Originally Posted by
JanMM
Our second ride was yesterday - 11 miles including one minimal hill that was fine on the middle ring. We'll figure out whether 30x32 is low enough this Spring on rides that will include some Central/Southern Indiana hills, many of which are short but steep.
Did the Comet blow out from a puncture? Our Screamer has Kevlar Comets - I've had very good luck with both plain and Kevlar Comets on my single 'bents.
Regarding hills - Short but steep - We find it's best to ATTACK and roll up fast. When presented with a series of roller's, this is a blast. On longer hills, we start out at a decent speed and just drop on gear at a time till I get to "second". I like to leave a bail out option of one more and avoid shifting to it until absolutely necessary or we can see the top.
Our Screamer had Comets when we bought it but not the Kevlar versions. We found the standard comets to be fast wearing and replaced them after I noticed accelerated wear at around 1000 miles. This might be normal for these tires but it seemed quick to me. I replaced them with Schwalbe Marathons and have about 1600 on those so far. It looks like we will get most if not all of this season out of them for another 1200 miles.