Back in 2009, we knew we’d hit Peak Fixie when Wired started covering the subject:
Now, 15 (!) years later, we know we’ve hit Peak Gravel–or at least its slower cousin, Peak Supple–for the same reason:
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY TIRES, WIRED? Of course some extra tire volume (or at least the clearance for it if you decide you want it) is often a very good thing, but at this point fat tires are becoming dangerously overprescribed, and people are cramming them onto bikes whether they need them or not. I’ve mentioned that Rene Herse tires have a sort of “Vicodin effect,” but at this point wide, supple tires are like Oxycodone, and it’s developing into a full-blown epidemic. I can certainly I can understand the zeal of the recently converted:
But he lost me at “modern sport truck.” AND WHAT THE HELL DOES HE HAVE AGAINST OLD CAMRYS???
The Camry has been around since 1982 and it deserves your respect.
Again, certainly the increasing availability of voluminous high thread-count tires is nice, and the writer clearly has good taste in bikes:
But I maintain that he is overzealous:
As is clear from his attempt to “Cat 6” a random roadie, which is decidedly un-Rivendellian behavior:
It’s rare that I can speak to any subject as an authority, but as both a Rivendell rider and a “spandex-clad racer” (well, technically former racer) depending on my mood I think I have the necessary qualifications to do so in this case. Now, something a lot of non-roadies don’t understand is that the roadies don’t care about you. At all. They’re not “perplexed” that you’re able to keep up with them. They’re not judging your bike, or your clothes, or analyzing your performance–and they’re certainly not trying to race you, either. It’s like thinking a supermodel snubbed you, when in fact she simply didn’t even notice you in the first place, which is an important distinction since you can’t snub something if you’re not even aware of its existence.
However, as a Rivendell rider, I also know there is an exception to the above, which is when the roadie is also a Rivendell rider (or at least has Rivendellian sympathies) in which case they will say something like, “Nice Rivendell!” This is because they have to let you know that they “get it.” In fact, when I’m on a racing bike and I see someone on a Rivendell I’m often tempted to do the same thing myself, but I don’t, because when I’m on the receiving end I can’t help feeling like it’s a little patronizing.
(You may think I’m overthinking all this, and you’d be right. This is why I’ve been writing a bike blog for 17 years. In fact I just checked and holy crap, it’s been 17 years exactly as of today! If I’d known ahead of time I would have baked myself a cake.)
The writer also speaks to the cycling world’s two biggest supple tire apologists, Russ from Path Less Pedaled, and Jan Heine. It’s ironic that they share this role, because one of them bases his entire identity on riding as slowly as possible while the other one is chasing FKTs and wrote a whole book about how aero handlebar bags are. I suppose this means that supple tires really are the best solution no matter how you ride, but it only makes me suspicious. Then again, who am I to question Heinian wisdom like this?
Friction in the body? Racing trucks? (Again with the trucks!) Water-cooled shocks? The human body has evolved to be able to run barefoot for miles upon miles at a time. I think it can handle being on a road bike with 23s on a paved road for a few hours.
Though even Jan Heine doesn’t claim that switching to supple tires is “like going from black and white to color:”
I’d argue it’s more like watching the same TV but changing from one pre-set picture mode to another, but then again all the friction in my body from riding narrow tires on my road bike has probably rattled my brain but also impaired my senses.
Still, there’s something even worse for you than riding skinny tires, and according to Gear Patrol it’s cycling in sneakers:
If you ride skinny tires you may risk filling your body with friction, which is bad enough, but if you ride in sneakers your foot will hemorrhage energy and you’re “never going to get it back:”
This is absolutely true, which is why if you attempt to walk up a flight of stairs without a pair of stiff-soled shoes your foot will immediately buckle and you’ll find yourself crumpled in a heap at the bottom landing. It’s also why barely survived my ride yesterday:
I lost so much unrecoverable energy from my feet I eventually had to start pedaling with my hands.
It’s no surprise Andy Pruitt, Ed.D was involved in Specialized Body Geometry products, which are designed to medically scare you from using anything else. And nothing’s scarier than impotence, hence Dr. Roger Minkow and the Body Geometry saddle–though I admit I do miss the days when Specialized marketed their saddles on penile blood flow:
For a moment there it really seemed like penile blood flow was poised to replace grams as the measurement to obsess over.
Instead, cycling inside became the new cycling outside, and Zwift are now making a complete bike
And unlike, say, a Peloton, it’s designed to actually look like a bike:
I’m not a Zwifter, and I haven’t ridden any sort of trainer in many, many years, but this is a very smart idea and they’re probably going to sell a lot of them.
But I’m holding out for the carbon version.
Finally, speaking of Rivendells (at least we were earlier), here’s yet another reason to Just Buy A Rivendell Already:
It’s the kludge that kills.
