Originally Posted by
RockiesDad
Thinking about a N+1 recently and was looking around for a used road bike since I find myself riding roads more often than not. I do however get off the pavement on to hard packed gravel about 10% of the time. Looking for a road bike with an endurance road geometry and was wondering if the industry is going in this direction since a lot of the newer bikes mention largest tire sizes that can fit. I like the quick accelerating and handling feeling of a road bike. Seen all the latest "gimmicks" being done to frames and stuff but not sure if they are just that, gimmicks that will disappear in the near future. I figure the tire size issue is the easiest way to get comfy off road.
Any thoughts and maybe suggestions for a used bike that can fit maybe up to 32mm tires? TIA..
Loads of road bikes can fit 32mm tires. Before the narrow tire fad kicked in hard during the 1980s, it was typical for road bikes to clear 32s. And over the last few years, the road market has been trending back toward bigger clearances. Current "endurance" road bikes can nearly always fit at least that big, and some road bikes of other "styles" can as well.
Depending on the geometry particulars, tires sometimes won't get in the way until they're considerably larger than that, so there are some "allroad" or "gravel" bikes out there that can clear 40s or even bigger while maintaining road-like fit and a mostly-road-like lively handling and pedaling feel. Examples of this style would be bikes like the Open UP or Black Mountain Cycles Road+.