campfire

Oh, bike tire sizes. They never make much sense!


I based my answer on a quick check of Schwalbe's catalog:

https://www.schwalbetires.com/Big-Ben-11100564

Which lists two 28" options, both of which are 622mm BSD. Hopefully that's what she has. But my point was that fitting a slicker and/or narrower 28" tire on a 29" rim is a common and acceptable way to make an offroad bike more suitable for a road tour. Unlike so many bike tire sizes that aren't interchangeable, these ones actually are compatible.

Tourist in MSN

The late Sheldon has a good tables on tire sizes. There are on the two tables, one table for fractional size and one table for decimal size.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

Yeah, a couple different bead diameters for 28. Look how many different 26 inch sizes there are on the two tables.

I could not buy 650b tires starting in the 1980s, finally when 650b became a thing again I could buy tires for an old 3 speed I have. The old tires that were on it were labeled 26X1 1/2, so all the stores were selling me the wrong 26 inch tires. I had some that blew off the rim because they sold me 590 instead of 584mm bead diameter.

At the bottom of that link you will find a good table of what tire widths work well on what inner rim widths.

Tourist in MSN

I use a Garmin 64 for bike touring, it is a general recreation GPS, not a cycling one. I usually set the routing for Tour Cycling (it also has Mountain Biking and a plain Cycling option). But sometimes I check to see what the suggested routing looks like if I set it for car driving to see how that is different than Tour Cycling.

I always like to have a plain paper road map, typically state or provincial one on top of my handlebar bag. Comes in handy for big picture planning purposes. But, I am a geological engineer (retired), and I worked with maps (both paper and electronic) every single day of my professional life, so I am more comfortable with a paper map handy.

cyccommute 

True. It would make a whole lot more sense if we went by bead diameter than outside diameter…which we really don’t use either. A 28” tire really doesn’t have a 28” outer diameter unless the tire is a very specific size. A 29er is really only 29” for a 2.25” tire.

But we really don’t need to make this discussion too confusing by bringing in archaic sizes. As you pointed out mams99, ordered a model of Schwalbe tires which really don’t come in the old size.

cyccommute 

As discussed below, you didn’t get the wrong size. The Big Bens will work just fine.

However, your bike is a tiny one so I’ll assume that you are tiny too. Having had a pixie in my life for nearly 50 years now, I can tell you that the road to bike fit is long and difficult. Most everything is “small” is still too large for a 5’ tall woman. And it doesn’t help that she grew up on bikes that were way too large and anything smaller felt wrong. That said, you could gain a little bit of standover space on your bike if you need it by going to a smaller wheel. We got her a Specialized Sirrus 2.0 this year on sale in an XXS frame. She still had too little bail off space but discs make swapping wheel size much easier.


It’s not easy to see but the bike is about 2” closer to the ground than it was originally.



The other modification I made was to shorten a set of cranks to 140mm. The bicycle industry thinks that the shortest cranks need for anyone is 165mm. But looking at my inseam/crank length ratio and applying it to her cranks, she needs something a whole lot shorter. Amazingly, she has never been able to climb out of the saddle but she was amazed with the new short cranks when she sprinted up a hill shortly after I installed them. She could actually ride out of the saddle and it felt nice. I did my own but it’s worth checking out Bike Smith to see if it might work for you.



Good luck.

mams99

Fortunately for me, I'm a woman of average height. So I can find frames my size. HOWEVER, I think there are more men who are 5'6" who have short legs and then a longer torso, so, every single bike I try in the store, the reach is too long when the leg length is fine. My bike fit leg measurement is between 29.5 and 30.5 Depending on whether or not I'm pressing up against my pubic bone or not.

djb

tire talk can get pretty individual, but I can say from experience that a lighter, good rolling tire can make a noticeable difference to how a bike feels riding.
The light, slick 42mm tires I have on my troll for "road touring" rolls along really nicely, but I have toured on that bike with 45-50mm slicks, and also with 2.1 inch cross country mountain bike tires similar to yours because I was doing an off road trip. Not great on pavement but ok given the compromise.

I have toured and ridden on narrow tires, 28mm, on all kinds of surfaces, so riding on dirt roads and trails with 40mm ish wide tires, even slicks , is perfectly fine for me. On rougher roads and or looser dirt surfaces, wider tires are more comfortable and more secure (if you don't overdo the tire pressures), but there are a million kinds of tires and riding on dirt is usually ok unless its very loose, and that usually is a very small percentage of the time in the big picture.
I also ride in the snow a lot, and rode motorcycles, so a bit of sliding doesnt bother me.

and yes, many of us have tried lots of tires, but at least the internet can give fairly reliable views on a given tire, although lets face it, everyone has an opinion so it can be hard to know what to take with a grain of salt....

re your Jones bars, I have a set that I use on my commuter and my fatbike, and I really like them. I also use ergon grips like you have.
I would suggest following the Jones recommendations and slightly angling them downwards a bit (look at his website). Also try experimenting with slight angle differences with the grips, I like mine slightly downturned as well--basically I find this evens out the pressure points on my palms. I also have ergon grips on my winter bike that I commute on, and I do the same slight downwards angle on that bike also, even though it has a more regular mountain bike handlebar.
You'd be surprised how tiny bar and grip angle changes can be more comfortable--yours stood out to me as being too level, especially the bars.
Doing a relaxed ride with the allen keys nearby to make small changes is a good way to just "feel out" what works best, and going too far in adjustment is ok too, you'll feel right away what doesnt feel good and what feels better.

and again, all this techno blah blah still is only so important, and riding and riding and riding, gradually increasing the distances, putting the miles in your legs, is the only way to be able to do 40 or 50 or 60 miles in a day.

Oh, I would remove that heavy front rack, its just weight you are lugging around for no reason if its not being used.

and most importantly, all the best with the parent thing. This is nothing to sneeze at and most people have no idea how much of a burden this is.
cheers

djb

re frame size, my wife is about 5' and XS frames have been the right fit overall--but still with short stems

Yan 

Tire choice is based on planned route. Off road, use a wide tires. Road tour, use a narrow tire. Don't know? I find 35mm to be a good compromise that will at least get you through most rough stuff while not overly needlessly weighing you down on paved roads.

HelpSingularity 

I have found this to be helpful when trying to figure out tire/rim sizing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_5775

From the article: "ISO 5775 is an international standard for labeling the size of bicycle tires and rims. The system used was originally developed by the European Tyre and Rim Technical Organisation (ETRTO). It is designed to make tire sizing consistent and clear. It replaces overlapping informal systems that ambiguously distinguished between sizes."

Tourist in MSN

Thanks for posting, I had not seen that site with that extensive table of sizes before.

That said, scanning through it, I found an error. My folding bike takes 24 X 1.5 which has a bead diameter of 507, but that table lists that size as 559. Almost nobody makes that specific tire size in that tire width any more, so I have had to stock up on tires for that bike.

Tourist in MSN

I described my tire width choices for varying purposes in post 9 above. But thought of two more comments on tires.

Pinch flats. They can be common on skinny tires with inner tubes from hitting pot holes, etc. But the probability of getting a pinch flat is much greater with a narrower tire. I am not sure if there is a good rule of thumb for tire widths that are wide enough to make pinch flats almost impossible to get, but I think if you tour on 35mm or wider it is almost impossible to get a pinch flat. And if your load was light enough, 32mm is probably wide enough to avoid pinch flats.

Tubeless. All comments in this thread are for tube type tires. I have no clue if we will mostly be on tubeless tires a decade from now or not. I personally am sticking with tubes. Some people are trying tubeless and like it. The reason I am avoiding tubeless is that sealant needs maintenance, annually at a minimum. I ride several different bikes in any given year, but I only average one puncture a year. It would be too much time for me to maintain the sealant in several bikes compared to the time to fix one puncture on the road. And since tubeless rims are different than tube type rims, that would be a major effort to change rims on several bikes. If you are a one bike person, then maybe tubeless would work for you. In part your decision on that would be if you are in an area where you encounter thorns a lot or not.

imi

I’ve never had a pinch flat in decades of touring on 28mm and 32mm Gatorskins and Gator Hardshells.

I think you’d only get a pinch flat if your tires are under inflated.
Hitting pot holes hits the front wheel hardest, IME, though the back wheel could take a heavy hit too on a loaded bike

djb

you can pinch flat any width tire. I've pinch flatted a fatbike tire, rode with "snow pressures" on a non snowy single track with rocks. Presto, slow pinch flat leak.

djb

screenshot from a vid from Jones himself (the bearded dude) that shows the slight down slanted position of his Jones bars

oh, what width big bens did you order?
when getting into the details of one tire vs another, its good to look at the tire weight. One tire can be quite a bit lighter than another of the same width, and you really notice a lighter tire right after putting them on.

Duragrouch

mams99,

cyccommute's advice seems dead on, matching what I tried to convey in the other thread about travel bike (with the green coupler frame):
- Sufficient wheelbase (chainstay length) for good pannier clearance at your heels. However, while he cautioned about putting the load too far back to accommodate this, my heavier pannier load is completely behind the rear axle on my 20" folder, with no stability issues at all. This may be because...
- With 20" wheels, my rear panniers are lower, even on a standard tall rack (the original Dahon rear rack, low over the wheel, was useless, too low and forward to fit full-size panniers). This means that when I am rocking the bike climbing, I have more mechanical advantage over the panniers than if they were mounted higher. And that means...
- My Dahon folding frame is plenty rigid during climbs (my frame has a hinge in the middle of the main frame tube, which I've tightened by rigging something similar to Dahon's new Deltech cable, but you don't have to worry about that because your Bike Friday has no hinge there). The Dahon and Bike Friday both have a large main frame tube which is stiff in torsion, the bike doesn't twist like a wet noodle. Many older bikes with small diameter steel tube, were flexy that way, good ride, but too flexy when climbing with pannier loads. Cannondales (like his, and my racer) are famous for huge diameter, torsionally stiff down tube and top tube, so they climb fabulously under load, but also ride really stiff; Bigger tires helped a good deal on my bike.

Your full-size bikes look great for touring, but if you need a folder, I think your Bike Friday may work better than you think.

Calsun

I did my first long distance trip in 1968 and starting riding the length of the California coast in 1972. My riding buddy and I created the first bicycle route map that was printed by the California Division of Highways in 1973. For financial reasons I camped most nights and cooked most meals on a small Svea alcohol stove. When I could afford to stay at B&B or motels and eat at restaurants that is what I started doing whenever possible. I could travel much lighter and my body liked a comfortable bed at night and a hot shower in the morning.

Bike touring over the forest roads is more difficult in terms of finding contiguous roads which often do not exist in national parks or forests or designated wilderness areas. So if would only be possible to do short trips in my area.

Route finding can be very difficult and one does not know if a road or trail continues through or dead ends or there is a locked gate that blocks bicycles.

On rail trails and similar surfaces I would want the wider 28mm to 38mm tires used on gravel bikes to have a less jarring ride and less chance of a broken spoke. Some of the hybrid bikes have special forks that function more like those on a mountain bike without adding a lot of weight. There are always going to be trade-offs.

Pratt

Dear Mams-
A lot of excellent posts, with great information. I would just add, consider your bike, your first touring bike. Each tour, and I hope you have many, will teach you something, and change your idea of what you want in a bike. Likewise, every tour will have at least one time when you will wish you had a lighter/heavier/lower geared/highergeared/fatter/skinniertires/etc. and you will be among those responding to someone asking for advice.

Tourist in MSN

That is why I have three touring bikes. But unfortunately I have to finish the tour on the same bike I start the tour with, so the decision on which to bring is a factor.

Duragrouch

I agree. I think she may have sufficient selection in current bikes to outfit one as a tourer at minimal investment for racks, and learn on that for her first tour, at least if it will be on roads and packed trails. Even better would be to outfit it months in advance, and do local loaded rides (even for groceries) as a preliminary assessment; Plenty of time to get another bike if no current bike handles the loads well, and any racks bought would transfer.

djb

her present bike has both front and rear racks, and is a bike model that is completely suitable to ride with groceries or ride around the world ( I have pretty much the same bike)

the ride with groceries suggestion is a very good one. It certainly gives you an idea of how it is riding an overly laden touring bike.
Ive always found groceries to be waaaaaaay heavier than a touring load.