doubravsky 

Thinking about doing a pacific coast route section... touring bike will be a medium Salsa Fargo with moloko adventure bars and a rohloff/ belt drive. The wheels are 30mm internal. 29". usually used for bikepacking. Looking for something more road oriented than the Mezcals/ Maxxis mtb or gravel tires I usually use. With the wider rims I'll probably need something between 47 Cm - 2.2".

What factors should I consider when looking for a touring tire? Looking around, I see lots of "city" tire options that look good...

thanks in advance!

Tourist in MSN

Are your rims for tubeless or inner tube tires?

doubravsky 

sorry Tourist in MSN they are tubeless......

Tourist in MSN

Then I have no suggestions.

doubravsky 

Bummer.... but thanks for trying!

staehpj1

How long of a section? What else will you use the tires for after the tour? The reason I ask is because it might not be worth buying tires that get used for a week or two. Tires are pretty expensive and buying for one tour may not make sense unless it is a long one or you plan more similar use. I used some XC race knobbies Kenda Slant Six (lots of small low knobs) on a mixed surface tour and was surprised how little I minded them on the paved portion of the ride. Not that they are an option for you, but your Mezcals may not be that bad if it is a one shot deal for one not too long trip. Otherwise you will be shopping for a tire with less aggressive tread. Sorry, but I don't have specific suggestions for a tire to suit that, but hopefully it can be a tire that suits the longer term need for the bike. Lots of gravel specific tires look like they might work well especially if you want to maintain some gravel compatibility.

djb

the west coast route is basic pavement riding, so any reasonable tire will work. I have a rim width / tire width chart here that shows that as you say, around a 2in tire will be fine, so its up to you to decide on what sort of tire and price range you want to spend.
I personally wouldnt go cheapest, as its not worth it, but there are numerous good tires out there that will be reasonable choices.
You could also contact the rim company to get a more official rating on the smallest tire you can safely put on that rim, especially give the tubeless factor.

Given being paved, I'd put the emphasis on the quiet aspect of a slick, or slick center tire.

happy researching

LeeG

I’d get a round tire. ok, ok. brb

these look good. My experience is with the first 700x38 Almotions, these look different. Nothing like new tires.

https://www.schwalbetires.com/Marath...otion-11654059

Calsun

I would buy a second set of wheels and 28mm tires. I often had two sets of wheels for my bike as it cost less than having two different bikes.

Atlas Shrugged

Since your running tubeless. 38mm Panaracer Gravelking slicks.

djb

38mm on 30mm internal width rims? Not sure if that's kosher, look up some rim/ tire charts.

djb

That's mucho dinero to spend, but if you're buying, I'll take a set too please

djb

Wtb chart shows 42mm the narrowest for 30mm internal

I've used 2 inch tires on 17mm internal with no issues, but don't have experience with wider rims.

https://www.wtb.com/pages/tire-rim-fit-chart

Tourist in MSN

The velocity Blunt 35 rim is 30.2mm wide (internal). Their website suggests 50 to 70mm tire width for that rim.
https://www.velocityusa.com/tech/rims/

staehpj1

That would give a great deal of versatility to the bike and swapping tires all the time is a real pain. The thing is that the OP has only said they wanted the tires to do a section of the Pacific coast, so we don't know if they have plans of using the bike for much pavement after using it for an unknown length section of pavement.

The whole PCH (~1850 miles) is long enough that I'd probably buy tires for it, but not wheels just for that unless the bike was likely to see more similar use. For a section, it might be questionable whether I'd even bother to swap tires if I didn't have a second wheel set. I guess it would depend on the length of the section. That is just me though.

So a second set of wheels might be a great investment or not depending on what future usage they plan for the bike.

GhostRider62

Herse tires but bring a spare

https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop...elope-hill-tc/

djb

to your specific question, for what you want to do--ride on good pavement for a week or two or whatever, pretty much means that any good quality tire will be fine for what you want to do.
I personally like to look at how fast a tire rolls, how heavy it is and how quiet it rolls along--and I'm sure you have already seen that there are loads of options out there---and prices of course.

a question-would you , or could you run a tube setup? This will add a whole bunch of perfectly good tires to your options. Here in my part of Canada, a good quality tire kind of in the range you are looking for, will be somewhere in the 40, 50 ish dollar range. I've toured a long time, and generally have avoided really cheap tires, figuring it was worth spending a bit more for a better tire.
I personally have had very good luck with a lack of flats touring, just by making sure I have good tires, that they are not towards the end of their life.

you dont say if you'll be carrying camping stuff or not, but in the end, a good quality tire in the narrowest safe range for your rims will roll fairly well. Ive toured on pavement a lot on 2in slicks, that measured only 45mm on my narrow rims, and they rolled very very nicely, so do some research and you'll see there are lots of good tires out there, and they don't all have to cost $100 each.

79pmooney

A thought - perhaps it would be worth contacting a bike shop along the portion you wish to ride and ask them what the popular tires are. Say a smaller Northern California town that might have half its customer traffic tourers passing through. They might say 'we change out an awful lot of "xxx" tires. And those who ride "yyy" never need or want new tires.'

Edit - tubes or tubeless? My take? Are there goatheads along the route? (Or an equally obnoxious thorn?) If yes - tubeless is a gift from Above. If no, I'd run tubes to have a simple system that can be repaired/replaced in any small town in America. Any bike shop. Doesn't matter how ancient the shop or its staff are. Most hardware stores. Many department stores.

doubravsky 

Thanks for great thoughts!

I plan to go SB from Astoria... maybe to LA... so it is worth buying some tires for sure.

The wheelset option would work, except my Fargo has a Rohloff hub and belt drive, so the rear wheel would be too costly.

I'll reach out to some bike shops along the way... and I'm pretty set on tubeless. After years and years of tubes... going to tubeless has been very positive... I don't mind the sealant maintenance and the reduction in flats has been well worth it!

I do like the RH tires... have had a pair of Fleecer Ridges on this bike and had a set of Oracle Ridges... but they don't seem to be super durable and are pretty costly.

doubravsky 

And.. I will be carrying camping gear.... Tailfin rear rack and panniers... and looking for a light front rack....

djb

tubus tara is nice and light as a lowrider, for front panniers, but if you mean a platform rack, there are lots of light, expensive ones out there. Check out bikepacking.com, they have done front rack comparisons, you'll be able to find it easily enough on the site.

doubravsky 

thanks djb ! I am only looking to hold panniers,,,,,,

Tourist in MSN

I think the Tubus Tara rack is a great rack, BUT, it does not have very much adjustability. If that rack on your fork does not have the horizontal bar very close to horizontal, you can't adjust it to fit better. I consider myself lucky that it fits well on the LHT fork I put on my Lynskey, but it did not fit well on my Thorn Nomad. The second Tara I had, I gave to a friend.

One thing that I did before I rode Pacific Coast (Astoria to San Francisco) was to put all of the Oregon and California hiker biker campsites at their state parks into a mapping program on my tablet. I got the data for which state parks had those campsites off of their websites. That way, we could plan on a daily basis how far we wanted to go the next day and the day after that.

It has been nine years since I was there, but maybe some of my thoughts and observations may come in handy from this old post:
Southt to North Pacific Coast Highway Concerns

I just skimmed that old post, it suggests the guide book but I made that suggestion nine years ago, I do not know if it has been updated or if things have changed much.

That was the last trip I did without a dynohub, now I charge up batteries as I roll.

I used a derailleur bike on that route, but a Rohloff would certainly work well too.

I almost wore out a set of brake pads on that route, lots of 8 percent downhill grades with a sharp turn at the bottom. I had one spare set (for one wheel) along, if we went a couple hundred more miles I would have needed to use them.

I as very happy with 37mm wide tires on that route, but your rims need something wider, I suspect you will end up with 50mm wide tires. I only use tubes, I have no suggestion on what to use.

Do not forget to bring a cork screw.

staehpj1

Okay so in that case yes definitely worth swapping tires. I have riddien most of that (Started in Seattle and stopped a bit short of LA). For whoever mentioned goat head thorns, I didn't have any trouble with them or flats in general. So I don't think that they are a major issue if at all.

The coast is a beautiful ride with Oregon and Northern California being my favorite part. Your Astoria to LA route makes sense to me. If I go again I'll most likely skip Washington and stop somewhere not too far south in California or just do Oregon and just a bit if CA.

Polaris OBark

RH tires should be fine. The Endurance (or Endurance +) will make you less worried, but I use EL as well in Santa Cruz and get fewer than 1 flat per year.

Highway 1 is closed near Ragged Point. You might be able to sneak by.

Is CA-1 at Lucia open to bikes?