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Is anyone riding the R20 Birdy?

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Is anyone riding the R20 Birdy?

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Old 06-06-22, 02:28 AM
  #26  
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Wider tires at the same pressure have a lower rolling resistance than narrow tires. The only drawback is more aerodynamic losses at high speed, above about 30km/h when aerodynamic losses become dominant over rolling resistance losses. This depend also of the shape of the combination tire+rim. Recent race bike rims have very efficient shape that allow wider tires, this is the reason why race tires become wider and wider (old 21mm moved to 23, then 25, then 28mm and now even 30 or 32mm).

But this is not important for folding bikes and small wheels bike for which a wider tire bring only benefit if its construction makes it a fast tire.

You mention Alex DA16 rims, so I guess you have a Pacific Cycles Birdy (R&M mount Alex Crostini rims). The first thing to do to improve your Birdy riding and its also cheap is to change the tires for the Schwalbe BIg Apple 50x355 because tires have a major impact on rolling resistance. To have the lowest rolling resistance you can inflate them at their max pressure of 5bar which their width and the BIrdy full suspension has no negative impact on comfort.

What transmission do you have on your Birdy (forgot to mention the 3x8s of the Pacific Cycles Birdy Touring with the Sturmey Archer 3s hub which is very inefficient and heavy, the current Riese & Müller Birdy Touring has a totally different 10s Shimano Deore derailleur transmission with a 9-32t cassette).
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Old 06-06-22, 02:44 AM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by Jipe
Wider tires at the same pressure have a lower rolling resistance than narrow tires. The only drawback is more aerodynamic losses at high speed, above about 30km/h when aerodynamic losses become dominant over rolling resistance losses. This depend also of the shape of the combination tire+rim. Recent race bike rims have very efficient shape that allow wider tires, this is the reason why race tires become wider and wider (old 21mm moved to 23, then 25, then 28mm and now even 30 or 32mm).

But this is not important for folding bikes and small wheels bike for which a wider tire bring only benefit if its construction makes it a fast tire.

You mention Alex DA16 rims, so I guess you have a Pacific Cycles Birdy (R&M mount Alex Crostini rims). The first thing to do to improve your Birdy riding and its also cheap is to change the tires for the Schwalbe BIg Apple 50x355 because tires have a major impact on rolling resistance. To have the lowest rolling resistance you can inflate them at their max pressure of 5bar which their width and the BIrdy full suspension has no negative impact on comfort.

What transmission do you have on your Birdy (forgot to mention the 3x8s of the Pacific Cycles Birdy Touring with the Sturmey Archer 3s hub which is very inefficient and heavy, the current Riese & Müller Birdy Touring has a totally different 10s Shimano Deore derailleur transmission with a 9-32t cassette).
wow thanks Jipe. True, let me upgrade the tyres first, this should be one of the most affordable things to do with perceivable improvements.
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