Ask Josh Anything #007

We're back with a new set of questions for Josh, digging deep into the topics super-nerd cyclists care deeply about. We talk about the products that intrigued Josh most at Eurobike, find out what size (diameter and width) he'd make road wheels be if he could start from scratch, speculate on whether the very aero-looking Ceepo Shadow-R is actually aero, consider marginal gains in gravel races, ask whether it's better to wrap cables together or keep them separate, ponder the age-old question of tubeless vs latex tubes, and...ponder marginal gains opportunities in inline skating. (Hey, rollerbladers need marginal gains love, too.)

Got a question you’d like to ask? Text or leave a voicemail at the Marginal Gains Hotline: +1-317-343-4506 or just leave a comment in this post!

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23 comments


  • Johan Mokhtar

    Hi Josh. You have just given credibility to my aversion to riding tubeless tires. Like you, I cannot be bothered to deal with sealant.

    It would be cool if tire manufacturers find a way to enclose a thin layer of sealant in the tire carcass. So you get the hole plugging benefit of sealant without the slop inside the tire.


  • Josh Poertner

    Awesome! My road bike is an Eddy Merckx MX-Leader built up with modern Campag.. my love for steel bikes runs deep!
    You aren’t going to see much difference until you get to 40+mm rims and ideally something that falls under the rule of 105%. I’m running 303’s on my Merckx and they are sublime in ride quality and quite fast. Something like the Kinlin 31 will not provide any noticeable difference over your Open Pro’s you would be better off spending the money on some really fast tires and latex tubes, with $$ to spare.
    Best
    Josh


  • Josh Poertner

    Peter,
    This is a great question and one we’ll take up on and Ask Josh..
    As for Crr testing, Mr. Chung has the method.. should be able to get Crr to 4 decimal places: http://anonymous.coward.free.fr/wattage/cda/indirect-cda.pdf


  • Josh Poertner

    Thanks Andrew, we will try to get this into a future episode, but OSPW is a 1.5-2.5 watt savings at higher chain tensions depending on setup, brand, etc


  • Jonathan Lee

    I am building my first dream bike which would also be used for daily commute. I plan to put full fenders on it for daily commute, and pair it with Enve 4.5AR wheels and 700×28mm tires so I can go fast. I know there is some amount of aero penalty associated with fenders. What is the interactions between the full fenders and the aero wheels? Could the fenders extend the aero wheels “depth?” If not, would the fender’s aero penalty be offset by the aero wheels or is it a waste of money to install the aero wheels? Are there other ways to offset the fenders’ aero penalty? Thank you.


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