On Jul 29, 11:47*pm, RonSonic wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:49:45 -0700 (PDT), Dan O wrote:

Trying to improve performance by upgrading components can be something
of an ethereal pursuit - sometimes it's hard to tell the difference; a
lot of the time you can't help but "feel" a difference just because
you expect it; and sometimes you can actually spend (a lot) of time
and money and wind up backwards because multiple "upgrades" don't jive
as a total configuration.

But I am here to testify that - just as they say in hi-fi to spend
your money on the best loudspeakers (and phono pickup) that you can
afford, tires are where the rubber hits the road on bicycles. *After
riding for almost 4 months on the stock tires (Continental Contact
700x37) that came with my LHT complete bike, I finally managed to get
a pair of Vittoria Randonneur Pro 700x32's. *At first the ride
differences were not so immediately pronounced as I had expected
(considering the new tires look to be about half the size of the old
ones), but the Vittorias straight up give a familiar ride about like I
remember the 700x28 Randonneurs (60 tpi, non-Pro) that I used to ride
on. *But after leaning into a few turns, I am in 7th Heaven on these
babies :-)

These are my first ever non-wire bead tires. *They mounted pretty
easily. *Because these are spendy tires and I don't want to wreck
them, I stopped pumping at the sidewall recommended max 75 psi - even
though I used to pump my 700x28 Randonneurs *well* past the
recommended 80 psi (I think it was), and kept the 700x37 Contacts 5-10
psi above the recommended max 85.

I'm sure the Contacts. BTW, are fine tires (costing almost as much as
the Vittorias) - they rode decently enough as big hoses go, never slid
out from under me, didn't flat too terribly much (never flatted the
front), and don't show a lot of wear after at least a few thousand
miles (the front looks practically unused).

The Conti's might have given you a decent ride if you didn't overinflate them.


Surely the fact that I rode on them for four months implies that they
must have given me at least a decent ride.

Let's consider your transducer comparison, would it improve your sound to
stiffen up the phono stylus's suspension or drop another gram of tracking weight
on it?


I'm pretty sure that neither of those changes would yield an
improvement for my record player (quite the contrary), but it would
certainly yield a change in performance, which is why I went out of my
way to disclose the different inflation treatment I had given the
(very) different tires under consideration.

That max pressure isn't even a recommended pressure maximum.

Okay then, the manufacturer's rated maximum pressure specification.

I can't imagine why
you'd want over 90 psi in a 37...

Speed.

... unless you just really want to get on
Mythbusters. "Is it true some moron blew the hell out of himself with a bike
tire - we put it to the test."

Gee, thanks :-) (The respect-o-meter just dropped precipitously.)

*The whole point of running a tire that fat is so
you can lower the pressure.


The whole point of running a tire that fat in my case was that is what
came on the bike; they worked okay; and I couldn't afford to replace
them given the first two factors.

Glad you're enjoying your bike. Let me suggest experimenting with pressure a
bit. Ignore the some good, more better, too much just right thing you've been
operating on and really test for what actually works better for you.


Gee, why didn't *I* think of that? ;-)