yea, dumbfounded when I really checked out my daughter's and SIL's (serious mtb'rs) latest rides..wireless shifting components, Garmin Edge computers, electronic suspension, carbon fiber frames, total pkgs just over 20#...bikes that will put a major hurt on a credit card...
Yeah, times have changed. Even the pros are riding 28-32's on the road now along with 1X drivetrains sometimes. I have 38's on my road bike at about 45psi and 50's on my gravel bike (in the photo above) at 25psi. Sometimes, I'll even cram a 2.1" (52) on the gravel bike for AZ since there's a lot of sand and it doesn't feel particularly slow on the road.
OK, that's mind blowing. I recall some pretty serious, almost heated, arguments between adherents of 21 and 23 road tires with a guy who wedded himself to 25s as not giving up any speed or efficiency. A while back I did put 28s on my Rivendell, which is built a little more for comfort and touring than speed. And 28s are the max I can fit - not sure if the frame or the wheels are the limiting factor there. Then a few years ago my SIL was telling me that my other road bike (Merckx) would ride just as well and be more comfortable with the tires at 85 psi.
Could be the brakes too. I made a mistake above, I do have one bike still running tubes - my original long distance bike from 2006. I could probably get 30-32's inside the frame but they won't fit through rim brakes. I can get 28's on by flipping the brake caliper release lever to give a little extra space or loosening the cable entirely.
Yeah, maybe the brakes. I had to buy a certain Shimano model that opens wide enough for the 28s, as I recall. Roadies are such weight weenies, it's hard to imagine them adopting heavier disc brakes, let alone those "heavy" wide tires. The Rivendell has a compact crank (50/34) by Shimano, I think. The Merckx is all Campy, which didn't have a compact option when I got it, (it's my only 10 spd) so 39 is the largest inner gear wheel it takes. Both bikes have 175 crank arms. Never say never, but I don't see a new bike in my future.
I'm curious about this. Not what I'd expect.
Along with a relatively large fleet of MTBs, road bikes, and recumbents we have a couple of Tern cargo e-bikes, which are mid-drive Bosch. Everyone I know that's had hub drive has had various problems (some due to their attempts to hack the control systems into class 3). Mid-drives of all stripes just appear to the most dependable, with Bosch clearly leading the pack for class 1. A mid-drive certainly keeps the bike's center of gravity low and 'centered'.
Those 80's Schwinn Mesa Runners MTBs are considered classic vintage rigid 'bombproof' steeds. I've a couple of pristine late 1980's Schwinn Cimarron's with handbuilt fillet brazed/butted frames and XT components....built just before Schwinn shit the bed in 1992.
I beat the crap out of mine. She's still running after all these years. I think I'll seriously tore her down and do a new paint on her and take all the parts and clean up/lube them (cables,shifters, etc)
There's a few folks on the GCN network that rightfully regard balance bikes for children as one of the truly great bicycling innovations.
Good on you! I've got a couple of scars on old MTBs that I'd never repaint because every one of them was honorably earned while riding....sort gives them 'street-cred' and brings back good memories, much the way old flyfishing gear does!
my worse..bombing down Montara mtn, a coastal hill just north of my old town of Half Moon Bay, had taken the same line dozens of times before, requires a lift launch over a narrow ravine bisecting the fire road...only this time on landing the stem on my early 80's Fisher MTB snaps...frozen moment as I go airborne head over heels still holding onto handlebars only connected to the bike by cables...over the side tumbling into a big thicket of poison oak...got home and wife said it looked like I had been attacked by a potato peeler...ended up with the worse case of poison oak imaginable, needed a steroid injection to slow it down
You rode MTBs in the very birthplace of mountainbiking!