Re: [CR]Randonneur 650B tires and cheap tires

(Example: Production Builders:Teledyne)

From: <hersefan@comcast.net>
To: beandk@rcn.com, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR]Randonneur 650B tires and cheap tires
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:15:40 +0000
cc: David Bean <beandk@rcn.com>

There are certain traits that make for fast tires - and the Kenda and many IRC tires do no share these traits. I know Jan well and am quite aware of his testing efforts. If there was a tire that he thought was both inexpensive and a great performer he would have done everything he could to test it. But time is a resource, so I'm sure he had to to after tires first that he knew were likely to be good performers.

And to a great extent - and I'll get some people fired up here, cheap wide tires (such as the Kenda's) have destroyed the public's understanding of the advantages of wide tires. People see heavy poor performing wide tires and say "gosh, why would I ever want something like that on a performance bike." And it builds on itself. eventually, it gets hard to sell wide performance tires.

Now cheap wide tires are great if you don't mind loosing a bit of time, and you're just out for fun. Heck, that is what most of us do most of the time anyway. But if you want to ride with the fast pack, hang in a paceline, and then peel off and do single track, that is another story!

When it comes to tires, look at the casings of some of the best tires of the vintage days - those old Clement tubulars. Now imagine them wide (or start with a Del Mundo) - then put a bead into it and make it a clincher. You now have nirvana.

But the tire makers are not listening.

Mike Kone in Boulder CO


-------------- Original message --------------
From: David Bean

> It's too bad Vintage Bike Quarterly decided NOT to test 650B Kendas, IRC,

\r?\n> etc. Until they're tested, all we know is that they're cheaper than the

\r?\n> others. VBQ has clearly decided already that they're not "good."

\r?\n>

\r?\n> David Bean

\r?\n> Arlington, MA