Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

I imagine because of the tyre's extra weight and tread across the tarmac? Not trying to start #rollingresistancebeef but I just thought road tyres for the road I guess.

Depends on the tyres I guess - my understanding suggests slicks like Gravel Kings or Horizons aren't a problem, might not be as fast as GP4kSII but certainly fine on the road. The knobblier you get I think the slower you're going to roll, but if you're on tarmac, racing against a clock I guess you're not going to be taking your gravel bike.

Anecdote time! My 650B 42c Gravel Kings run fast as hell. Can hold decent laps speed on them. My 700c 40c Nanos are heavier and roll slower on tarmac but still go fairly well when you chug up to speed.

Love that! Custom paint or transfers?

at the same pressure wider tyres are faster cause the patch that hits the road is rounder and thus bends less.

only the small knobs might slow you down a bit, but will still be faster than any 23mm tyre as long as you keep a constant pace.

Got the email to say my Ti gravel frame is ready from Wittsons. Happy days!

Got 3 wheelsets, going with 700x30 Challenge Strada Bianca's, 700x36 Challenge Gravel Grinders, and 650bx2.1" Rocket Rons (it was spec'd to have the clearance, clarence - road fork in shot is for the pic).

I'll be running cable pull discs (so I can have crosstop levers), and di2 - I was assuming Ultegra would be the set of choice, though I might stretch to DA as I'm having to buy the brakes etc seperately. Unless I should take heed from the theme of this thread and get an xt setup (Definitely having a double on the front)?

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Why do you need crosstop levers? Give the bike the respect it deserves and get hydraulics.

All respect has been lost with that TT

I echo @andyp

Modern hydraulics are so easy, low fatigue one finger braking vs cable pull brakes. Please don't get cable pull brakes for this.

But

What is up with that top tube?

one finger braking

I have to say, decent/high end mechanical disc brakes give similar performance. Still a fan of hydraulics though..

Looks tasty. And would echo the point about wider tyres on the road not being any slower; as long as they're reasonably supple and you're not absolutely caning it the improved comfort and suspension gains more or less even out the aero losses.

This cannot be true otherwise pros would have 650b 47s.

only because weight, sponsoring and UCI rules (700c mandatory).

click "Why do wide tires roll better than narrow ones?"
https://www.schwalbetires.com/tech_info/rolling_resistance

And of course a bigger radius (29ers with 47mm) would be faster than 650b since the angle of deflection at the edge of the contact patch will be lower.

Apparently, tubeless rolls faster too ;-)

that's why Tony Martin rides ITT's on tubeless

At pro speeds most of your power goes to fighting aerodynamic drag and wider tyres' aero losses start to bite; even so the peloton have moved to 23 and 25mm tyres. For us mortals, wide tyres just mean a nice smooth ride...

(edit: and also what @Jaap said)

He does?

My heart is full of regret starting this conversation. Thanks for all your various input though.

Anyway my new bike is great.

Also what is slow is the geometry, CX bicycle tend to have a slower handling especially on the road so this often feel like the tyres is dragging.

#rollingresistancebeef #regret #shruggie

I think an interesting interdisciplinary, longitudinal study would be to look at rolling resistance at larger tyre width with homeopathic remedies (controlling for placebo effect of course) and look for statistical significance

Is that a bend in the top tube, or an optical illusion?

The only reason to get cable over hydro is budget.

Bin off the cross-top levers, get hydro di2

'Custom' paint, as in, I did it myself on my roof.

While I nominally have your attention @MechaMorgan your Genesis is fucking rad as fuck.

Grazi mille!

Best road bike I've ever ridden, and I've ridden a lot of good road bikes. Just need some dickhead wheels to match the quality of the frame. Hopefully it will last forever and be cleaned and tastefully mounted in the mausoleum upon my death.

I'm buying a carbon seatpost for it after constant badgering by @jammy and reading some studies on deflection and comfort.