Living With 35s

Followers of this blog will recall that I recently built a new set of wheels to which I mounted 35mm Specialized Armadillo Nimbus tires. These are the widest tires I've ever had on a road bike. As I age, it seems that my tire size and waistline are slowly increasing....

Over the past several days, I've had the opportunity ride on the new wheels a number of times, including a trip out to Tyson's Corner from my home in Silver Spring, which is about 40 miles round trip. I've been keeping these inflated to about 75 psi.

Overall, about what I expected. The ride is markedly more comfortable than higher pressure and narrower tires. The gravel path that forms the beginning of many of my rides is much more comfortable. Rolling resistance is noticeably higher - I can easily detect this coasting down familiar downhills. The bike does not accelerate as sprightly. However, none of this is objectionable for the trade off in comfort in short to medium length rides.

Bottom line - this seems to work for what I intended, a comfortable set of wheels for daily use. Given the higher rolling resistance, were I going on a longer trip on good pavement, maybe more than 50 miles, I'd probably take the time to swap the wheels to a set with a narrower tire.

Or maybe just pump these up to their max pressure of 100 psi. Perhaps that is my next experiment.