Originally Posted by
mack_turtle
hold up, let me be rational here. all this started because I want to put tires bigger than 35mm on a gravel bike and my current CX bike has that limit. when I am done, I will have spent over $1500 in order to go from 35mm tires (which actually measure to more like 38mm) to a bike that can fit 40 or 42mm tires. is this a worthwhile purchase for 5mm of extra tire space? Holy moley, I feel silly.
For Gravel I wouldn't want to bother. I used to run 45's on my Cross Check to ride mountain bike trails, but outgrew that stunt mostly. If you are going to ride Emma Long, tubeless 42mm tire will be a noticible improvement, but still extremely limiting. If I can't or don't want to ride something on 35's, I jump to 2.2's or bigger. I remember riding the Northeast Texas Trail on 45's because I knew it wouldn't be a technical mountain bike trail. By day 3 I was wishing I had left the Hookworms on the Fargo due to the chatter on the unimproved sections.