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.