Tag: mixed terrain

Resist Nomad Early Review

I have been riding the Resist Nomad 700×42 for almost 6 weeks and almost 1000 miles, and feel comfortable sharing my initial impressions of the tires.  Over the years I have come to appreciate the ride quality of fat light weight tires on the road.  Experience has proved for me at least that you can get the comfort and speed, rolling over all of the little stuff and most of the big stuff too without having to give up speed and acceleration.  The catch in the 700c size is a limited selection of true light weight performance tires wider than 32mm.

While the selection for tires like this is improving, most have a more pronounced knobby tread.  I was excited to see the Resist Nomad hit the market a little over a year ago.  These tires are primarily designed for the freestyle urban scene.  The fact that they meet the demands of the mixed terrain / fat tired road bike crowd was a bit of a surprise for Resist.  The catch for me at the time was not having a bike that would fit tires this wide.  Rambler No.1 then entered stage left.  My Rambler is purpose-built around tires this wide.  While my production samples were under way I was in contact with Resist to get some samples in my hands.   Currently these are the lightest 700x42mm tire on the market that I know of.

Out of  the box I was pretty impressed.  I have samples in both the skin wall and black wall.  The skin walled tires average 530g while the black walls average 560g.  Both currently are only available with a wire bead.  While not a svelte race tire, the weight is quite reasonable when you consider that the popular 650bx42mm Grand Bois Hetre’ is roughly 430g with a folding bead.  The width is a rue 42mm.  The tread is a semi slick with micro pyramids broken up with a larger square grid.  The street price on these tires is around $30.

Enough with the stats, the ride is what really matters, and it has been great.  Initially they were a little bit loud, a sort of hum from the tread against the road, but that quickly faded as the tire wore in a bit.  I have kept the pressure between 40-50 psi for my combined rider/load/bike weight in the 240lb ball park.  Handling has been superb.  They get a little bit of roll or dive at the rim if I let the pressures drop below 35psi.  The road buzz from our currently terrible roads is gone.  It really is like riding on pillows.  Average times and speeds, about 18mph cruising, are on par with my previous data I collected riding Jack Brown greens or a variety of 28mm tires on other bikes.  Cornering and grip in dry weather is fantastic.  I am able to carry more speed through turns, ride through rough patches and hold more consistent lines than previously possible on narrower tires.  Unfortunately (or Fortunately) we are a bit spoiled with a lack of rain in the SoCal basin and I have not had a chance to push these in the wet.   On fire roads and the trails they have held their own well.  While obviously not as grippy as a true MTB tire, the added volume and contact patch has been welcome in easing the attention I need to pay to my line with the “skinny” 35mm tires I have been on in the last couple of years.   The Nomads help to bridge the gap between true underbiking and a knobby tire.

The build quality is what you would likely expect for a tire at this price point.  For $30 retail you can not expect the level of detail and finish that has been coming out of the Panaracer Japan group for some of the other popular boutique tires.  As you can see in the picture the two sides of the mold were not well aligned.  The casing and rubber around the bead on the skin walls is a little thin.  One of my samples has a short tear from being a bit heavy-handed with a tire lever, and that tire is now out of service.  I have only had one flat to date.  It was in the rear and caused by a thin truck tire wire.  Considering the amount of glass and debris on out roads this is pretty good.  I tend to pick up flats or slow leaks like this every couple of months. Thus a single flat early on is just that, a flat, and marginally an indicator of long-term performance.

Bottom line, these look to be a great tire for the price.  I will likely run them for a long time, and look forward to a long-term follow-up review.  If your bike has the room to fit these tires I would not hesitate to pick up a pair.  I am happy enough with them that I may be adding them to the storefront in the next few weeks.  There are a bunch of variables in that equation, but I know I will stock them eventually.

Sulphur Mtn Ride Report

Yesterday was incredible!  I was able to pull together a group of seven guys, most who had never met each other to head out and ride 50 miles and 4000 feet of climbing on one of my favorite mixed terrain routes.   Four guys on 650b, one sporting 26″ and only two of us on 700c,  all “road” bikes and not what you usually see out on the dirt in this area.

The weather was perfect, warm not hot, light breezes and not a cloud in the sky.  The hills had some green thanks to the recent late season rains.  And the dirt conditions were perfect.  There is an 8 mile warm up on the Ventura river trail before we set into the work of the 10 miles or so of dirt road climbing through the cattle ranches and countryside.  While only about 1/5 of the mileage, this is where we spent the largest percentage of the time.

Here is a shot of the whole group;

Here is Mike F rocking the Trek I had converted to 650b a few months back with some downhill pedals and sanuk sandal shoes.  With a low gear ratio of 40/32 he was still leading the pack throughout the whole day.

The fog was well offshore, obscuring the islands, but there were still full panoramic views of the entire Santa Clara and Ventura river valleys.

With the time spent on the dirt, the road sections went pretty fast by comparison.

For me the ride had a few highlights.  First and foremost was sharing the loop with friends.  I have done this ride a bunch alone over the years, and hands down it is better with a few buddies.  Everybody had a good time, not too much suffering on the steep sections and the closest thing we had to a mechanical was a couple of slow tire leaks that needed topping up along the way, and Errin hit some gum.  A giant Thank You to all who were able to come out for the ride.  I am looking forward to doing this again soon.

Mike’s trek was flawless, not a squeak or rattle on a bike that has seen months of use since I restored it for him.  My Rambler No1 met and exceeded all of my performance expectations, both climbing and descending.  My friend Aaron was on Rambler No3.  He had never ridden it before that morning, never ridden a bike with drop bars, never ridden more than 30 miles or so and surely not with 4K feet of total climbing and  two wicked fast twisty descents.  He was able to hold strong with all of us, the whole time, excepting a slight bonk, but that was right before our planned lunch stop.  While riding a bike of my own design and having it go well was rewarding, having it go that well for your friend is far greater.

 

BackBone Trail

Yesterday morning I made it out for dome trail fun with my Father-in-law.  He had a friend that had been encouraging him to try this section of the backbone out above Kanan  of am Encinal.  While most sections of this trial have a reputation for being a little, um strenuous for lack of a better word,  this section is a fantastically fun few miles of easy single track.  We made it there early and the place was empty.  We climbed for about an hour and a half on relentless, but only 2% or so grade, on the hard pack all the way up to the main fire road.

The weather was perfect, cool in the 50’s and just enough overcast to keep things from getting warm.  From the top we had clear views from Redondo to the Chanel Islands.  The way down was fun, never too fast and a great low stress way to get out on some dirt.

The grand finale was rolling into the parking lot, full club of 30 or so people, on a basket bike with fenders. You would have thought I just rolled off of a space ship, not the trail head they we getting ready for.  No disparaging comments, just shock and a little wonderment.  Ironic thing is that the Trek with low trail 650b conversion handled better going up and coming down with 10 lbs of junk in the basket, than any “Mountain” bike I have ever owned.  It was a fun way to spend the morning, not my usual ride at all, but I be looking at ways to work this stretch into a longer ride in the future.

Friday Ramble

Posting has been a bit sporadic lately due to some fantastic visits from out-of-town family and some other stuff like birthdays etc. that are, well, um, just higher on the list than posting.  Things should be getting a bit closer to normal in the coming weeks as I get back into my morning groove.  Today I was lucky to have the time to head up the coast and on a whim, extend the ride.

Everything started as a normal cruise up the coast.  Then I pushed a little further to La Conchita to grab a couple fresh coconuts, more on at a  later date.  That  required going a mile or two further to Rincon to make the turn around.  As I approached the turn around point I decided to make a right instead of a left.

Heading up and back into the hills a bit to make a few more turns up and around, exploring some routes new to me.  Time was starting to close in and I made my way back down to the coast.  I hit the non-paved route from Carp back down to Rincon.

The rest was the regular ride back down the coast.  It was good to be back on the bike.  I know we are supposed to be having a heat wave, but it was incredibly nice out.  Fall is just around the corner and closing in quick.

Happy friday, and do not forget to play outside this weekend!