Originally Posted by
HTupolev
The risk of big impacts is pinches. Wider tires might help, since they need to compress more before anything gets smashed; it's like having more travel on a suspension fork.
The best solution is to just not impact concrete corners, though.
Also, whether you're smashing into concrete corners or not, you should carry the equipment necessary to fix a flat.
The risk of big impacts on square concrete corners
isn't pinch flats. That's a minor annoyance. The real risk of big impacts is damage to the rim.
Originally Posted by
fabiocortez
Ok, I'll try to keep it as short as possible.
I've been researching this for a while, and I know that fatter road bike tires are better for handling gravel and rocks but my question is would 40mm tires be better at handling small drops and curb hopping.
I'm 203 pounds, 6'2, riding a newish 2016 giant escape 3 with 700cc 32mm tires.
I did have a situation with a flat tire a while back, because the bike was new from the shop and I was riding on and off for a couple weeks and never checked the pressure, but my concern was if this had something to do with me dropping and jumping up onto curbs too hard. I'm doing the same thing now but more carefully, "unweighting" the bike properly and having no problems but I'm worried about getting a flat and being stranded like 4 to 6 miles from where I live.
Just wondering if the upgrade would be worth it. I'd be willing to upgrade to 40mm tires and tubes, or even wider 29 inch mountain bike rims and tires if possible. Love the bike, but terrain is really rough in some places in my town.
If you do it correctly, it shouldn't matter what width tire you use for hopping curbs. If you do it
incorrectly it won't matter what width tire you use. I regularly hop curbs with 23mm tires and I'm a bit bigger than you. I've only ever damaged one wheel when I mistimed lifting the rear wheel...and that was on a 2.1" tire.
The key, as you said, is unweighting the wheel when the bike goes over the curb. That's in either direction...up or down. When going up, make sure you hop the rear wheel up over the curb so that it doesn't impact on the curb as well as the front wheel. When going off the curb, flex your arms and legs to absorb the impact rather than make the wheels and tires do the work. If you feel a "thud" when you drop off the curb or feel like your teeth have been rattled by the impact, you need to make you arms and legs do more of the work.
And, as
everyone else has said, carry the necessary tools to fix flats. You'll eventually learn that lesson the hard way...with a 6 mile walk back home...or the easy way...by listening to people who have made that walk of shame
