Muddydog

I decided to take the beach cruiser on the beach this morning. It’s a novel concept I know.

I’ve lived near the beach my whole life and don’t know why it took me so long to try it. I went at the bottom of low tide and after walking the C1 through the soft sand to the harder packed sand near the waters edge I was able to ride fairy comfortably to the mouth of an inlet until I turned around. With a 5-10kt wind in my face it got, much more difficult than I would have thought, like riding up a long sloping hill.


I also found than anything outside of the tightest pack sand brought me to a sudden halt even on these balloon tires and any “washboard” areas cause severe vibration.

I was considering swapping out these big 2.35 balloon tires for something a bit more sporty after my wife said I looked like an “old man” on them but think I’ll keep them for now for future bike rides. In fact I may take down the pressure from their near max for future beach rides.


Overall, a short trip made for a pretty good workout but I think these will be best at night when the wind has settled and I have the place to myself.

ClydeClydeson

I believe 'Beach Cruisers' are best suited for boardwalks and piers near the beach, not in the beach sand itself. Good on ya for trying, though.

If you want to be able to ride comfortably on anything as soft as beach sand you really need a 'fat bike' with tires much wider than likely fit in your beach cruiser, and in my experience on the loose yellow sand on the beaches where I live, even a fat bike with tires at the lowest pressure I dare is near its limit. I am guessing that your beach sand is a bit firmer with the ocean laying on top of it half the time, so you might be able to make better progress if you drop the pressure in your beach cruiser tires down as low as you can without feeling the tire getting pinched between the rim and the ground. Be careful though, because, while you might be able to ride safely across a soft surface like that, a harder surface like concrete or asphalt, or even a packed gravel trail, will likely damage your tire, tube, and/or rim.

Muddydog

No doubt you are correct on all counts. I was a bit surprised what a difference it made as soon as I began moving up from the water line.
However we do have 6’ tides here so we generally have some solid well packed sand.
The bigger issue seemed to be the combination of wind and we almost always have that here.

ClydeClydeson

If the wind stopped you then it was very likely that you were just about 'redlining' your efforts just to keep moving in the sand, but the elation of cruising along on the beach may have obscured that fact.

Schweinhund

I have a set of the tires you're running on your Electra, they are actually really decent tires.
Low rolling resistance, skinwall, and a long wearing, high silicon content rubber.
They have good resell value on the secondary market.
You can run a bit lower pressure and not increase your pedaling effort, they just get rougher riding at high pressure. I run 33 psi in mine