All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

Love that color! Congrats!

 

Visiting MT for the week. Stop along the way for the baby to get a break. First time using our old platform rack on the Taco since the bed was full of gear. Not a bad road trip setup.

 

cruisers are awesome on a track but have no place (in my opinion) in a park. Pump track or DJ trails maybe.

 

Any recommendations on plus sized tire pressure?

2.8 wide tires, 27.5+, on a plus size rim. I’m 220-225lbs.

I’m only seeing info online for standard sizes or really fat tire sizes..


Thinking start about 19-20psi and go from there. Normally ride 25-27psi or so in my 29x2.4s

 

I’d be riding to work more often if I were able to ride through GotG. Great ride and pics!

 

I rode "plus" tires on a FS Spesh 6fatty 5 yrs ago and on a HT Chameleon for 3 yrs. I'm almost same weight 225 with camelback. Hard to dial in, really is, air pressure is so critical for plus tires. Too much and you bounce around and lose the cush and traction they offer. Not enough and you get sidewall rollover and a hard to pedal sled.

You can take this for what its worth, I never rode 2.8"s with that much pressure. If you're on a HT I suggest 18 rr and 16 fr and give it a whirl. Some tires have stiffer casings than others and you can air down a little. Seems a little insane but I've ridden 14 up fr and 16 in the rr. Get a good gauge cause a half pound can make a difference with some tires.

 

Good to know. Thank you that’s very helpful. The tires are the maxxis rekon exo tr, whatever all of that means haha

 

I think that is a good starting point, maybe a bit high but better to start high and move down.

I'm usually right around 200 lbs loaded, but right now about 210. I've run multiple diameters and sizes of plus tires, here's what I ran (all tubeless):

27.5 x 2.8 - 17F 19R (Full Suspension)
29 x 3.0 - 14F 15R (Hard tail)
29 x 2.6 - 19F 20R (current setup, Full Suspension)

Riding style can make a difference as well. I am old and not very aggressive, ride lightly and don't bash into stuff hard. More aggressive/faster riders might need a little more pressure.

 

Awesome thank you. I definitely feel fast/aggressive on my local trails, but I don’t send jumps and such. But it’s very rocky/technical and so I want enough pressure to avoid pinching but not so much I’m bouncing everywhere. I’m super excited to try it out tomorrow morning, will be my first time sending some of the trails on a hard tail.

 

You might want to start a little higher on the rear until you get a feel for it, maybe 22 psi. I've run those Rekons before, they should be fine somewhere around 20. Front you can certainly go a bit lower.

One of the things I really liked about the 2.8 size is that I felt it had less of that "bounciness" if your pressure was a bit high. I had a fat bike for a bit, and it was much harder to find that sweet spot. The 3.0 was a bit easier, and with the 2.8's I never really noticed the bounce. But, that was a FS bike, so it might have just dampened it. If I didn't feel so beat up after riding a hard tail, I'd do a 27.5x2.8 setup for sure.

I'm enjoying my current 29x2.6 setup (Trek Fuel EX 9.8). Got out for my first ride in almost a year yesterday, kind of stopped riding until I was vaccinated and felt comfortable being out on the trails with heavy breathers. Turns out, they just built a bunch of new hand-cut trails right behind my house that are not well-known yet. I was a bit rusty on the techy stuff and certainly out of shape, but I love how the bike rides and handles. It's just neutral and easy to ride, you don't really think about it.

Happy 4th, all!

 

Happy Fourth all! Hope everyone’s enjoying the goodness of American made trails.

 

Good read right here. This is me too

 

Put in some XC miles (with some random rock tech, rocky ridge climb, and a cool jump line) with my wife and father in law. Nice to be in some wide open country again!

 

Well I took the Chameleon on its first ride today. This bike is a shredder. I’m not even a good rider and it’s amazing, I can’t imagine what someone else could manage to do with it.

So we started with a technical climbing trail (dummy line) and I have to say I sucked absolute ass on it. I struggled so much with this bike. I don’t know if it’s simply the lower bb height, shorter wheelbase, or what exactly…but I kept striking my pedals and then after I did that, it was so freaking hard to get started again. Like those always uncomfortable slight uphill starts where you kinda can’t get going…but every single time I tried to start going it was like that. It wore me out and I was honestly like dang idk about climbing with this bike lol. I think I just need to ride it and get used to it. The climbing did get much much better on the other trails I’m more used to and ride a lot.

but on the downhills….mannnnnn I had so much fun. I went equally as fast, or even faster in some spots than I do on my FS stumpy. I thought that was crazy. I felt so planted and like really gripped into the trail if that makes sense. I know my stumpy flows well and follows the terrain but something about the hardtail just made me feel so in control on the descents. The 130mm fox 34 ate up everything.

I took some clips of stuff today just to see how it was, and apparently my GoPro strap was a little loose so it’s ultra bouncy in the video at times. Also the “slappy” sound you here is the dang front fender I put on. It wouldn’t shut up lol.



https://youtu.be/3BdvNRie81Y

 

All setup for camping in Lakefield Ont.
Going to bicycle to a few locks this week.

 

I start in a gear or two higher than I would normally pedal in to get going then downshift if still necessary.

 

Yeah I tried that something about the bike I just couldn’t figure it out! Honestly hard to explain. I really don’t know

 

Probably just the slight difference in geometry or balance point of the bike you’re used to. Muscle memory is great but sometimes gets in the way until you adjust.

 

When I had my Chameleon I switched to 170mm cranks. Made a big difference but you will get familiar with it, you'll only bang your pedals so many times then you realize and the brain chimes in, "oops keep them level here or back pedal half a stroke there". Back to the cranks, a 1/4" makes more of difference than you'd think, it's the same as raising your BB 5mm...

Looks like ya had fun! Keep ripping my man.