Ask Josh Anything #18

Hey Josh, Fatty, and Hottie,

In a recent episode of the Criterium Nation podcast, Zach Allison of Team Clif Bar talked about how he thinks that one of the next racing innovations could be in road tires. He said that he believes that there could be a split between consumer performance tires and professional racing tires. Saying that it makes no sense for professionals who are racing for 70-90min is criteriums up to 5 hour road races to be running tires with 5000+mi durability claims and flat protection tech. He said that he wishes for racing tires that lasted for 2-3 crits.

He made the comparison to motorsports like MotoGP or F1 where their goal is to run the absolute softest tire that will survive the duration of the race (or only part of a race in the case of F1).

What are your thoughts about this? Is this a real possibility? Are there real gains to be made in RR and cornering grip over already available dedicated race tires like the Corsa Speeds or others? Could we see guys railing corners at 55deg lean angle, dragging their elbows, and struggling to control the power wheelie out of the final corner??

Thanks!

Matt Glowacki

Couple of questions:

Does Josh have a data based opinion on the utility of carbon mtb bars? Specifically do they really reduce ‘trail buzz’ for long travel trail bikes. I’m also interested to know about his opinion on road (or gravel) bikes with only tires for suspension.

Second and totally unrelated – I’m reading a book called Hell on Wheels about The Race Across American. The athletes are simply bonkers but my good Lord the bike setups made me sad. It’s almost like they tried to maximize aero and rolling resistance. Could Josh describe what an optimized set up might look like for riding 8 days straight with only the occasional power nap?

Hey guys,

first of all great podcast. Your site got my attention because of the Youtube interview with Josh from the channel “Path Less Pedaled” with the title “Your TIRES are LYING to YOU!”

The interview was really interesting and changed my thinking about the right tire pressure. But one question referring to road cyclists wasn’t answered. That’s a copy of my Youtube comment:

“I wish you would have asked again when you started to talk about the “right” tyre size for roadies. He said that aerodynamics are an important factor for roadies but I wonder when a tire gets too big in terms of aerodynamic? Right now I’m riding 28 but he said that they already used 32 for Roubaix, which means 32 should be still aerodynamic enough? I would love to know the answer, I’m wondering if they would even go bigger if they would have the opportunity?"

Which tire size is the limit for a roadie who rides also on bad streets, even bigger than 32? Let’s say there wouldn’t be any rules about tire size, which size would you recommend a pro rider and what do you think which size will establish in the future because it delivers the perfect compromise of aerodynamics and “softness”?

Thank you very much!

Greetings from Germany

Josh,

This is a duplicate of a question I left y’all via the text line:

I greatly enjoy the podcast, and it has helped me accept the reality that my next wheel purchase decision should be based almost purely upon aerodynamics, as opposed to weight! However, this raises a more nuanced series of questions. Here we go!

Assuming nothing out of the norm with general aerodynamic rim profile/shape, and assuming the use of 28-30mm tires on a disc brake bike, how should someone prioritize overall depth, external rim width, and internal rim width when making an aero wheel purchase? If someone is considering rims ranging in depths from 48-65mm, how much should internal and external rim widths drive the ultimate decision? For example, if one option is 48mm deep, 22mm wide internal, and 35mm wide external, is that preferable to another option that is 54mm deep, 20mm internal, and 29mm external, or a third that is 65mm deep, 20mm internal, and 27mm external? Is deeper always better as a general proposition, or is there a tipping point where the rule of 1.05 and rim widths should be weighted more heavily in light of tire width to be used?

Thanks,

Finn

I think you have the wrong take on waxed chains for commuting. Maybe if you work at Silca it is OK to arrive with greaasy hands when you have a flat. I’m a retired physician. Your wife is a physician. a waxed chain for a commuting bike is a great idea. And once you get the process going it, it is not hard to do an extra chain or two. Several ways to go about it depending on relative commuting/training miles. Not hard to have an extra chain for the higher mileage bike so that the waxing process is done on a convenient schedule.