"n5hsr" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> OK, I've been out of biking for quite a few years, and am surprised at all
> the fat knobby tires on bikes now. I'm used to the skinny tires. Don't
> the fat knobbies take more to pedal? My Suburban has 27x 1 1/4 tires, my
> old Racer was 26 x 1 3/8.
>
> --
> Charles of Schamburg
>
Yes you are right, the big tires take more the pedal, and have more rolling
resistance.
But off road the fat knobby tires are needed for improved traction and
better ability to ride through soft stuff.
You probably have noticed how bad the 27x1.25 tires are in soft turf with
wet grass when you are riding.
Anyway, if you are seeing them on bikes on the street, these are the "faux"
mountain bikes, used by many people for commuting purposes.
Most notably the Hispanic riders use them for getting to and from work, etc.
Unfortunately after the big touring bike crash around the late 70's turned
stores off from regular thin tire bikes. But the mountain bike craze went
into full swing. So now there are jillions of cheap "faux" mountain bikes,
intended to be ridden on the street. Basically the public today, see
mountain bikes as being cool and neat to have because they have all the
"trick" features on them. Unfortunately the regular thin tired road bikes
are perceived by the public as being for racing and used by pro-racers etc.
having limited utility for day to day use. Usually most road bike riders
wear spandex, colorful jerseys, helmits and such so they look like racers to
the public as well.
But the "faux" mountain bikes work for their intended purpose, riding on the
roads and sidewalks at around 10mph, usually the rider picks one gear and
never shifts gears. The large stiff knobby tires lose air slowly so the
owners don't have to add air often. Most of these knobby like tires have a
center ridge that tends to help reduce rolling resistance.
Now then real mountain fikes or All Terrain Bicycles have good lightweight
heavy duty frames, and good components and are intended to be ridden hard
off the road. But the "faux" mountain bikes are actually street bike
cruisers that happen to look like mountain bikes because the public likes
the style and doesn;t like the regular road racer style.
Walmart just happens to be trying some marketing experiments with a "faux"
road bike design. I think they have two different models now too. So you can
see one internet sales model on the website and some other people have
reported a different model at some of the stores too. In this case for one
design, they took a mountain bike frame and put on two piece drop bars and
thin 700c25 aerodesign wheels. So it works better on the streets than the
"faux" MTB's do.
