Bmblbzzz wrote: ↑9 Aug 2022, 12:19pm
Personal assessment of the Cugel-trax:
1. Okay wide wide tyres and big mud clearances. Keep to the edge.
2. Excellent.
3. Bumpy. Large volume, low pressure tyres will be a benefit, likely more so than suspension. Think 2.5" plus.
4. Excellent.
5. Bumpy. As 3.
At present I have 45mm (42mm on the rims) Schwalbe G-One Allrounds on the gravel/winter bike. These clag to all things dry with a great amount of grab. Wet may be another thing, though, especially wet mud.
The new bike has already been had-at in typical cyclist fashion, with various parts swapped out. There's a COBBL-GOBBL seatpin in there, with about 20mm of boing in it; and a red shift boingy stem of similar boing-range. This and the 45mm tyres do seem to make the bike go over the rougher stuff fairly well ... but I haven't really tackled the most-rough yet.
Ever looking for an excuse to consume shiny bike parts (even if they won't stay shiny on a gravel bike) I am contemplating some 650B wheels that will allow me to get those even larger tyres on you mention. And they might also be dedicated gravellers of the Schwalbe G-One Bite type or similar, with bigger gripping studs for the wet days with all that mud and gravel-paste.
However, the bike also has to be my winter bike. (And, as we know, summer passes quickly to autumn, which can be wet in West Wales; and lasts only 5 days before its winter). I have the mudguards to put on, which will cover up to 48mm wide tyres and so allow the continued use of those 45mm G-One Allrounds. I do like their improved grab o' the road when braking.
But I read that mudguards on gravel bikes (i.e. when ridden in the forest and other gravelly spots) are not a good idea, as brash and even a rock can be picked up then jam, risking various events and damage, including an over-the-bars incident. I am both soft and brittle now, aged 73, so don't fancy even gravel rash, let alone a broken hip!
***************
From time to time, the National Resources Wales calls in the gravel road menders. They also call in the logging machines too, though. The latter churn up the roads and the former attempt to mend them - an ever evolving scenario. They have a Special Batrachoid that inspects the roads for faults, recommending the movement of rocks from here to there, as well as the replacement of some mud where appropriate.
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes