Does anyone have experience with these so-called micro-knobbie tires for a Bike Friday, please? Spouse and I are plotting a trip along the Katy Trail in the fall, and Bike Friday says that the tires are designed for fast hardpack, which seems to be what Katy Trail is most of the time.

And if not these, anyone got other suggestions that will work with the regular road bike brakes of our Pocket Rockets?

(I should probably search Bike Friday's Yak, but I can never find anything there)

These look pretty cool ..... BUT you know those are 451 tire size ... not the usual 20 incher ..right ?
Might be the right tire size for you.... just sayin .....:-)

thor

Pocket Rocket is 451, so yes, it's the right size, but thank you for asking. It would have been hugely embarrassing to get it wrong.

We found this one too, which seems to be sort of a reverse knobby.

I don't think you've got a lot of choices in terms of wide low pressure tires in ISO 451 sizes. Typically, wide tires are widely available in ISO 406, like the Schwalbe Big Apple which btw is one of the best road and trail use tire. I have it on my Dahon and toured with it and loved it. Think of it like a micro mini Surly Moonlander and the Big Apple isn't a slow tire even though it looked like it should be. If you are biking hard crushed gravel, you want to run them at lower pressure rather than high. Unfortunately with higher pressure tires, you can not really run them low enough to give you the comfort without getting pinch flats. I've toured on hard crushed gravel and what you will find is that knobbies won't help as much as wide fat tires run with lower pressure. You will also notice that the Pocket Llama (which is a more appropriate bike for this) uses Big Apple tires. And there's a good reason for this -- comfort especially small wheels are less forgiving in crushed gravel -- the jack hammer experience for hours on end is not a pleasant experience!

I'm not sure you can take Big Apples with your Pocket Rocket assuming you've got a pair of 406 wheels built and changing the caliper brakes to work with the 406 wheels and wider tires. My Mu SL is also the exception for the 2007 year model came with a Pantour suspension hub which helps a great deal in crushed gravel providing extra comfort.

Not sure your 2nd "find" is really 451 size - check mixed message in specs section and pic looks like 1.75".

We take our Pocket 8's for mixed surface rides. Did 10 miles on Canal Path out of D.C. and 20 miles on gravel carriage paths in Arcata Nat. Park in Maine on those bikes with Kenda Qwest 1.75" tires. They worked very well, and are super comfortable on pavement. The 1.35" (406) tires on our other Fridays are decent on similar stuff, but we also have Thud-Buster seatposts on those bikes.

Our preference for ride you are planning is the wider tires. (Our daughter is about to convert her NWT from a road configuration (406 with 1.25" tires) to a more comfortable set-up. She's going to go with 1.50" tires, about MAX for her current wheels & brakes.)

Lou

the fine diamond tread is already a long standing Option,
for Cyclocross racing tires.

I've got 1/1-8 tires on it now, and the spouse has 1 inch, so I reckon 1-3/8 will make a difference. And as you say, there's not much choice. I had not thought of low pressure being an advantage, but of course it is. Silly me.

The other option is to rent a hybrid, but what do I have the Friday for if I end up doing that? I love that bike. I want to give it a chance to shine off road as well as on.

I used to use a tire similar to that when I was going to bike camp in AZ with my Pocket Pocket. It was available as a BMX tire and I am sure I was using 451x1 1/8 tires. 451 rims are used for the younger BMX racers. If you look at a BMX web site you might find more choices. I don't think 1 3/8 tires will fit my Pocket Rocket but I have an early production bike. Roger

Bike Friday thinks 1-3/8 will work, and they say the microknobbies are new so they don't know whether to recommend them.

May I just add that this forum is amazing in terms of the information you all have.

If you can determine the fork width as well as the rear triangle width disregarding your road calipers and if they can fit up to 2.0" tires, then you can still use your Pocket Rocket as an offroad bike by simply having another set of 406 wheelset built (nothing fancy) and then temporarily replacing your road brake calipers with BMX type long reach calipers (assuming they fit and work with road levers). Then get cable splitters so you can swap between road and BMX brake calipers easily (same cable splitters used on S&S coupler bikes) whatever matches the terrain you are planning on riding. A little mini Salsa Fargo on the wild side. That's how I personalize my Mu SL with a multi-personality disorder so to speak. I can retrofit my Mu SL into doing almost anything, except having a pair 451s. But that's not hard especially with ThorUSA selling a pair and the brake extenders to get them to work. But the pair of Big Apples now on the Dahon makes it as big as a normal 451 tire and I notice the speed increase plus a gear inch higher gearing. The way it works on my bike is that, I use higher pressure for road riding, but then lower the pressure when I'm on gravel or trails. Best of both worlds by not sacrificing much in terms of performance and comfort.

So to answer your question is that, how much money do you want to retrofit your bike to work as a decent trails bike. It's probably cheaper than getting a Pocket Llama, but may not be cheaper than renting a hybrid bike.

If you go with the MK2 here is a good place to get them $25 each plus shipping.

https://www.jrbicycles.com/storefron...productId=3056

I have used these for years on SWMBO's Reach. I like them - they are quite light, they are available in a folding version. Very easy to get on and off. I recommend them. We just had one hiccup once, where a new one rapidly failed in its casing, threads breaking everywhere. I regard that as a single isolated case.

Reach on tour - front only rear had a Holy Roller - avoid those - had many failures down the years.

New Zealand


Kangaroo Island

Tioga Poweblock are made for same conditions as MK2 but last longer since MK2 rubber compound is quite soft.

https://www.tiogausa.com/bmx/powerblock.html

dont pay all too much attention to the profile/thread pattern. rmember that maybe a dime size is the ontact patch ( ok maybe a quarter ..lol ) for deep mud snow you will need knobbies but all other stuff can be almsot slicks ...

thor

ive had a set of semi-slicks on my wifes mtb for years which are a very similar pattern to those micro knobbies. they roll very nice.

??

Even slicks can benefit from some groves. Using various grove patterns tire manufacturers emulate flexibility and adhesion of soft compound while maintaining lower wear of more durable rubber.

The brakes got moved on the front fork between the 2 pictures in #12.

so I guess that piece can be flipped over.

Do you have any evidence to support this?

I've seen it claimed by number of tire manufacturers (including bicycle tire manufacturer). Google search returned:

https://www.google.com/patents?id=wuk...bility&f=false

I have schwalbe marathons, K in 349, the Plus in 406. they are doing fine..

Interesting. Of course Sheldon and Jobst both have argued that tread only worsens adhesion. So I guess the interesting question is: does a grooved tire improve grip (by allowing greater flexibility) more than it reduces grip (by reducing surface area)?

Wow I have never noticed that!! The fork suspension pivots developed more and more play, so one day I took it all apart, fixed all the joints and put it back together wrongly! I have always wondered about the front brake cable, why it is so short and why I never noticed that before.

So you have solved a long-standing mystery. I will have to look carefully if I need to turn it around again. Anyway the pivots are rattling again so it seems to need maintenance again.

(I am a klutz too often, taking things apart then having a problem with left-over bits and so on.)

Thanks fietsbob.