Big tires and even bigger wheels
Jul 31, 2007 · 05:42 PM · permalink
One of the most liberating things about Bettie is the big tires; Big Apples from Schwalbe to be exact. They’re like that cruiser bike you had as a kid, where you just roll over everything: through a field, over a curb, on gravel, potholes … whatever. They also have a magic carpet ride about them and Schwalbe calls big-apple equipped bikes, Balloon Bikes. Not sure how that marketing program is working, but we’re seeing bikes with big tires on The Ride, Batavus Diva, and even Dahons.
Big tires are cool, bigger is better, but what I’m don’t know about is the 650B wheels (which measure 27.5” in diameter, half-way between 26” and 29” wheels) discussed this week in Bicycle Newswire.
Question is whether or not the world needs another wheel size?
Interesting that the Bicycle Newswire article omits Kogswell, probably the first place I ever heard of focusing on 650B. 650B is pretty popular with the iBOB folks, and the bikes I’ve ridden so equipped have some nice characteristics, namely 700c roadish geometries with 37mm wide tires.
I love the 700x50 big apple tires I picked up, I run them normally on my fixed gear Karate Monkey and they really make the Seattle roads smooth. I’m toying around with putting them on my Long Haul Trucker (they fit, barely, if I take off the fenders) for a trip up to Monte Cristo next weekend.
Of course, no discussion of big tires is complete without mentioning the real big tires, the 3.0 ” Nokian Gazzalodi and the 3.6” Surly Large Marge. Apparently there is a built up Pugsley running around in South Seattle, fellow .83er saw one on his commute home a few weeks back.
Lee,
Excellent addition to the post with your comment thanks. We’ll going to check all the options when we build up Bettie 2.0 this Fall. And in our Huggacast this week, I’ll review the DWR’s Biomega AMS and I wished it had bigger tires.
There’s also the inflation topic for another post, where tourists and racers are running much lower pressure. I lowered the pressure on my road bike to no more than 110 and enjoyed the difference.
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