ericzamora

Anybody have a Gary Fisher "Fast City" Wingra, and did you upgrade the tires to something wider?

I have a Wingra and was considering changing a few things to make it a bit more of a gravel bike for light touring, starting with the tires. It has the stock 700c x 32 Bontrangers, and i was considering trying out WTB Riddlers in the 700c x 37 size. I'll have to measure clearances first, and dig into rim specs to see what it supports.

If successful, I'm also thinking of new bars like Jones H_Bars.

anybody play with bigger tires on this hybrid? thanks

eric
fresno, ca.

solord8

Hi Eric,

I just got a GF Wingra and am looking to do the same thing, did you end up getting the WTB Riddlers in the 700c x 37 size? Would like to know how your experience was if you made the switch to thicker tires, thanks!!

Daniel
sf, ca.

ericzamora

[QUOTE=solord8;23237415]Hi Eric,

Hello there Daniel, How's The City today? I love the Bay Area.

I actually did go with the 700c x 37 Riddlers way back when and rode my first gravel event shortly afterwards with the Surly Moloko bars too. Nice setup, no issues that i can recall. I never went tubeless... the stock rims were not compatible if i remember correctly, though i did fill the inner tubes with Slime sealant. If there was a spacing issue on the rear, i've forgotten about it and even so, it was probably easily overcome (no issue on the front, there rarely is for clearance). I probably had around 500 miles on the Riddlers and they were still fine. Here's a video i shot back then. I'm the fat slob in the red jersey. Most of the video shows off my buddy's Surly Disc Trucker but you can see the Wingra and the Riddlers in a few clips.
I sold the bike last year since it was not being used over the years and there were too many bikes in my dining room. (I shifted the bars back to the original since i wanted to keep the Molokos). WTB makes great tires and the Riddlers were good. I didn't put many miles on them since i soon went for a true dropbar "gravel bike," a steel Norco Search XR with 700c x 40 tires (a year later, had a set of 650b wheels built with Kinlin aluminum rims and Bitex hubs and am now running schwalbe 2.1 inch Thunder Burts tubeless on that bike with GRX drive and brake components). After the Norco, i built up a Surly ECR right before they discontinued that model and ran 29 inch 3.0 tires for awhile but saved the Maxxis Chronicles after they discontinued those beautiful tires and am now running Maxxis Ikon 29x2.6 tires on the ECR.

I mention the newer bikes and their wider tires because in comparison, the 700c x 37 Riddlers looked TINY compared to the newer bigger tires. There were times even the Riddler's 37 width wasn't enough to instill confidence for this pansy on fast downhill dirt forest roads and the occasional dirt singletrack trail. Maybe if they were tubeless and lower pressure it would have been better. Plus in the summer down here, dirt forest roads often had deep sandy patches in the Sierra. I recall a forest road downhill just outside of Yosemite where those Riddlers probably would have sunk and pitched me head over the bars. lol Maybe i should have mixed it up with a 45 Riddler in front, could have been nicer.

Basically, Riddlers were two enthusiastic thumbs up. The Wingra was a good bike, triple fronts are rare these days. Those V brakes drove me batty though, i could never get them dialed in well for my taste.

-eric
fresno, ca.