Originally Posted by
manapua_man
Why not just adjust tire pressure to suit conditions while under way? I never really got why people fixate so much on a specific pressure ahead of time rather than actually riding their bike and getting a feel for what is more/less ideal for different terrain.
The cops will yell at you to get on the sidewalk in places. IMHO having narrow tires isn't that big a deal though, my road bike with 23mm tires does just fine. It's a little squirrelly when there's sand/gravel but nothing that would make me freak out, even on those mountain roads that clearly haven't been maintained in years.
Dunno, 4000km and 10 weeks in Japan and I've never been yelled at by a cop. I have been waved too a lot by them however. Probably because I worked out that sharing narrow roads with large trucks that have to give way to you would cause havoc. 99.9% won't push past you, so you can cause them some serious inconvenience. So I ride the footpath sometimes, but in order to be able to do that at a reasonable speed with a good load you need some big tires. There are some big lips on crossing. As my partner said, "some of this footpath riding is improving my MTB skills". You could do it with small tires but you'd be paranoid about pinch flats.
But then if you are riding the Shimano Kaido or somewhere like that, it'd be fine to use 35mm tires.