What do carbon bikes get more comfort features?
10-11-21, 09:20 AM
#26
Sunshine
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Des Moines, IA
Posts: 15,871
Bikes: '18 class built steel roadbike, '19 Fairlight Secan, '88 Schwinn Premis , Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross V4, '89 Novara Trionfo
Mentioned: 121 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10277 Post(s)
Liked 6,720 Times
in
3,805 Posts
I cant even keep count of how many people I ride with who have carbon road bikes with 32mm tires now. Some have 35 and even 38mm tires. There are a couple on aluminum too. Then everyone else is on older carbon or aluminum bikes that cant even handle wider than 25mm, maybe 28mm.
What you described isnt an obsession limited to steel- its an industry trend right now regardless of frame material.
Likes For mstateglfr:
10-11-21, 09:30 AM
#27
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2021
Posts: 6,264
Mentioned: 9 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3189 Post(s)
Liked 3,483 Times
in
2,199 Posts
Excellent points. As to your question about "why I felt the need to judge...", I'm not sure, really. I was riding alongside him for about 3 miles on a freshly paved roadway and we had a chance to chat at length. As he was talking, I watched the suspension moving, and thought to myself "why would this be necessary at all, and why is it moving right now?"
His bike was carbon to my eye, a matte green/grey color, and he said 2 years old, if that helps. His riding style was not particularly smooth and not especially strong, and he had some upper body bobbing, to be sure. I was able to catch him without a change in effort, and I'm maybe average or slightly above fitness for my age (among riders). He was retirement age, maybe mid-60s, but I'm guessing. How he pumped his tires is an unknown. Many folks overfill their tires, as you undoubtedly know.
About me, I'm 62, and have been riding since the early 1970s, and have owned and ridden (but not counted) maybe 80 bikes or so. I don't know. I'm pretty sensitive to the character of a bike when riding it, including the influences of fit, wheels and tires, and frame. In the scenario I've described, my bike was a fixed gear on a modified track frame. The frame is pretty stiff, the wheels less so, but as I described the bars have some flex in them. On my 25s, they are Conti Sport IIs - cheap but fairly pliable, and not durable - inflated to 93 front, 98 rear. I weight 176 or so. The bike weighs another 18-ish.
When I say imperceptible road input, I mean it. Smooth as glass to my feel, as compared with typical macadam in the mid-Atlantic, which begins to degrade and become rutted after three winters or so.
Anyway, if any of this is helpful, then good. But you made great points in your post.
His bike was carbon to my eye, a matte green/grey color, and he said 2 years old, if that helps. His riding style was not particularly smooth and not especially strong, and he had some upper body bobbing, to be sure. I was able to catch him without a change in effort, and I'm maybe average or slightly above fitness for my age (among riders). He was retirement age, maybe mid-60s, but I'm guessing. How he pumped his tires is an unknown. Many folks overfill their tires, as you undoubtedly know.
About me, I'm 62, and have been riding since the early 1970s, and have owned and ridden (but not counted) maybe 80 bikes or so. I don't know. I'm pretty sensitive to the character of a bike when riding it, including the influences of fit, wheels and tires, and frame. In the scenario I've described, my bike was a fixed gear on a modified track frame. The frame is pretty stiff, the wheels less so, but as I described the bars have some flex in them. On my 25s, they are Conti Sport IIs - cheap but fairly pliable, and not durable - inflated to 93 front, 98 rear. I weight 176 or so. The bike weighs another 18-ish.
When I say imperceptible road input, I mean it. Smooth as glass to my feel, as compared with typical macadam in the mid-Atlantic, which begins to degrade and become rutted after three winters or so.
Anyway, if any of this is helpful, then good. But you made great points in your post.
10-11-21, 11:33 AM
#28
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 4,357
Mentioned: 11 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1849 Post(s)
Liked 2,094 Times
in
1,180 Posts
I havent noticed this to be accurate around me, or on forums.
I cant even keep count of how many people I ride with who have carbon road bikes with 32mm tires now. Some have 35 and even 38mm tires. There are a couple on aluminum too. Then everyone else is on older carbon or aluminum bikes that cant even handle wider than 25mm, maybe 28mm.
What you described isnt an obsession limited to steel- its an industry trend right now regardless of frame material.
I cant even keep count of how many people I ride with who have carbon road bikes with 32mm tires now. Some have 35 and even 38mm tires. There are a couple on aluminum too. Then everyone else is on older carbon or aluminum bikes that cant even handle wider than 25mm, maybe 28mm.
What you described isnt an obsession limited to steel- its an industry trend right now regardless of frame material.
