C
Chris Hedges
Guest
I am thinking of trying some wider tires - perhaps 42C front and 38C
back (complete guesses) to create a set of wheels for my cyclocross bike
that I can use for offroad rides. Two things are troubling me. The
selection of very wide tires at 700C seems very limited, and I don't
really know whether wider tires will help me do what I am trying to do.
Despite being between mountain bikes, I recently accepted an invitation
to take a 80 mile off-road ride - mainly very rough jeep roads in the
foothills but with a couple gravel, county maintained stretches. I put
a pair of the widest cyclocross tires I had available, 33C, on my
cyclocross bike and had a great time. In fact, I had so much fun on the
"road" bike that I am thinking of foregoing the mountain bike for awhile
and simply setting up some off-road 700C wheels.
The 33C tires worked well with two exceptions. First, on a recently,
graded (larger than) pea gravel stretch they tended to "knife in" to an
uncomfortable degree a couple times. Second, on rough 4WD trails,
bombing down the descents was not a possibility. Part of this was
mental but part seemed to be genuine instability.
What do you think? Is this plan worth pursuing? Any tire suggestions?
back (complete guesses) to create a set of wheels for my cyclocross bike
that I can use for offroad rides. Two things are troubling me. The
selection of very wide tires at 700C seems very limited, and I don't
really know whether wider tires will help me do what I am trying to do.
Despite being between mountain bikes, I recently accepted an invitation
to take a 80 mile off-road ride - mainly very rough jeep roads in the
foothills but with a couple gravel, county maintained stretches. I put
a pair of the widest cyclocross tires I had available, 33C, on my
cyclocross bike and had a great time. In fact, I had so much fun on the
"road" bike that I am thinking of foregoing the mountain bike for awhile
and simply setting up some off-road 700C wheels.
The 33C tires worked well with two exceptions. First, on a recently,
graded (larger than) pea gravel stretch they tended to "knife in" to an
uncomfortable degree a couple times. Second, on rough 4WD trails,
bombing down the descents was not a possibility. Part of this was
mental but part seemed to be genuine instability.
What do you think? Is this plan worth pursuing? Any tire suggestions?