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Fitness training tyres
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
Looking for advice on a solid fitness or commuter type tyre that I can use on my dually MTB around Akuna, McCarrs and West Head roads. I'm just about worn through on my current 26 x 2.0 knobbly's and would like to upgrade to a more "road" specific tyre. There's no money in the kitty for a roadie bike plus I don't really like the riding position anyway. I have a spare set of cheap MTB wheels complete with rotors and cassette that I swap out when riding the bitumen.
Main criteria:
26 x 1.25
Low puncture rate (tough)
Easy roller
Won't break the bank
Can anyone answer if I'll need to change my tube to match the smaller diameter tyre?
Thanks in advance 
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ARISUN METRO CRUISER 26 x 1.60 - tho wider than you want (most will be) - still good tyre and cheaper than just about anything from my experience - used them before - now use their 700x40C (29 x 1.6) on my stumpjumper HT for road use and stationary fluid trainer.
Look at a Vittoria Randonneur Cross, again wider and about $32
Continental Sport Contact Wirebead Tyre, $40 http://www.cellbikes.com.au/Continental-Sport-Co...
Maxxis Detonator 26 X 1.25 Foldable Bike Tires - (2 for $70) http://www.myshopping.com.au/ZM--1214634299_Maxx...
You dont have to change the tube - but I would just to be safer.
HTH
Cheers Oldernslower,
Main reason for 26x1.25 is for low rolling resistance but been reading some reviews seems a range from 1 to 1.75 works about the same for my purpose.
Maxxis Detenator gets a mixed bag of reviews from great to rubbish... Will checkout the other suggestions, thanks
Serfas Barista, if you can still get them, and Continental Sport Contact 26x1.25 are yhre go-to rubber. The Conti's were particularly good in the wet.
I *might* have some kicking around you can have. Will need to check in the garage.
Serfas's read well but tricky to get hold off. Think the Conti's could be the way forward. Not having any experience on slick or thin tyres would I be better getting the 1.3 or 1.6? Price is about the same
1.3s will be faster, 1.6s more grip and easier on your wheels. I used to use the 1.3s.
Broke a few spokes on cheap wheels with them on shitty roads, but had them pumped up stupid hard, past the recommended limit trying to be Lance on a mtb commuter!
1.3s should be fine. I run sub-1" tyres on the roadie now with nil spoke breakages by being more sensible on the pressures.
And now I have the same number of yellow jerseys as Lance.
Specialized Fat boy are pretty good.
Only had 1 puncture in the 2000+ KMs I had them on.
Taking the subject back to its core, which is stated as fitness training on the road but using a dually mtb, I think there is an argument(s) against using fast (narrower and slicker) tyres?
When I decided my old Giant hardtail mtb was going to be my road training bike, I quickly realized the 2.+ tyres were never going to let me reach the sort of speeds a good road surface potentially allows. And I thought exactly as above: Got to get myself some good fast road tyres!
But then I friend lent me his roadie. And I found that extra speed actually came with a number of disadvantages WHEN the primary objective was fitness improvement (Rather than simply transport).
Mainly, the faster I went:
- The more distance I had to cover to maintain ride time.
- The less I could use bike/footpaths and verges because they couldn't sustain the speed. So I lost that small "technical" element they generate.
- The more I had to mix with cars and we all know the dangers of that.
- The more readily I ran out of gearing (mtb) which meant I couldn't maintain the proper heartrate.
- And with the extra speed came extra potential damage in case of a spill.
In fact, I felt it was counterproductive.
So I got a set of Kenda Small Block Eight in 1.95 (which are on the biggish side), tubes and tyre liners. The latter combination because tubeless doesn't handle the broken glass that abounds on the road side.
Not the lightest, fastest setup, but a more effective training tool that then translated into better performance offroad.
You just have to ignore the roadies passing you, or better: try and keep up with them for some distance!
Roadies are safer on the road because you can sustain mid-30s to 40s on the flat, which has the dual advantages of reducing the closing speeds with overtaking traffic and testing the patience of our bogan driver population.
On hills, the tall gearing leaves you nowhere to hide for training, it's either keep going despite the suffering or stop and walk. No granny gear for wusses (of which I am one). Have you not noticed how in the events you enter the roadies fly up the climbs? This is why.
I hear what you say about the training effect though.
Thanks for the insight CyclinAl... Good to read someone else's experience. I've been using Specialized Renegade 26 x 2.0's on the road for a couple of years now and they've been great. Their nearing end of life pretty soon so I'd like to change to part slicks. A roadie is just out of the question at the moment and will be for some time. I've been scouting the 2nd hand market for one but I fear they'll end up costing me more in be long run.
As for the trianing element, I have limited time (as we all do) so want to cover the most distance and hill climbs as I can to maximise my effort. The weight of the dually and limited gearing will remain the same. The biggest issue I have in events is not being able to spin up hills at any real speed. I'm a very slow climber and loose so much ground on hills. I'm hoping that with longer distance training rides and more climbing in those rides that I can overcome this somewhat (along with a weekly interval session).
As for the roadie's passing me that would be the same even if I was on a time trial bike! There are a few roadies that I can catch and overtake those being clearly unfit and new to the sport. On a good day I'll overtake 3 or 4 and get passed by a thousand
By no means do I imply that roadies should be off the road. I totally agree that they're safer on the road. Just how safe is the question, when I see and hear so many horror stories, and I, myself experience so much lack of consideration from drivers, even though I mainly ride outside the white sideline when "on the road". At least, offroad, the trees and rocks aren't actually trying to get you!
) but it might be more a matter of physical constitution (Whippet). Also, when I do hit a hill on the road, I make it a rule to get up on the pedals and keep a good cadence all the way. If I happen to drop towards the granny gear, I make sure the cadence climbs with the slope. Pretty standard stuff I imagine.
That's an interesting comment on the climbing abilities of roadies. frankly I don't know who's who enough to notice it during races. I do climb fairly well in my agegroup (But that's a naughty word apparently, so I'll move on...
You won't get a much better fitness building commuting tyre than a Schwalbe Marathon Plus!
You don't need long rides to improve climbing, try:
Find a short non-technical circuit with no junctions or stop signs and preferably no traffic, and some climbs of 6% or greater, that will take at least 3 minutes each to climb. If can't get a circuit, find one longish (5 min) climb, get to top, ride back down and let HR recover as you spin to bottom, and reclimb to repeat.
Climb in a high gear at 70 to 75 rpm and a heart rate of 90/95% of your max (play with gears till you find which lifts HR to 90%). Do around 6 to 9 repeats with a recover period between repeats of a few minutes (depends on how fit you are) spinning freely at 65-70% max HR. Do this specific session once a week for three weeks then have a break from it for one week (unless you using a two week adaptation routine) then back to the session. Don't worry if can't do 6 repeats just do what you can at first.
If time then ride for another hour, any climbs ride in high gear at 70-75 cadence and 90% max HR, spin for the rest of the ride.
This will build strength and eventually allow you to spin more easily. Time yourself over that route at another time before or after first session. Then after 4 of the above sessions time yourself over the same route (hopefully with same weather and road/trail conditions). Improvement in time may indicate better climbing. Make sure route is not technical. If you use Strava then you can make a segment for the climb and compare your times for it.
FWIW.
The roadies are the lycra bandits that fly past you on the climb ... and then slow to a crawl on technical singletrack and call every single little obstacle like they were in a group road ride. "ROCK!
STICK! 
TREE ROOT!!! 
:O " 
What matters most is time and intensity rather than distances covered. My hill repeats consist of 3-4x5min climbs with 3-5mins recovery between. I pick a gear and pace that I can finish the climb at. Try to recover enough before I get back to the start line. By the last one I'm looking forward to getting to work.
Takes about half an hour as a diversion to Taronga Zoo on my commute. One day I do it at 90 to 100rpm. Two days later I do it at 60-70rpm. Seated. I really hate those ones. But I like the results.
My apologies Andyfev. I missed your last reply/post and I was in fact replying to Hawkeye's previous one. Didn't mean to ignore you.
I'm sure you'll find their advice very helpful and effective. Just don't spare the calories. You'll need them!
You've got your work cut out by the looks of it!
Human legs weren't created to spin a pair of pedals. It just ain't natural!
Hawkeye: Now you're starting to make sense about roadie behaviour in the wild, a lot of sense... The frustration!!!
Yeah it's quite funny.
I'm not the most technically adept, but it was *really* hard to suppress a laugh when I heard one of them whinging at the Mont during our reconnaissance lap last year about the organisers leaving all the rocks on the track.
Regarding longer rides and climbing hills: you do need at least one ride during the training week that is more than two hours. From my reading of Friel and others, it produces endurance adaptations that have beneficial impacts on efficiency. For me, the magic number seems to be two-and-a-half hours or more at close to threshhold heart rate, non-stop preferably.
The improvement it generates is an overall lift in speed, *including* hills.
No offense taken, CyclinAl... I was gonna post a hijack to your response but thought better of it
Seriously though, no need for apologies on my part it's great to get different points of view and experiences.
In the end I've gone with 1.3 Conti Sports hopefully it's the right decision. I also agree with Hawkeye all the literature I've read leans towards a longer ride once a week. This approach along with weekly intervals (not hill repeats but I'll start this) really helped me in the convict 50km...
Don't worry too much about your tyre decision. You've probably worked out by now that the format of your training will have a lot more influence on the results.
You'll be amazed at the improvement gained by hill repeats. I have a small hill (Probably no more than 12m) at the back of my place and I do a 900m circuit on it, going up one side, down the other and back. Bit of technical descent and a couple of jumps thrown in. Because of the technical descents and the jumps, heart rate doesn't drop below 80% and the only "rest" is an 80m flat run to start again. At first I did 6 runs and thought I'd die! But a few weeks later, I was doing 12 in about 53min, then 20 in about 1:13. It brings your recuperation time down to a handful of seconds and you're ready to hammer the next one.
You can really measure your improvement in this sort of format too, whereas when you do long road rides (Though equally necessary for a well balanced training regimen), things like traffic and wind strength and direction, will make a lot of difference to your time.
As Oldernslower and Hawkeye described, you can do hill repeats just as well on the road. You just have to find the right hill and more importantly, stay determined because it is hard work.
Hawkeye: During the Cape to Cape last year, 3 other riders and I found ourselves "stuck" behind this bird in the Pines, which offer fantastic flowing singletrack descents. Problem was, she had a death grip on the brakes all the way down. But, once at the bottom, she flew like the bloody wind! And none of us could muster enough grunt to get past her (Hell! we were struggling just to keep up!) Eventually she must have heard our moaning and whining. She took pity and let us past. Definitely fits the description
Don't forget tyre pressure too. I recommend once you've got to the top of a hill, stop and check pressure front and rear. Adjust as necessary. Do this again at the the bottom of the hill after descending (you can't be too careful). You'll be able to multiple repeats without feeling too tired and your metres gained on Strava will be massive and no one really looks at elapsed time anyway.
Was going to make some comments on training - but decided not to hijack thread so posted new thread on training :/