Seattle Forrest

The rains have arrived, and this is the best time of year to visit the rain forest. We have a lot of low traffic dirt forest service roads out here through temperate rain forests. The big leaf maples are starting to get colorful, the rivers are swelling, the mist is blowing through the trees. This could make for some great riding.

I'm not going to buy another bike right now. Are there knobby 23 or 25 mm tires available? Would that make much difference on a road bike?

RJM

You need a new bike, SF. Something that will take a tire that is wider than a 32 at least. Cough...cough....Rivendell...cough....cough.


Wet dirt roads just screams a gravel grinder bike to me with good fenders; some sort of cross bike. Niner is even getting into the action. https://velonews.competitor.com/2013/...er-line_302592

TrojanHorse

Wouldn't any cross bike do just fine in those circumstances?

RaleighSport

Get a walmart fat tire bike and call it done

Seattle Forrest

Hmmmm. The walmart fat tire bike would probably fall apart after a ride or two ... but that'd be cheaper than renting these days!

Seattle Forrest

Yeah. But I don't have a CX bike anymore. I need a P&S camera, a down jacket, and possibly some ski gear. Mostly I enjoy riding on pavement, and I've got two road bikes for that, plus a small apartment, so a new bike isn't in the cards for a while because of money and space.

TrojanHorse

Man, your priorities are all out of whack.



Peruse craig's list for an old steel bike, I bet you can easily get 28 or 32mm tires on one of those and that may be enough to get the job done.

Notice how I'm totally ignoring your lack of interest in acquiring another bike.

Jakedatc

pretty much the only way he'll get wider tires if his current bikes don't have the clearance. so... new bike or stay off wet dirt roads

i'd guess that 28's would be the thinnest with any meaningful texture.. like a rando tire or commuter type

RaleighSport

ilb has one and so does someone else.. ilb though has been upgrading the crud out of his, I think if you tune it up yourself it might hold together a year or two and if I recall right it has a rear coaster brake, so wet braking wouldn't be an issue.

badger1

No, absolutely not. In fact ...

Hmmmm, wait, I sense a new marketing opportunity! Wait, wait ... yes, it's coming into focus: yet another new kind of bike, not a track bike, not a t/t bike, not quite a 'cross bike, not quite a road bike, not quite a "gravel grinder". Yes, it's the all-new, even more narrowly-focussed '"Wet Dirt Road" Road Bike' bike. Or perhaps "Dirty Wet Road" bike, or "Wet and Dirty" bike.

Specialized? Trek? Giant? C'dale? Salsa? are you listening?

"Yes, this is the bike you need for those days when you contemplate riding on a wet dirt road. Geometry, frame stiffness, tire clearance and braking are optimized for those wet, dirt road conditions. Our engineers have precisely tuned both lateral stiffness and vertical compliance to absorb the additional stresses imposed by wet dirt. Our engineers have raised the B/B height .025mm when considered in relation to that of the typical Gravel Grinder, providing just the right clearance for 'splash-up'. Dick breaks (©BSNYC) provide all-conditions stopping power. Our newly-designed 26.5c "Wet Dirt Road"™ tires provide precisely the amount of grip you need -- but no more than necessary -- in slippery dirt without compromising rolling resistance during those 'dry' spells should the sun come out.
Add the all-new Wet Dirt Road ("WDR")™ to your stable, and you'll never miss a day's riding again just because it rained."

caloso

See if you can fit some of these in your frame: https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...s.php?id=10339

They're listed as 30mm, but are really more like 28.5. They're not great tires, but they have side knobs and are cheap.

ThermionicScott 

+1 to all of the above.

Bah Humbug

What about an old Specialized Rockhopper or Stumpjumper? Those are cheap on CL.

koolerb

I built this up for about $200. Now I just need to find time to ride it.

Seattle Forrest

The best bike I have for this is a ~2005 Cervelo Soloist (alu), I'm not sure I can get 25s on it.

Craigslist has a lot of expensive used bikes. You can occasionally find a bargain, but it's a lot of effort, and I really don't have any room to put it unless I get rid of one of the bikes I already have. A rental would be awesome, but fewer places rent bikes these days, out here anyway, and it's expensive to rent one for a day or a weekend.

This is the road I have in mind, and we're expecting up to 5 inches per day of rain this weekend.





I've done little patches of dirt road on 23s before, you can go in a straight line but turning is no fun.

shoota 

https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/bik/4065795229.html <- put on some dropbars, have fun.
https://seattle.craigslist.org/est/bik/4069604723.html <- put on 700c wheels with thicker tires (what I did, works great)

caloso

You can get get 25mm tires on a Soloist. I raced on 25mm Vittoria tubulars -- actually they did a lot to improve the ride on the craptastic roads we race around here. But that's it, I'm positive you won't get anything larger, with knobs or not.

Bah Humbug

I can't get 25s on mine. At least, not 25c GP4KSes on Belgiums. It's really a poor choice for this duty.

Brian Ratliff

You can probably get 25mm road tires on it. That'll help some. Even if you could get 25mm knobbies on it, they'd either be too big or they'd handle more like 22mm tires. Just suck it up and ride your road bike. You'll look badass to all those mountainbikers out there. Otherwise, you're probably a bit SOL.

Brian Ratliff

This is the only reason why I keep a cross bike around. It's a crappy frame with worse brakes, cast-off parts and bar-end shifters, but if you want to ride dirt roads for any distance, the big tires really are the order of the day.

znomit

Someone is
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/showcase/revolt/

ahsposo 

What no rear fender? I see an eyelet up front but not in the back...

Here's what he needs (I do like the disc brakes on the Giant, though):

caloso

I was under the impression that Oregon state law required it.

Brian Ratliff

I rebel against cyclocross by intentionally keeping road pedals on my cross bike. That way, if I ever have the urge to enter a cross race, I'll have 10 minutes as I am swapping pedals to hit myself over the head with my pedal wrench and make the urge go away.

znomit

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/.../#technologies

Its got a slightly less fredly fender thingee on the downtube.

Giant have a good selection of gravel capable bikes from cross to commuter:
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/...oad/?level=all