Matt's Bike Thoughts

My Salsa Mukluk came stock with Maxxis Minion FBR 4.8" tires on 80mm rims. I don't recommend this combination. What's a fat tire for, anyway? Why run a fat tire?  Well, over the past several years, folks have been experimenting with bigger tires for all kinds of riding. Roadies have upgraded from 23mm to 28-32mm tires. Gravel bikes boast bigger and bigger tire clearances every year - 35mm, then 40mm, and now 45mm is a common upper limit. Road Plus is putting 650b wheels for 47mm and 2" tires on these bikes. Mountain bikes have been doing the same thing. 2" tires used to be beefy, but ordinary mountain bikes are sporting 2.4-2.6" tires, and plus bikes push that all the way up to 3". Cyclists will tell you that the bigger tires offer more grip, traction, comfort, and suspension - and they're right. The costs are weight and (at a certain point) rolling resistance. The more tire you have, the looser terrain you can ride. With a sufficient...

The Schwalbe Jumbo Jims are the second fat bike tire I owned. I wasn't particularly impressed with them - they didn't do great in the snow, and they didn't do great in the dirt. They were an OK compromise on both, but I'd rather have a tire that was great at something and mediocre elsewhere than a tire that's OK on everything. The Jumbo Jim isn't a tire for expeditions and deep snow. It's a relatively lightweight and fast-rolling 4" tire. I want to see how this tire performs on technical singletrack with a Lauf Carbonara, and as a bikepacking tire. Initial impressions are quite positive. The tire has awesome traction on dirt, and it rolls very fast. I took it on a quick run around Ruby Hill park, where I test every new dirt tire. My time on the loop was about as quick as with the 29x2.8" Terrene McFly tires. I credit the speed to the improved traction and cornering ability - the McFly's are nice, but the i29 rim doesn't suit them. I...

Jamis released the Sequel recently.  It's a more modern competitor of sorts to the Jamis Coda series.  The Renegade is their gravel/adventure bike, but these kinds of bikes are fantastic commuters typically.  Let's compare these bikes. EDIT: I've appended a brief "test ride" comparison to the end. Frame The Coda and Sequel are running a Reynolds 520 steel frame.  The Renegade has a 6061 aluminum frame.  The Coda and Renegade have an extra water bottle mount on the bottom of the downtube. Geometry Here are the geometries for a medium bike on both: +----------+-------+-------+---------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+---------+-----------+-----------+ | Bike     | Stack | Reach | Top Effective | Head Angle | Seat Angle | Chain Stay | Wheel base | Fork rake | BB Drop | Head Tube | Standover | +----------+-------+-------+---------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+-...