Wide v's narrow tires

I came of my bike when I was riding home in the dark. I think I caught a
stone at the wrong angle. My bike has narrow tires, and I'm wondering if
wide tires would be more stable... (I could have been run over)
John,
Christchurch, NZ

On 17 Jul, 10:17, "JohnH" wrote:
I came of my bike when I was riding home in the dark. I think I caught a
stone at the wrong angle. My bike has narrow tires, and I'm wondering if
wide tires would be more stable... (I could have been run over)
John,
Christchurch, NZ

Riding in the dark or with lights that are capable of seeing the road?
I wouldnt ride on the road at night without lighting capable of seeing
stones!

That said, wide tyres seem to aid obstacle absorption to some extent,
but not massively if you have high pressure in your tyres. Whats
narrow and whats wide in your mind? I run 1.3" slicks at 90psi - i
rarely have problems with stones unless they are closer to rocks, and
then I accept I will probably wobble!

I'm not sure the exact width of the tire but it is an older Carlton
Competition racing bike (in the shed and raining outside). I had one of
those lithium(?) faint blueish lights on.
John
"CoyoteBoy" wrote in message
ps.com...
On 17 Jul, 10:17, "JohnH" wrote:
I came of my bike when I was riding home in the dark. I think I caught a
stone at the wrong angle. My bike has narrow tires, and I'm wondering if
wide tires would be more stable... (I could have been run over)
John,
Christchurch, NZ

Riding in the dark or with lights that are capable of seeing the road?
I wouldnt ride on the road at night without lighting capable of seeing
stones!

That said, wide tyres seem to aid obstacle absorption to some extent,
but not massively if you have high pressure in your tyres. Whats
narrow and whats wide in your mind? I run 1.3" slicks at 90psi - i
rarely have problems with stones unless they are closer to rocks, and
then I accept I will probably wobble!

CoyoteBoy said the following on 17/07/2007 10:34:

Whats
narrow and whats wide in your mind? I run 1.3" slicks at 90psi

Great, isn't it? One set of tyres for my MTB is skinny semi-slicks at
1.5". My commuting bike has fat tyres at 38mm. All things are relative :-)

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

CoyoteBoy wrote:

Riding in the dark or with lights that are capable of seeing the road?
I wouldnt ride on the road at night without lighting capable of seeing
stones!

Up to a point, Lord Copper...
I recall riding into a hut on the landy track into Glen Affric with a
light that was fine for the road, but not really up to off-road. In
practice, you could see a big stone in time to avoid it, but when you
changed course it was usually into the path of another you then /didn't/
have time to avoid. In the end I turned off the lamp as there was
enough light to make out the edges of the road and assumed the tractor
tyres on the MTB could cope. It worked much better than trying to see
where I was going!

That said, wide tyres seem to aid obstacle absorption to some extent,
but not massively if you have high pressure in your tyres. Whats
narrow and whats wide in your mind? I run 1.3" slicks at 90psi - i
rarely have problems with stones unless they are closer to rocks, and
then I accept I will probably wobble!

I run 1.5" at 100 psi. They seem to do notably better than a pal's very
skinny road bike tyres if we're taking a "short cut" off road.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"JohnH" wrote:

I came of my bike when I was riding home in the dark. I think I caught a
stone at the wrong angle. My bike has narrow tires, and I'm wondering if
wide tires would be more stable... (I could have been run over)
John,
Christchurch, NZ

um my feeling is yes, certinaly softer, wide tires even out the surface
and are less twichy. from mud tires to road tires on my old mountain
bike, has made it much more twichy and less stable if you hit a pothole
or edge of one etc.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

Peter Clinch wrote:

I run 1.5" at 100 psi. They seem to do notably better than a pal's very
skinny road bike tyres if we're taking a "short cut" off road.

Is it normal to run a 38mm tyre at 100psi? I run my 23mm tyres at about that
pressure, and 28mm tyres at about 70psi.

Jim Higson said the following on 17/07/2007 14:54:

Is it normal to run a 38mm tyre at 100psi?

My 700x38 tyres have, IIRC, a max pressure of 110psi on the sidewall.
The rim isn't rated for that pressure at the tyre size though, so I run
it at about 95psi (I wonder how many people check their rim ratings?)

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On 17 Jul, 12:34, Peter Clinch wrote:
CoyoteBoy wrote:
Riding in the dark or with lights that are capable of seeing the road?
I wouldnt ride on the road at night without lighting capable of seeing
stones!

Up to a point, Lord Copper...
I recall riding into a hut on the landy track into Glen Affric with a
light that was fine for the road, but not really up to off-road. In
practice, you could see a big stone in time to avoid it, but when you
changed course it was usually into the path of another you then /didn't/
have time to avoid. In the end I turned off the lamp as there was
enough light to make out the edges of the road and assumed the tractor
tyres on the MTB could cope. It worked much better than trying to see
where I was going!

Of course, horses for courses, a short offroad in good moonlight is
fine, but round my normal trails they are mostly through trees, the
only lighting that does the job is my 40w halogens! On the road
though, there are few enough stones and objects for them to catch you
by suprise!


I run 2.3 knobblies offroad at 35psi My sport contacts are useless
offroad for anything other than balance training!

Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet wrote:

Jim Higson said the following on 17/07/2007 14:54:

Is it normal to run a 38mm tyre at 100psi?

My 700x38 tyres have, IIRC, a max pressure of 110psi on the sidewall.
The rim isn't rated for that pressure at the tyre size though, so I run
it at about 95psi (I wonder how many people check their rim ratings?)

i have no idea of the rim ratings to be honest. was never a issue before
as pressues tended to be 30/40 than close to a 100. but yes does make
sence.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com