northerntier

I'd like to do a couple weeks of the divide route this summer and trying to formulate a tire strategy. As a newb to off-road, I'd like some advice. I'll be riding a 29'er w/ no suspension and limited tire clearance and a bob (yak).

1) It looks like I can fit a 2.25" nobby nic at 45 or 50 psi in the front and 2.1" rocket ron at 55psi in the back. Are my fillings going to come loose?

2) Should I consider a larger, but smooth, tire in the front?

3) What about a marathon plus in either the front or back?

Anyone done something similar?

mdilthey

Wider is generally better, since you won't lose much speed. You may actually gain speed on washboard and singletrack.

Check out the Teravail 2.2. It's pricy, but it has a tread profile that is great for the TD and it has an aramid casing for flat protection. Should roll fast and still give you the grip you want. I used them for three months and liked them, and Kelley used them for six months and liked them, and the now-9-month old tires look new.

corrado33

I'd go as wide as possible. I've personally never ridden the divide, but have heard from friends that have that they'd recommend a hardtail with a lockout, not a rigid. 2.25s really aren't that wide.

BobG

A few years back I rode a 2 week Montana section of the Great Divide Route on my unsuspended Bruce Gordon using his 700x42 Rock & Road tire. They were adequate. That said, I remember welcoming the paved sections for relief from washboard. As Max says you may be able to ride faster across washboard with wider tires.

BlarneyHammer

I'm strongly considering the Great Divide this summer as well, and I had questions mostly about tread patterns. I'm also new to off-road. From what I understand, the Great Divide is mostly gravel roads and could hardly be described as technical. So would a racing/XC style MTB tire be best?

Two I've looked at are the Continental X King and the Continental Race King (local bike shop has a lot of Continental tires). X-King looks like an all-around MTB tire, but the Race King might be better on fire roads, I suppose? What say ye?

And it sounds like 2.4" is better than 2.2"? Because on Continental's site, they indicate that the thinner ones do better on bad surfaces, which sounds counter-intuitive to me.

northerntier

OP here:

Turns out a 2.35" tire fits fine in my bike's frame in the front. Seems to ride fine as well. However....

The late great sheldon says that the tire width should be 1.4-x2.0 times inner rim width. In my case this is 59.69 / 18.6 (velocity dyad) = 3.2. On the other hand, he says the issues are sidewall wear from brake shoes (I have disc brakes), and greater loss of control if blowout (I have snakeskin, so hopefully not too many, or any).

I'm going to go ahead w/ this tire unless someone points out that it's really stupid for some reason :-).

I'll be going w/ a 2.1 on the back.

northerntier

Glad to hear!

northerntier

Yes, that would be strange. Bigger pillow=better comfort. Also, the comment about washboards above makes sense: bigger tires cruise over small holes.

ACA recommends at least 2.3" front for unsprung bikes on the divide.

BlarneyHammer

Unsprung = hardtail, or fully rigid? I'm doing a hardtail with a suspension fork (though possibly a cheap fork, good enough?).

northerntier

Well, not my term, but I assume unsprung means no suspension, not even front. This is what I'll be riding.

mdilthey

Sounds fine.

Sounds fine.

Abu Mahendra

1.4-2.0 times the rim width is far too conservative, and flies in the face of what MTBers have done without problems for years. You can probably do 2.75x without issues.

northerntier

I'm glad to hear that, though I didn't miss that you refrained from commenting on 3.2. The good thing is the extra-wide tire is only on the front. My rear tire is 2.1, which would be x2.86.

djb

no experience on the Divide at all, but from reading about it over the years, it seems to me the big factors are both the specific sections that you are thinking of doing, and how the weather has been/and is--ie how wet/snow melt etc, that will make a huge difference in surface possibilities.

from my limited offroad riding, certainly as wide as possible up front and getting your pressures right will play a big factor in how beat up you are at the end of the day.

msbiker

I did the Banff to Whitefish section of the Divide a couple of years ago and Idaho Hots Springs route, which is very similar to the Divide, last year. Both times on a hardtail with 2.2 Conti Mountain Kings. There were great. I really don't think you need anything wider than a 2.2. I also think full suspension is overkill for the Divide. My buddy had a rigid and wished he had front suspension for the washboard. A lockout front suspension is helpful.

Abu Mahendra

I would not sweat 2.86x either.

Squeezebox

Please explain a hard tail w/ a lockout vs rigid. I'm new to this area of stuff.
The great divide trail is a big part of why i bought this bicycle.

msbiker

Many front suspensions allow you to "lockout" the suspension, giving you something close to the equivalent of a rigid frame. You would want to do that on paved or very smooth sections and often going uphill depending on the road quality. It eliminates "pedal bob" or the energy lost by suspension compressing under pedal forces. You generally "lockout" the suspension by turning a knob at the top of one of the front suspension cylinders. On the GD or similar routes, the front suspension is really helpful on washboard and going downhill. But there are also many sections that you would find a front suspension lockout to be helpful.

NDF86

Those pressures seem super high for those tires, and running pressures that high likely means that you have to use tubes.

skookum

I rode the first 1000 miles last year from Canmore south. I used Kenda small block 8s 26X2.1 which were perfectly adequate. I would use as big a tire as I could get away with and run the pressure low just to get a little more suspension. You could do it with narrow tires, but for comforts sake I would go wider.

djb

I concur, I run 1.5's on the street and generally use those pressures or even less when commuting. Not tube or non tube related, but just pressure observations.

northerntier

Those are the rated max's, and yes, definitely tubes. I might go lower, depending on the road surfaces, but I'm a big guy and will have 25 lbs in rear panniers.

NDF86

for what it's worth, I'm also a bigger guy, and I typically run 25-30psi in my mtb tires for dirt roads, even with a touring load, and they roll well and are super comfy.

northerntier

Whoa. Okay, well, I'll have to see. I've never any extensive off-route travel, this'll be a first for me.

NDF86

Experiment!