drrobwave

I am going to credit card tour the Skyline Drive out and back over 4 days taking my Soma Stanyan, no racks just a small backpack. I have somewhat new Michelin Pro4 25's on it - In my tire stock I have Conti 4000s 25's, Schwalbe Marathon 28's and Michelin Pilot's 32's. My buddy going with me is riding Pro 4 23's on his tarmac and I don't want to have a disadvantage. So what tires would you ride? And Why?

Just ignore the Merckx

10 Wheels

Good roads = 25's

Bad roads = 28's

Have fun...

staehpj1

I packed 12 pounds or so of gear on the Southern Tier and started out with 23mm tires because they were on the bike. When they wore out I replaced them with 25mm tires. The 25's rode a lot better on Texas chipseal, but riding on 23s wasn't the end of the world. On skyline drive the surface is a lot better. I'd just run whatever is on the bike, especially since we are talking about a 4 day ride. To be honest any of the tires you mentioned would suffice, but the 32s would be pretty much overkill.

TheReal Houdini

You'll be fine on the 25's. You might feel fresher at the end of long days on 28's at lower pressure. I'd also borrow or buy a rack and a bag. The backpack would be hot on the climbs and potentially flop arround on the down.

Blindhog

On recent minitour, I was navigating 100% by Googlemap on my phone as an experiment (no paper maps). I got routed onto dirt roads a few times and once I couldn't efficiently divert to another path. I was very glad I was riding 32 mm tires than came on my touring bike. I had considered putting on some 28s. The 32s still had some trouble but 25 and dirt roads that aren't well-packed = bad situation.


So I suppose it wouldn't cause me to go to 45s if I planned to do all paved touring just for the odd chance, but for me 32s are a good compromise.


P.s. Coincidentally I have looked into Skyline Drive as an option for a ride myself sometime. Love the area.

drrobwave

Thanks guys - I have just recently purchased the pro 4s and they seemed to be holding up great not cuts or flats so far so I might just save myself the 20 minutes of changing them and ride and as always on a tour I'll carry a spare tire.

andrewclaus

You made a good decision. But I wouldn't carry a spare for a short trip on good roads with new, high quality tires.

staehpj1

I tend to do the same. Even on long tours in fairly remote areas I skip the spare. In the extremely rare case of needing a replacement tire without warning, I'd rely on hitching a ride.