2.2 Super Yummy tires / New Albion Drake

[vermaine]

Hi All,

I am wondering if anyone out there has experience with the New Albion Drake frameset and has attempted to stuff the widest tire they can in there? New Albion states 2.1s would fit. I get that the super yummies width would depend on rim width to a certain extent as well. 

I have been sitting on this frame for a while, intending to build it as a heavy but bombproof townie type and the widest tires i can fit in there. I have also been sitting on a pair of sim works super yummies in a 2.2, and really want to make them work on this bike. 

thank you!

[Daniel M]

This will most likely be completely unhelpful, but I built up my Drake with 26" wheels, despite being warned against it by New Albion's email contact. I've been running 26x2.3" Rat Trap Passes WITH fenders for the past year and a half since I originally built it as my Everything Bike (Rohloff, SP dynohub, flared drop bars, front and rear platform racks). The outer diameter is the same as a 650bx42 so you get more width/height than a 650bx48 plus room for fenders. A total win-win in my book. Last week I realized that my front tire had premature sidewall failure (possibly due to a pinch flat coming off Mt. Tam on a steep fire road a few weeks ago), and I was out of spare RTPs. So I mounted my last 26x2.35" Schwalbe Supermoto (discontinued grail tire like a Big Apple but with a kevlar bead and no anti-puncture layer) that I had been carrying as a spare tire on bike tours on my 26x3.0" desert touring tank. It is nearly as supple as a RTP and measures 59mm wide on Blunt 35 rims at 25psi, as opposed to 53mm for the RTP. It BARELY fits - about 1-2mm of clearance between the sidewalls and the fork.

If I were building another Drake to be a heavy-duty bike, I would go 26" again without thinking twice. When the load is heavy and the road is rough, there is no substitute for a greater distance between the rim and the ground. And I have come to the point that I can't stand bikes without fenders.

A wonderful coda to the story is that last week, Jan FINALLY announced the introduction of RTPs in the Endurance casing. I sucked it up and ordered 5 - two bikes worth plus a spare. I may at long last be able to stop mourining the discontinuation of the Supermoto, but I hate to admit that the extra 6mm of width (and more importantly height) do make a difference.

Daniel M
Berkeley, CA

[Thomas Lawn]

I have fenders on my Drake and have been able to fit 2” tires without a problem. If you have the frame and the tires, why not measure the frame and/or put the tire on a wheel and put it in the frame to see how it goes? That will be a lot more reliable than hoping someone on the internet has the same tire/rim/frame as you.

[Simon Apostol]

I have only gone as big as 28mm RH knobbies, which have a decent amount of clearance but not what I would call a ton, at least for mud, so I think it would be tight if they are a true 2.2. I only have 42mm tires in right now but can measure the clearance later today if it is helpful as a data point.

Not that I know what I'm talking about WRT frame modifications, but I wonder if the thick steel pipes on the Drake would be amenable to a little bit of indenting for a smidge more clearance. I think there's more clearance on the NDS already so maybe just the DS chainstay.  Please do not take this as advice though, I am a certified dummmy.

The advice to go 26" is intriguing - anyone have a spare cheap 26" disc wheelset??

Simon 

Portland OR

[Simon Apostol]

Hello again, obviously I meant to say 48mm, not 28.

Anyways, I measured clearance, and had a hair of 9mm on the non drive side and about 10mm on the non drive side with 42mm gravel kings that measure true to size on rims with an inner width of about 20mm. So assuming the SimWorks tires measure a true 2.2 (56mm) you would have just 2mm clearance on the NDS. Too tight for my taste, but if they run a little smaller (like 54mm) it seems doable in dry weather. Fenders would be out, but you could probably still even run a front derailleur - the chainstays are so long tire interference isn't much of an issue to my eyes.

All of these measurements were taken with a tape measure, so huge grain of salt.

Simon 

Portland, OR

[Wilson Wilson]

I, too, run my Drake on 26" wheels. Rhinolite XL and Maxxis Holy Roller 2.4. Zero issues. The Holy Rollers with strectch out pass 60mm once worn in, but by then the inverted knobs at the crest of the tire ought to be worn down enough to not matter. Placing that tire onto say a Ritchey Advantage rim, much narrower, allows more room but makes the tire taller and not fun at the same pressure.

On the 650b realm, the Panaracer/IRD FireCross 2.1 with its tall knobs clears the frame in the same manner as the 2.4 Maxxis. I can see a 2.2 Pari Moto fitting with no issue or any low height knob tire to 2.3. Also, RTP are no where as big as the Maxxis 2.4.