Roadeo!

[Patrick Moore]

I’ve put just shy of 100 miles on the Roadeo since adjusting the build for my tastes; last night I switched braking to right/front as all honorable people ride. (And caused a shifting problem; below*).

I’ve still been putting more miles on my 2 26” wheel road bikes (1 Riv custom and one clone of another Riv custom) and the Matthews “road bike for dirt,” for which I instructed Chauncey to “make it ride as much as you can like my 1999 road custom, thus the low miles on the Roadeo, but in the last few days I’ve ridden the Roadeo back to back with the 1999 26” wheel road fixed custom and differences are becoming more apparent.

First, and most superficially, it looks almost comical to have that big, fat wheel (622 X 32 mm Stampede Pass tire, 27 1/3” tall) sticking way out there in front, compared to the wee 559 X 28 mm Elk Pass at 24 1/2” tall; the Stampede reminds me of what I saw long ago when I borrowed our askari’s rod braked roadster and stripped it for an impromptu high school cross country race: big, fat wheel sticking way out in front on a deeply curved fork. (In return for the loan, I performed about 10 years’ worth of deferred maintenance on the roadster.)

More importantly: the big, fat wheels are very noticeably smoother over rough terrain: rough asphalt, pavement cracks, frost and root heaves, expansion cracks. This with the 32s at 55/50 R/f, and I think that I might do well to drop the psi by 5 lb in both tires. And, this while the 28 mm Elk Passes at 60/55 are very plush indeed for their width.

The SPs aren’t slowed as much over “grainy” asphalt — they maintain momentum without having to up the energy input quite as much — but OTOH, it seems a bit harder to keep on top of a comparable gears with the S Passes (75” Elk Passes, 76” S Passes), as I noticed today when a shifting problem prevented me from shifting beyond the 5th or 18t cog. This is odd since I’d always thought, and indeed experienced, that taller tires maintain momentum better than smaller ones; yet the sense of requiring more effort to keep up the cadence with the taller wheels was very distinct.

Also, while the Roadeo exhibits even more than the Ram I owned (and I contradict others’ experiences, who owned both Rams and Roadeos) that delightful feeling that the bike is both unerringly stable on straights, yet turns in both so seamlessly and nimbly when cornering — IMO, perhaps Grant’s signature frame characteristic, yet the big wheels on the Roadeo do feel to me a bit ponderous compared to the 24 1/2” wheels; very, very slightly requiring more counter steering, or at any rate, body english, to turn in — all the while exhibiting that combined steadiness and nimbleness that most other bikes I’ve owned don’t show.

Interesting.

* I found this morning while riding against a very slight headwind that I could not shift beyond cog #5, 18 t, or 76”, and since this is right in the middle of my most-used cruising gears, it was annoying. Sure, I could shift to the 34/13 or 34/14, 71” and 66”, but that’s crossover shifting and I’ve not used crossover since … I can’t remember; all my doubles for the last 20 years at least have been 1Xs + bailouts if not grannies, or half stepped. Must futz with it tomorrow. I daresay that somehow the replaced brake cable is interfering with the shifting mechanism.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning,

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I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known.

[Jason Fuller]

Regarding the smoothing effect of larger radius wheels:  I have to agree, the difference is much more dramatic than logic would suggest, in my experience, and I say this from a place of much preferring the feel of smaller wheels in every other respect. I didn't fully appreciate this until I swapped bikes with a friend on a big alpine mountain bike ride, me on 27.5 x 3" tires and them on 29 x 2.8" tires. We both immediately agreed that the difference was night and day - the 29" wheels were so much smoother, I couldn't believe it.  By the way the bikes were Stooge rigid MTBs; same fork etc. I wasn't surprised that the bigger diameter wheels were smoother, but I was floored by how dramatic the difference was. 

I suspect you'll acclimate to the different feel of the bigger wheels and end up appreciating their virtues over their drawbacks. I hate to admit it.