Originally Posted by
Hairy Hands
This may not be a popular answer, but a person your size should be on 32 to 41mm tires. If your over 200 lbs most likely u are not actually racing so why be on a bike made for racing. I fell for this scenario for years and didn't find nirvana till I gave up thinking i had to have a racing bike. Get a cyclocross bike or similar and all your tire problems will go away
Ok I am glad driving a cyclecross bike works for you. . . but yeah its not the same for me.
How do I know? Because I also own a cyclecross bike and its like driving a truck or an SUV. Its awesome when I want to head onto gravel putter around with 80lbs of kids in tow on a trailer, but does it compare with bombing down some 11% grade on a road bike- not hardly. Maybe you dont understand I am not
racing I am
riding my CAAD, like I dont race my motorcycle but I enjoy a spirited ride, hard cornering, fast handling and pushing the limits of my machine and myself. Now a congential heart defect and 25 years of smoking have ruined racing for me but please dont think I need a f@cking hoveround just because I am fat. My CAAD is 7 years old and has 1000s of miles on it with my fat ass bearing down on it and it still survives. I have hit 50 MPH on a downhill, gotten a speeding ticket (45 in a 35... only in California) climbed hills and taken on traffic in PDX, SEA, & NYC, never weighing less than 275, the only alteration to the bike is a 32 spoke rear wheel. So to say I need a Xcross bike is a bit of a stretch.
Secondly I know my own habits and I wont ride as fast, as far or as hard on the Kona because it just isnt that much fun. If I want to lose weight I need to get off the couch and in the saddle and the CAAD gets me there, gives me that thing in my reptilian brain that I need from riding. I love digging into that bike and making it scream down the road, pass lycra wearing posers puttering down the road (dont get me wrong real lycras leave me in the dust, as well they should). Two days ago and chugged my way up the Point Richmond hillside for an hour to spend fourty seconds screaming down the other side. I love seeing how far I can go in the short amount of time I have to ride (1-2 hours usualy)... thats not the kind of thing you take the truck out for.
