Monday, August 12, 2019

Dialing In The Set Up - Part 2

The Fargo Gen I set up so far. Nearly there!
Well, the tires came in that I wanted to try and they are now set up on the WTB Frequency Team i23 rims/American Classic hubbed wheels I've had for a long time. I do have some carbon rimmed wheels I could have used, but I didn't because, well......I didn't want to mess with swapping end caps and taking off some tires I would have been putting right back on after Gravel Worlds is over.

Anyway, I chose these tires when I learned that they cam in a 29" X 2.35" width. Why? Here's why.......

The gravel in Nebraska, especially around Lincoln, is sandy. Loose, inconsistent spots of roadway are not uncommon. Skinny tires + heavy guy = pizza cutter. Fatter tires are best from my experiences that I have had down there since 2009. Probably some of the best tires I ever used on Nebraska gravel around the Lincoln area were Bontrager XR-1's. The original ones, which were never tubeless rated. Anyway, finding tires like that since then has been hard to do.

I'd seen G-One tires before, of course, and I have ridden a 35mm version of them, which was not a good experience, so I never really paid much attention to G-One tires after that. However; while at work the other day it came up that these G-One tires came in a 2.35" width, and suddenly I was very interested. (See description of Nebraska gravel above)

Not much for tread there, but a LOT of volume and light weight should make for a great tire for Gravel Worlds.
I got the tires mounted Saturday and it wasn't easy. I probably should have put on fresh tape, but....I'm a bit of a skinflint, and the old tape looked good yet. That said, fresh tape in two layers would have made the setting up of these tires far easier. But since I did not use fresh tape, and the fit on the WTB rims was, well.....on the looser side, it became an issue of perseverance and eventually I won out. I was a bit skeptical about these holding air well because they weigh 553/556 grams and that is really light for 29" X 2.35" tires. Of course, they held air just fine into Sunday. I'll keep a close eye on these and I will be riding the bike as my commuter this week just to get things solidly set up.

Of course, the light weight should be no surprise when you consider that these have basically no tread to speak of. There are those tiny knobs, but whatever. Seriously.......do you think they do anything? I doubt they add anything to traction except that they do boost your psychological mind set into a false belief that these knobs can do something. Basically, these are reverse dimples on a golf ball sort of deal. They probably are more an aero thing than they are traction. These are "textured slicks" in reality.

Not much room left there.
These are the most voluminous tires I have had on the Fargo in many a year. I mentioned that I tried 2.8" 27.5 tires on this bike once, but other than that, I have used mostly 2.0-2.1 tires. These G - Ones seem to be the "real deal", and they measure out at just a shade over 59mm at less than 30psi.

Speaking of psi- I think I'll be able to run something in the 20's, but this week I will be experimenting with dialing that in. I first ran the front and rear, on the initial test ride, at 30psi. That was obviously too harsh. However, I did note straight away that these tires roll like crazy. And, of course, why wouldn't they? They better roll like crazy since they have no tread to slow them down to speak of.

In other news on my set up, I have added my Bar Yak cue sheet holder, my Lezyne GPS computer, and a Topeak saddle bag with two tubes, repair kit, and an extra bottle of sealant. The final bits will be nutrition and stashing that on the bike in my Bike Bag Dude Garage top tube bag. I'll also have a Bike Bag Dude Chaff Bag which I may use for a bottle or I may use it to store food as well. Water will be dealt with by using the six bottle cage mounts on the bike. Re-supply on water is available on route at about ten-ish miles after a 40 mile opening stretch. There is also about a 9 mile stretch to the finish after the last opportunity.

So far, so good.

6 comments:

eBikeADV said...

What was your prior bad experience on the 35C version of those tires? From my own experience with the 35C version, the compound/construction is very supple but very susceptible to tears (and this is all from road riding). So I have concern about using it on gravel.

Guitar Ted said...

@PedalingPower- The answer partially lies in my description of gravel in the Lincoln, NE area. That "narrow" of a tire can be a handful in loose gravel, or on any looser surface. Tire widths are rider size dependent and terrain dependent. Both factor into what tire you should use. Are you a smaller statured person that rides on fine, hard packed gravel/dirt? You probably will never need a tire bigger than 35mm. Conversely, if you are a bigger person, ride on loose, chunky gravel more than not, then you need a bigger volume tire with some width.

Specifically to the 35mm G - One, I knew straight away it wasn't the right tire for me after one ride and took them off the bike. So, durability and things related to that are factors I did not spend enough time on the tires to be affected by.

I've heard that the G- One is fragile, but for my purposes, with the volume such as it is on these, I am thinking I'll be okay. We'll see......

CrossTrail said...

In 2016, I rode well over 3,000 rough road miles on a pair of 40 mm Schwalbe G-Ones, before a piece of sharp metal sliced a gash across the front. Even then, I did not crash and the tire managed to hold 20 psi, which was enough for me to limp 12 miles home. The replacement set took me almost 5,000 miles in 2017 and part of 2018. I love everything about the G-Ones, but especially love the soft ride. FWIW, I observe that my tires are generally skinnier with less tread than the other riders around me in an event.

Michael Lemberger said...

@PedalingPower and @CrossTrail, were you running the Speed or the All-round version?

Looks like either of those in the 35c and 38c (which Schwalbe lists as a 40-622) tubeless both use the MicroSkin casing, though I do see an All-round variant with the V-Guard casing—whatever that is.

I'd assume the MicroSkin casing is lighter weight than the SnakeSkin used on the All-round 29 x 2.25. Does that sound right? Looks also like the compound on all the tubeless tires is the OneStar, which is intended for racing.

I'm asking because I've been getting maybe 800-1000 miles of pavement on Clement/Donnelly X'Plor MSOs (though half again as many miles for the front tire) and am considering getting a set of the G-Ones the next time I replace them, hoping to get more miles per dollar. The other candidate might be something from the Gravel King line or possibly Rene Herse.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

CrossTrail said...

From the packaging label.
40-622
MicroSkin: TL-Easy
Compound: OSC

I love the soft ride. I love the roll. I don't need much, if any, tread, so that's not a negative for me. For durability, I had that 1 gash flat on a first set at over 3,000 miles and no flats at almost 5,000 miles on a second set. I finally replaced the second set with a pair of Terravall Cannonball that I won at a race. I really dislike those Cannonballs and will be replacing them with new G-Ones soon.

Michael Lemberger said...

@CrossTrail...Right on...thanks for the response!