If your roads are bad I would not go with a tire thinner than a 25c tire. The 23c will be slightly faster but will be more prone to flats and are affected more by poor road conditions. A good tire is the Gator Skins (Continental, I believe). It is resistant to flats and rolls well. Kevlar liners are not recommended. They sometimes fray and the fibers actually can cause flats over time.
I highly recommend Crank Bros. pedals. The reason is that you can enter the pedal from either side so clicking in is much easier. You are not racing, you are riding and that involves stops and starts. The other thing I highly recommend is to avoid “road” shoes. Go with a MTB (mountain bike) shoe. You can find ones that look a lot like road shoes. The reason is that they have a heal and non-slippery sole. If you click out in traffic and go to steady yourself the road shoe can slip out from under you. Down you go. I almost got run over by a taxi that way. I haven’t used a road shoe since. Also, you can walk in the MTB shoe without looking like a duck.
Good luck, have fun and start saving for a lust bike!
I wonder if your doctor has caught up with the times: many cleats have float in them these days and I find them actually better for my knees because once you have found the right placement for your cleats, you click into exactly the right place every time.
I heard a lot of good things about the Gatorskins, but after some consideration, I went with the Continental Grand Prix 4000S. Heard a lot of bad things about the 4000, but the 4000S is supposed to be more durable than the 4000 and smoother than the Gators… so we’ll see how it goes once I hop on (bike’s in the shop for a tuneup right now). I always have the 32 'cross tires to fall back on if the terrain gets rougher.
And I’m a lot happier with the cleats the second day Clip in, clip off. Clip in, clip off… practicing while I ride. It’s getting easier and less injurious! What a sweet feeling.
I’m beginning to see that, heh I initially vowed to spend no more than $300 on a “really nice bike”. Then I test-rode a road bike and was blown away and that number quadrupled (ouch). I told myself I won’t drive for half a year to pay for it. Now I’m thinking of selling my car and spending the rest of my life in bike-friendly towns. And instead of saving up for a hybrid someday, maybe just getting a sweet bike instead…
Ah, with any luck, I’ll eventually view it as just another manifestation of mindless consumerism. Must… fight… evil temptation!
Yeah, it only became a problem when I was at seven bikes (and not my problem, but my wife’s problem). I managed to get that down to four, only to find that four isn’t really enough - I need a 29er.
I’m up to 3 and a half bikes. When more parts come in next week, I’ll be up to 3 bikes and 3/4 of another bike. I also want a bmx bike and eventually maybe a full suspension. I’d probably just get a new frame for my current mtb though. It never ends.
man, I want to know what flat smooth as glass roads these people claiming a switch from 32 to 23 won’t be noticeable. Just the mere fact that you’d gain psi reduces drag, before we even bring surface area in to it. But a higher psi certainly isn’t going to make for a ‘smoother’ ride as mentioned in the OP, just an easier one.
Man, I sure hope you’re right I was going uphill back home, and five steps away from my front door I clip off the left foot and of course that motion unbalances the bike to the right and straight into a blackberry briar. The masochist in me found the thorns rather intriguing. Did you know a single blackberry plant can penetrate skin in at least eight different ways, with subtly different thorn variations and angles for optimal entrance at each location? Now the entrepreneur in me is contemplating starting a blood bank. On a positive note, I never knew yoga would be so helpful in disentangling limbs – truly, you haven’t lived until you’ve perfected the Three-Fingered Sideward Dog.
I’ll keep practicing. And if this trend continues, at least I’ll never have to worry about dying of cancer
Now you are beginning to worry me. I fell over three times when I went clipless and I think that’s about average. Any more and I’m going to feel bad about making the recommendation.
It really becomes second nature after a little while. I fell three times in the first few months, and since then I’ve done a few thousand miles with no problems at all.
Suggestion,
Look at your Crank Bros. instructions. One of the two cleats has a dimple on it. Put it on one shoe, it increases float, and increases the angle you have to turn your foot to disengage. Put it on the other shoe and it decreases the float the angle before release.
Make sure you have it set the way you want.
ETA: My LBS gave me a hell of a deal on some new wheels for my C-dale road bike. I’m not a racer by a long shot, but damn did those wheels make a difference. particularly in high speed handling.
Oh, I’m sure it’ll get better with time. I didn’t even learn how to ride a bike till I was about 15, so I’ve just got a bit to catch up This way I’ll feel like I’ve earned the right clipless riding… with blood!
You might want to check with your local bike shops and see if they’ll do a fitting for your cleats. I did that when I first got mine, and my knees have thanked me.
It worked like this: They put my bike on a stand with the rear wheel elevated, and clipped a special device into each of the pedals. It’s in two pieces, one that clips into the pedal, and another that accepts the cleat on the bottom of my shoe. The two pieces are free to rotate, and they have rods sticking out about six inches. They also raise the seat and handlebars about an inch. Then I got on, and started pedaling. The idea is that the devices on the pedals give an infinite float, so I was able to pedal in the position that was most comfortable. After a while, I’d stop and they’d adjust the cleat on the bottom of my shoe. The idea was that when the two rods lined up, that meant my natural pedaling motion was exactly where the pedals would be holding my feet in place.
It’s harder to describe than to just watch them do it. Well worth it, I thought.
Oooooh, the dreaded “wrong foot out” move. Two things you can do. Since you are attached at three points to the bike (both hands and one foot); you can yank the front, sometimes both, tires into the air and reposition the bike under you correctly. This only works early in the gravity well. I developed a move where when I hit that last damn pebble in the road and tipping was inevitable; I’d get my ass off the seat and squat toward the ground on the downward side. I stay clamped to the handlebars; no sense breaking fingers, hands, wrists, arms and/or collarbone. I’d end up rolling on my butt with the bike ending in perfect riding position - had gravity suddenly reversed. Friends would come up from behind and see a few riders in normal rubber side down configuration with me properly positioned but 180 deg out of phase. Hilarity ensued. Alas, this would happen before point and shoot or phone cameras were ubiquitous.
Contrary to much of the advice given above, I would not necessarily change from x32 to x25 or x23 tires.
Wider tires have lower rolling resistance than narrow tires of the same general construction. A x32 mountain tire will be slower than a x23 race tire, but a x32 randonneuring tire like the Grand Bois Cypres will be as fast or faster than a race tire like a Pro Race 3 or a GP4000, but will be much more comfortable as the extra air volume acts as a pneumatic “suspension” of sorts.
The wider tire will be proportionally heavier than the narrow tire, but only by a few 10’s of grams, which shouldn’t matter even on the hilliest courses.
I switched from Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires to Grand Bois Cerfs before doing a 600k brevet last month. Even though the tires were about the same width, the performance difference was huge. Where on earlier 200, 300, and 400k brevets I was way off back of the pack, with the new tires I was able to solidly hang with the mid pack riders. I’m guessing they saved me 3 hours on that ride.
A few weeks ago, my wife had a dream where she was yelling at me because I had just purchased my seventh bike.
I interpret that as that I have implicit permission to buy 3 more. I’ve got a hard tail mountain bike, a road bike (Trek Madone), and a loaded touring bike (Long Haul Trucker). At the very least, I’d like to get a “real” randonneuring bike that’s more appropriate than the LHT before next year’s PBP.
Clip in, clip off. Clip in, clip off… practicing while I ride. It’s getting easier and less injurious! What a sweet feeling.