure for whatever your exact conditions are (weight of rider, rim width etc. I favor 40-45 up front and 50-55 in the rear.)
* definitely a little slower than smaller tires
* don't handle quite as well as skinny tires in hard cornering, more so if you don't have them in your sweet spot for PSI.
* fenders for these aren't as effective as fenders for smaller tires.

Plus some things I'm sure I'm forgetting.

I've put about 3,000 miles on these, flat resistance has been the same as my Vittoria Randoneur Pros or Panaracer T-Serv Pro-Tex's (1-2 flats/slow leaks per tire, per year). The front tire is has a several little cuts in it, but not as many as my T-Serv's do at the 3,000 mile mark. Vittoria's hardly look broken in at that point.

These tires have been OK on my commuter, but just OK. The bit more cushion I get out of them I don't think is quite worth the extra weight and the slightly lessened handling in comparison to my ~1.5" tires. And I ride over really crappy roads. The real kicker for me is that I get drenched in the rain with these and I'm running the fattest SKS fenders. Maybe that'd be a little better with the 2.0" rather the 2.15, I don't know. Either way, the new commuter I'm finally building up is going back to 1.5" tires.

I do expect to sometimes have the Big Bens mounted on the tourer for some tours that have some dirt/gravel roads, and maybe over the winter to ride sometimes instead of my 1.5" tired commuter, but honestly, I'm looking forward to returning to the more nimble, lighter, 1.5" tires. What I will miss is being able to cut across railroad beds and other very marginal terrain, and being totally carefree with all the railroad tracks. The big tires are also a comfort when I am exhausted and making my way home from multiple overnight shifts and the ~10 miles each direction of my commute. I think I've gotten lax because of them though. Either that, or I'm getting overconfident in my fourth year back in the saddle, riding nearly every day.

TLDR version: If I lived somewhere flat, that rained a lot less, but with as crappy roads as I have to deal with here, I'd probably stick with the Big Ben's and be quite happy.


.

Andy_K 

A ruler will do for this, but a caliper is better.

Harbor Freight often has these for around a dollar: 6" Utility Caliper

If you want to be fancy they've got a digital version that will read out in decimal inches or millimeters or fractional inches for around $10-$15. For $20 you can get one that's more precise. I've got all three and I use the cheap plastic one most often.

chas58

The exact answer to your question is on the Schwalbe web site.

Papa Tom

Ah, Cheez, man. You went THAT far in your research...couldn't you just give me the answer???

Anyway, maybe I will go to that site and Mr. Schwalbe will see that I am questioning my purchase. Then he will insist that I take my money back and we'll all be happy.

PatrickGSR94

The "tire profile" that relates to cars and trucks (double-track vehicles) specifically relates to tires having a pretty well separated tread area and sidewall area. The tires are more or less flat across the tread area. Because the tires on double-track vehicles don't lean over when turning, more lateral force goes into the tire sidewalls, which is where a shorter, stiffer sidewall can increase cornering traction and performance.

You may notice that single-track vehicles that lean into corners, both bicycles and motorcycles, have tires with a much more rounded cross section. There's really no separate tread and sidewall surface. But because the air volume and contact patch size or so small compared to cars, a "shorter" tire would be much more likely to allow the rim to contact the ground, causing a pinch flat.

*edit* the rounded tire cross section is also why bicycles are not susceptible to hydroplaning, and thus do not require any real "tread" on the tire to work just fine in wet conditions.

Gnosis

There’s no need for a metric ruler. Just multiply inches by 25.4 to yield the conversion directly in millimeters (mm).

For instance, a 2” wide tire equates to 50.8 mm wide.

2 * 25.4 = 50.8 mm

PatrickGSR94

He was asking about inner rim width, but yeah same thing. With a regular tape measure or ruler, I would measure to the nearest 1/32" (in between the normal 1/16" marks on a ruler) and then convert that to mm.

Measuring tires is difficult to do without some sort of caliper, because of the rounded surfaces.

ItsJustMe

I have a pair that came with my bike. They don't fit under my fenders so I probably will never mount them again. However they were kind of interesting - like riding on a mattress, but they somehow still rolled pretty well.

JeffS

So, what's the point of this thread?

You didn't like them. Take them off and move on.

Papa Tom

Yeah, that's what I said I was going to do a few posts back. However, other readers have made a few good suggestions that might help me salvage these tires and turn lemons into lemonade. So what's the point of your post?

dynaryder

Here. When I bought my Dahon off eBay,the previous owner had tried to fit 2" BA's. They were so out of whack,I thought the wheels were out of true. Swapped them for 1.35" Kojaks and everything's been fine. One quick way to tell if your rims are too narrow is to check the bead. If it's not the same all the way around the rim(if more of the bead is sticking out in some areas,while others are more covered up),then there's a good chance the tire's to wide.

No goatheads around DC,but I've picked many bits of glass and wire out of my Supremes with zero flats. And they're the grippiest commuter tires I've ridden by far.

chas58

I don't think rim width was your problem. If the tire bead isn't seated on the rim, it is an installation problem (and caused your wobble). Someone mounted them bad, and if they are like that long enough, its going to be hard to get them to set right.

I have some 50mm tires mounted on some 13mm (inner width) rims, and it works just fine (although I wouldn't want to ride it under inflated).

bikemig 

Have you actually read the thread? I'm surprised that you would say that if you had read the thread.

mconlonx

I went on a fat tire binge for a brief moment. Maxxix Hookworm 26 x 2.5" -- super fun, but way heavy. There are wheelsets out there lighter than one of these tires. Near indestructable. Awesome, cushy ride at 35psi, but an unsmooth pedal stroke will lead to bobbing...

Because those were so heavy, I tried Schwalbe BAs, 26 x 2.35". Most of the fun and cush as the Hookworms, but still a heavy tire, and not the best flat protection.

I'd not hesitate to run either if my commute was <10mi in an urban setting; for my 19mi o/w commute at the time, I did not like the extra weight, although they certainly smoothed out the rough rural roads.

Currently running Panaracer RiBMo 26 x 1.5". 1.5" seems to be where I end up on my 26r commuters. T-Serv is lighter, but less flat protection, especially in the sidewalls. Schwalbe Marathons are heavier. RiBMo was the compromise between the two and I'm sticking with them.

Papa Tom

(Original Poster): Out of nowhere, I've been struck by a bad case of Vertigo. I can not hold my balance on foot right now, let alone a bicycle, so I may not be able to do anything about this tire situation for a little while. Thanks for the input, though.

Anybody ever have Vertigo? I thought it was something your Grandma gets. Wow...it's like being drunk 24 hours a day.

AlTheKiller

I feel the tire thing is so heavily overshadowed by non controlled, anecdotal evidence and bias, that we may never see the light. I lean far towards fat tires being best for real people, but even I admit my 2.35" tires are probably overkill. Part of the stability and handling is just the nice, rigid MTB geometry compared to my high BB CX bike. My CX bike with racey, supple tires that are 35mm wide absolutely destroys my old road bikes and fixed gears with 23 and 25mm tires. But the geometry and build is different as well. So it's not really a controlled study. I'd have to put 25mm narrow tires on my CX bike, but I feel that is blasphemy and will only lower performance in every way.

But nearly every person I've ever seen completely go against fat tires based on their own experience has gone from thin tires weighing 1/4 as much, to overbuilt fat tires. When there are usually comparable tires, which will obviously be a bit heavier, but far more comparable in the light/supple range.

Good luck with that, man. I've only ever had brief bouts, usually due to my fast metabolism leaving me with low blood sugar. Or alcohol.

alan s 

If you get fat enough tires, the balance issue goes right out the window. Won't do much for the vertigo (if that's really what it is). Or a tricycle would work, but you wouldn't be allowed to post about it here, because this forum is strictly dedicated to bikes.

rmfnla

Or, instead of vernier he could move out of the 1950's and get a dial caliper...

bikemig 

Why not? I like your idea even better.