Wider tires, All-road bikes

On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 7:50:31 PM UTC-5, Duane wrote:
Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 6:23:46 PM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
Snipped

Doesn't the change in focus from looking down the road to looking at a
mirror close to your eye bother you? I made one of those wire and
mirror devices and the change in focus from watching the road to
looking in the mirror about drove me crazy so I went back to looking
over my shoulder.


Cheers,
John B.

I have no problem at all using the helmet mirror or the eyeglass mirror..
I prefer the helmet mirror because my eyeglasses do NOT darken as Frank's
do. If I put an eyeglass mirror on my sunglasses over my regular
eyeglasses then I have problems seeing into the mirror. I prefer the
helmet mirror because of that.

Cheers


I tried a couple of helmet mirrors and while they work for seeing behind I
found that they presented a blind spot when coming to intersections. Now I
use a bar end mirror on my drop bars that seems to work well enough.
Useful especially when commuting in traffic.

--
duane

The helmet mirrors that I've used can have the arm set on an upward angle and then the mirror itself adjusted. that way there is no blind spot ahead. There's one above the line of sight to traffic but I can see traffic and the mirror image just fine. Perhaps it's because he arms on my mirrors are fairly long? I tried bar end mirrors but didn't like the fact that I had to take my eyes off traffic in front of me to glance into the mirror. Also, bar end mirrors don't work well with bar end shifters. VBEG LOL ;)

Cheers

On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 19:37:48 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/23/2019 6:23 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:45:01 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/23/2019 3:23 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 1:10:29 PM UTC-5, wrote:

When it comes to helmets Frank's mileage most definitely varies and he's strongly anti-helmet. No matter what a helmet does in a crash Frank will trot out his statistics about traumatic brain injuries. A number of years ago I crashed with such force that my head bounced twice on the asphalt. Funny thing though, I didn't get any scrapes or any other injuries to my head. I was wearing a helmet that day and I'k glad I did. I don't give a flying f*** what people say about MY accident. the simple fact is that I was able to pick up my bicycle, check it for damage and then continue my ride without even needing first aid for head cuts/scrapes. If people want to wear a helmet then that should be up to them not some person thousands of mile/kilometers away.

I'm glad you weren't injured worse.

BTW, another reason I like a helmet is because the mirror on it lets me ride with or without sunglasses and I have the mirror with me no which of my bicycles I ride. Ditto for external battery light versus dynamo lights. What works for one may NOT meet the needs/wants of others.

I use eyeglass mirrors that fit on my normal glasses. My glasses darken
in sunlight, so I don't bother with sunglasses.

I've made my own mirrors since the 1970s, each one from a few inches of
wire plus about two square cm of plastic mirror material. They weigh
about 2 grams, according to the electronic scale I was recently given. I
keep one in each handlebar bag.


Doesn't the change in focus from looking down the road to looking at a
mirror close to your eye bother you? I made one of those wire and
mirror devices and the change in focus from watching the road to
looking in the mirror about drove me crazy so I went back to looking
over my shoulder.

Assuming a flat mirror (which is what I use), looking in the mirror
doesn't require a change in focus, in the sense of adjusting the focal
length of a lens system. Objects in the mirror are at the same distance
they would be if you turned around.

What's required is aiming your eye at the object in the mirror, and more
crucially, getting your brain to pay attention to just that eye. I think
the latter is the bigger problem for most people in the U.S., where the
mirror goes on the left, but most people are right-eye dominant.

I had to learn to temporarily ignore my right eye's image back when I
first used an eyeglass mirror, and IIRC it took a few days to be
comfortable.

It wasn't until years later that I realized I had a habit of blinking as
I shifted my gaze to the mirror. Perhaps that gives my brain a needed
disconnect, allowing the left eye to gain temporary dominance.

As we drive/ride on the left I would, I assume, use my right eye for
the bike mirror and as my right eye is my "master eye" I shouldn't
have a problem with that but I wonder about my fixed focus eyes. Since
my cataract operation and the inserting of fixed focus lenses in both
eyes looking at things sometimes is a bit of a bother. My right eye is
the close focus so maybe that is immaterial.

The other thing that comes to mind is how far the mirror is from the
eye. I don't remember the spacing I used when I made the mirror I
tried, that didn't work, but trying the idea out using a hand mirror
seems to show that eye - mirror distance might be important.


Cheers,
John B.

On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:56:23 -0800 (PST), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 7:50:31 PM UTC-5, Duane wrote:
Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 6:23:46 PM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
Snipped

Doesn't the change in focus from looking down the road to looking at a
mirror close to your eye bother you? I made one of those wire and
mirror devices and the change in focus from watching the road to
looking in the mirror about drove me crazy so I went back to looking
over my shoulder.


Cheers,
John B.

I have no problem at all using the helmet mirror or the eyeglass mirror.
I prefer the helmet mirror because my eyeglasses do NOT darken as Frank's
do. If I put an eyeglass mirror on my sunglasses over my regular
eyeglasses then I have problems seeing into the mirror. I prefer the
helmet mirror because of that.

Cheers


I tried a couple of helmet mirrors and while they work for seeing behind I
found that they presented a blind spot when coming to intersections. Now I
use a bar end mirror on my drop bars that seems to work well enough.
Useful especially when commuting in traffic.

--
duane

The helmet mirrors that I've used can have the arm set on an upward angle and then the mirror itself adjusted. that way there is no blind spot ahead. There's one above the line of sight to traffic but I can see traffic and the mirror image just fine. Perhaps it's because he arms on my mirrors are fairly long? I tried bar end mirrors but didn't like the fact that I had to take my eyes off traffic in front of me to glance into the mirror. Also, bar end mirrors don't work well with bar end shifters. VBEG LOL ;)

Cheers

I see people writing "LOL" and always wondered. Did they mean
"Laughing Out loud"? Or "Lots of Luck"?



Cheers,
John B.

On 1/23/2019 8:15 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 19:37:48 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/23/2019 6:23 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:45:01 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/23/2019 3:23 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 1:10:29 PM UTC-5, wrote:

When it comes to helmets Frank's mileage most definitely varies and he's strongly anti-helmet. No matter what a helmet does in a crash Frank will trot out his statistics about traumatic brain injuries. A number of years ago I crashed with such force that my head bounced twice on the asphalt. Funny thing though, I didn't get any scrapes or any other injuries to my head. I was wearing a helmet that day and I'k glad I did. I don't give a flying f*** what people say about MY accident. the simple fact is that I was able to pick up my bicycle, check it for damage and then continue my ride without even needing first aid for head cuts/scrapes. If people want to wear a helmet then that should be up to them not some person thousands of mile/kilometers away.

I'm glad you weren't injured worse.

BTW, another reason I like a helmet is because the mirror on it lets me ride with or without sunglasses and I have the mirror with me no which of my bicycles I ride. Ditto for external battery light versus dynamo lights. What works for one may NOT meet the needs/wants of others.

I use eyeglass mirrors that fit on my normal glasses. My glasses darken
in sunlight, so I don't bother with sunglasses.

I've made my own mirrors since the 1970s, each one from a few inches of
wire plus about two square cm of plastic mirror material. They weigh
about 2 grams, according to the electronic scale I was recently given. I
keep one in each handlebar bag.


Doesn't the change in focus from looking down the road to looking at a
mirror close to your eye bother you? I made one of those wire and
mirror devices and the change in focus from watching the road to
looking in the mirror about drove me crazy so I went back to looking
over my shoulder.

Assuming a flat mirror (which is what I use), looking in the mirror
doesn't require a change in focus, in the sense of adjusting the focal
length of a lens system. Objects in the mirror are at the same distance
they would be if you turned around.

What's required is aiming your eye at the object in the mirror, and more
crucially, getting your brain to pay attention to just that eye. I think
the latter is the bigger problem for most people in the U.S., where the
mirror goes on the left, but most people are right-eye dominant.

I had to learn to temporarily ignore my right eye's image back when I
first used an eyeglass mirror, and IIRC it took a few days to be
comfortable.

It wasn't until years later that I realized I had a habit of blinking as
I shifted my gaze to the mirror. Perhaps that gives my brain a needed
disconnect, allowing the left eye to gain temporary dominance.

As we drive/ride on the left I would, I assume, use my right eye for
the bike mirror and as my right eye is my "master eye" I shouldn't
have a problem with that but I wonder about my fixed focus eyes. Since
my cataract operation and the inserting of fixed focus lenses in both
eyes looking at things sometimes is a bit of a bother. My right eye is
the close focus so maybe that is immaterial.

The other thing that comes to mind is how far the mirror is from the
eye. I don't remember the spacing I used when I made the mirror I
tried, that didn't work, but trying the idea out using a hand mirror
seems to show that eye - mirror distance might be important.

Did you get new lenses so one eye is for distance, the other for closer
work? If that's what you mean, and if the right eye is for close work,
that may be a problem. When you use one of these mirrors, you're not
focusing on the mirror; you're focusing on the distant object. You want
the "camera" of your eye to be set to focus at infinity.

Eye-to-mirror distance has other effects entirely. The closer the mirror
is to the eye, the smaller it can be for the same field of view. But the
closer it is, the greater the chance your own head or your jacket or
something will obscure the view.

My mirrors' stalks are about 2" long, so the mirror is roughly 2.5" from
my eye. The mirror surface is about 1" x 1/2" and it's held at an angle
a bit off to the side, instead of in line with the glasses' temple. I
install it so I turn my head slightly left to use it, about the same
amount leftward that I use for the side view mirror in my car.

At that orientation, the view clears my head and shoulder pretty
precisely. But there have been a few times when riding with bulky winter
gear that I got some interference.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Tue, 22 Jan 2019 08:17:10 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:
Here's Jan Heine's latest on wide tire road bikes, or "All-Road
Bikes."

https://janheine.wordpress.com/

I guess that link takes you to the most recent edition of his blog, so
when this post gets old you'll probably have to scan downwards.

Jan has a tendency to get a little self-congratulatory, as in this post.
As for the "all road" thing taking over the world, about 1 out of every
1000 bikes I see out there is from this mold. I see more 70s bike boom
ten speeds in use.

I bought a Rivendell All-Rounder frame and built it up in 1996. It'll
take 26 x 2.0 or a bit wider road tires. I'd say that the Bridgestone
XO-1 beat most everyone else to the modern market as far as this kind of
bike goes- back in 1992-93- meaning fat tire derailleured road bikes
(thereby conveniently eliminating Schwinn and other balloon tire
singlespeed and three speed road bikes). And then came Surly- the fat
road tire bikes I see people riding have 4" wide tires, not 2" wide
ones.

Personally I prefer 700 x 28 to 32 tires to fatter ones. They just feel
right to me when riding. Too wide and the bike starts to feel vague and
floaty to me. I have a pair of Compass 26 x 1.8's on the All-Rounder
and don't really like how they handle; the Panaracer Pasela 26 x 1.75
feels better and rolls about as well. But I will say that the Compass
tires are really quiet on the road and I like that a lot. They wear
really fast, though- 800 miles on the rear and it's about halfway done,
according to the description on Jan's blog, which is annoying for a $70
tire.

On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 8:52:04 PM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:56:23 -0800 (PST), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:
Snipped
The helmet mirrors that I've used can have the arm set on an upward angle and then the mirror itself adjusted. that way there is no blind spot ahead. There's one above the line of sight to traffic but I can see traffic and the mirror image just fine. Perhaps it's because he arms on my mirrors are fairly long? I tried bar end mirrors but didn't like the fact that I had to take my eyes off traffic in front of me to glance into the mirror. Also, bar end mirrors don't work well with bar end shifters. VBEG LOL ;)

Cheers

I see people writing "LOL" and always wondered. Did they mean
"Laughing Out loud"? Or "Lots of Luck"?



Cheers,
John B.
A lot of times it's the context. I use LOL for Laughing Out Loud and VBEG for Very Big Evil Grin.

Cheers

On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 22:11:43 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/23/2019 8:15 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 19:37:48 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/23/2019 6:23 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:45:01 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 1/23/2019 3:23 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 1:10:29 PM UTC-5, wrote:

When it comes to helmets Frank's mileage most definitely varies and he's strongly anti-helmet. No matter what a helmet does in a crash Frank will trot out his statistics about traumatic brain injuries. A number of years ago I crashed with such force that my head bounced twice on the asphalt. Funny thing though, I didn't get any scrapes or any other injuries to my head. I was wearing a helmet that day and I'k glad I did. I don't give a flying f*** what people say about MY accident. the simple fact is that I was able to pick up my bicycle, check it for damage and then continue my ride without even needing first aid for head cuts/scrapes. If people want to wear a helmet then that should be up to them not some person thousands of mile/kilometers away.

I'm glad you weren't injured worse.

BTW, another reason I like a helmet is because the mirror on it lets me ride with or without sunglasses and I have the mirror with me no which of my bicycles I ride. Ditto for external battery light versus dynamo lights. What works for one may NOT meet the needs/wants of others.

I use eyeglass mirrors that fit on my normal glasses. My glasses darken
in sunlight, so I don't bother with sunglasses.

I've made my own mirrors since the 1970s, each one from a few inches of
wire plus about two square cm of plastic mirror material. They weigh
about 2 grams, according to the electronic scale I was recently given. I
keep one in each handlebar bag.


Doesn't the change in focus from looking down the road to looking at a
mirror close to your eye bother you? I made one of those wire and
mirror devices and the change in focus from watching the road to
looking in the mirror about drove me crazy so I went back to looking
over my shoulder.

Assuming a flat mirror (which is what I use), looking in the mirror
doesn't require a change in focus, in the sense of adjusting the focal
length of a lens system. Objects in the mirror are at the same distance
they would be if you turned around.

What's required is aiming your eye at the object in the mirror, and more
crucially, getting your brain to pay attention to just that eye. I think
the latter is the bigger problem for most people in the U.S., where the
mirror goes on the left, but most people are right-eye dominant.

I had to learn to temporarily ignore my right eye's image back when I
first used an eyeglass mirror, and IIRC it took a few days to be
comfortable.

It wasn't until years later that I realized I had a habit of blinking as
I shifted my gaze to the mirror. Perhaps that gives my brain a needed
disconnect, allowing the left eye to gain temporary dominance.

As we drive/ride on the left I would, I assume, use my right eye for
the bike mirror and as my right eye is my "master eye" I shouldn't
have a problem with that but I wonder about my fixed focus eyes. Since
my cataract operation and the inserting of fixed focus lenses in both
eyes looking at things sometimes is a bit of a bother. My right eye is
the close focus so maybe that is immaterial.

The other thing that comes to mind is how far the mirror is from the
eye. I don't remember the spacing I used when I made the mirror I
tried, that didn't work, but trying the idea out using a hand mirror
seems to show that eye - mirror distance might be important.

Did you get new lenses so one eye is for distance, the other for closer
work? If that's what you mean, and if the right eye is for close work,
that may be a problem. When you use one of these mirrors, you're not
focusing on the mirror; you're focusing on the distant object. You want
the "camera" of your eye to be set to focus at infinity.

I wanted both eyes to be the same but apparently the lenses come in
sets so I ended up with a "close" lens in my right eye and a "far"
lens in the left. But actually there isn't very much difference, in
normal use, between the two. I can see pretty well at a distance with
the close eye and can read at normal "reading distance" with the far
eye.

Eye-to-mirror distance has other effects entirely. The closer the mirror
is to the eye, the smaller it can be for the same field of view. But the
closer it is, the greater the chance your own head or your jacket or
something will obscure the view.

My mirrors' stalks are about 2" long, so the mirror is roughly 2.5" from
my eye. The mirror surface is about 1" x 1/2" and it's held at an angle
a bit off to the side, instead of in line with the glasses' temple. I
install it so I turn my head slightly left to use it, about the same
amount leftward that I use for the side view mirror in my car.

At that orientation, the view clears my head and shoulder pretty
precisely. But there have been a few times when riding with bulky winter
gear that I got some interference.

I'll try to make several with different length stems and see how I
like them. The law here specifies that bicycles and motorcycles must
ride on the side of the road, which doesn't mean that you have to ride
in the ditch but rather on the outer side of the L.H. lane, and given
that most of the newer roads incorporate a breakdown/bus/parking lane
you actually have almost a bike lane to ride on.

The main use of a mirror (or turning my head to look behind me) would
be when I come to a place that has a road/lane that would allow a
motor vehicle to turn left. Although I must say that I've never had an
"almost hit me" incident probably because bicycles are more common
here and I'd guess that most drivers rode a bicycle in their younger
days so probably there is more awareness of bicycles here.


Cheers,
John B.

All that stuff is in my jersey pocket. I will ride 100 miles with my
reduced wallet, a couple Cliff bars, two GUs, my iPhone and that's it.
If I need more, I stop. I can even put my rain jacket or vest in a
jersey pocket.

Ach, I hate stuffed jersey pockets. My favorite jersey has no pockets
at all, much more comfortable. Often I wear a T-shirt instead of a bike
jersey at all. Works fine, haven't died yet. And I like wool jerseys
(Minnesota is wool weather about 8 months a year).

But mostly "special" bike clothing is unnecessary if one has a small bag
on the bike to put that stuff it. Or pants/shorts with pockets.

Handlebar bags add mass to steering, they rattle, etc., etc. Maybe I'd
use one on a tour (even though I typically used low riders), but for a
one-bottle ride? And if they were so good, why did they disappear only
to become epidemic in the last year or so.

They're not epidemic here and most of the bar bags I see are fixed to
the handlebars with something like a KlikFix or whatever it's called,
usually on a flat bar'd uprght "comfort bike." There are few small rack
mounted front bags locally- just mine, usually: a GB Mini 86 and a GB
Alex Singer bag. They're handy but small enough that it's hard to
weight them down enough to affect the steering. Jan Heine seems to like
trunk bags on the front of his bike, but he does live in Seattle and
ride a lo in the mountains so probably carries various clothing options
for the different microclimates he encounters.

This is like some weird fashion wave -- in leather and cotton. Cotton?
Really? (yes, I know it "swells" and becomes magically waterproof and
thus all the cotton rain jackets in the world).

The cotton and leather thing comes from the Brits, and they know from
rain. My Carradice Nelson Longflap saddlebag has been on one bike or
another for nearly 20 years. Never had anything get wet in it. And I
even have a rain cape that I use sometimes- a great item but it is
certainly attention getting as I look like a yellow tent on wheels.

I don't care what tires a person uses either, but when you claim that
fat tires roll better and are faster than lighter, narrower tires
(with their "placebo" effect (his words)), you're riding on thin ice.

Well, that was what Jobst's tire testing reports presaged. Lots of data
on this, actually, and generally speaking it is accepted that (all other
things about the tires being equal) the wider tire rolls with fewer
losses. A good case in point is the Continental 4000sII, which comes in
three widths and the widest has the best RR numbers. No doubt there is
a point of diminishing returns and I don't know where that is. I've got
the 4000sII Contis on my bike in 700 x 28 which measures at 31 and they
are excellent tires, very pleased with them.

That said, you can see my comments about my own pair of Compass tires in
another post. They're not all that and a bag of chips, in summation,
and I probably won't buy them again (in the 26 x 1.8" size, anyway)
versus the Panaracer Pasela 1.75s they replaced. At nearly 3x the cost,
the value proposition is not convincing.

If that were true, the entire pro peleton would by riding 45mm tires.

Well, they are riding wider tires than before. 25mm is standard now and
some ride wider.

I think Heine found a niche and is working it as hard as he can.

Of course he is. He has a living to make, a business to run and
unfortunately his magazine, which I used to enjoy, has become too much
of a marketing tool for my taste (for example, on test bikes he usually
replaces some of the components with his own products). He wears his
biases on his sleeve. But he also focuses very closely on the kinds of
bikes he likes and their suitability for the kind of riding he likes to
do. And he now owns the Rene Herse brand outright, so his former line
of Compass products will be folded into that over time.

That said, a lot of Jan's ideas are worth considering rather than
dismissing out of hand just because he looks like a retrogrouch. I have
a bike built in the Alex Singer mold and it is superb- performs as well
as any of the bikes I had in my racing days and noticeably better than
my old Bianchi Reparto Corsas, on par with my Ritchey.

But then my tastes in bikes has been strongly influenced by the era in
which I grew up (late 60s-70s) and by the Guinness Bicycle Book by Jean
Durry and Jock Wadley (counterbalanced by Frank Patterson, so not
exactly modern, eh?).

Next thing will be the superiority of toe clips and straps and nail-on
cleats with free-range cow leather soles.

Nah, he prefers clipless. With leather shoes, though. :-)

I rode and raced on 19mm SuperComp HDs, and they were fine.

Careful, man. You're a step from "in my day... uphill both ways into
the wind... damn whippersnappers get off my lawn." ;-) I already live
there and it's too crowded.

On 23/01/2019 7:56 p.m., Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 7:50:31 PM UTC-5, Duane wrote:
Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 6:23:46 PM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
Snipped

Doesn't the change in focus from looking down the road to looking at a
mirror close to your eye bother you? I made one of those wire and
mirror devices and the change in focus from watching the road to
looking in the mirror about drove me crazy so I went back to looking
over my shoulder.


Cheers,
John B.

I have no problem at all using the helmet mirror or the eyeglass mirror.
I prefer the helmet mirror because my eyeglasses do NOT darken as Frank's
do. If I put an eyeglass mirror on my sunglasses over my regular
eyeglasses then I have problems seeing into the mirror. I prefer the
helmet mirror because of that.

Cheers


I tried a couple of helmet mirrors and while they work for seeing behind I
found that they presented a blind spot when coming to intersections. Now I
use a bar end mirror on my drop bars that seems to work well enough.
Useful especially when commuting in traffic.

--
duane

The helmet mirrors that I've used can have the arm set on an upward angle and then the mirror itself adjusted. that way there is no blind spot ahead. There's one above the line of sight to traffic but I can see traffic and the mirror image just fine. Perhaps it's because he arms on my mirrors are fairly long? I tried bar end mirrors but didn't like the fact that I had to take my eyes off traffic in front of me to glance into the mirror. Also, bar end mirrors don't work well with bar end shifters. VBEG LOL ;)

Cheers


I tried different ones but it depends on whether I'm on the hoods or in
the drops. I didn't like the blind spot. You use what works for you.

Yeah, I originally tried the helmet mirror because my Volpe has bar end
shifters. lol.

On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 6:27:30 PM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 14:50:47 -0800 (PST), Zen Cycle
wrote:

On Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 6:25:05 PM UTC-5, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jan 2019 12:07:50 -0800 (PST), Sir Ridesalot

I'm beginning to see bikes over here with what appear to be 4 inch, or
maybe larger, tires. They look much like a hard tail MTB but with much
wider forks.

Fatbikes have been out for a while now. The only thing that irritates me about them is that they bitch about 'skinny' MTBs riding on "their" trails and leaving ruts - ignoring the fact that the trails they ride are usually multi-use, and get beat to **** by walkers, snowshoes, xc skis, and horses.. I call them "fatbike fashionistas".


As I don't ride "in the bush" I only see the so called "fat bikes" on
the road, but they certainly look cumbersome.


They are definitely better suited to snow and soft sand. There's also a versatility factor: You can run 700C road wheels and go for long road rides or run a set of 4" tires and head off into the dunes. No matter what you do, they are quite slow - a lightweight version is in the 12 kilo range, even with light wheels.