Brompton tyres sucking the life out of me

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potsy

Rambler
Location
My Armchair
Sounds more like the bike than the tyres to me.

I can understand they might be useful for certain occasions but have never fancied getting one myself.

Are you doing short trips or decent mileage?
 

T4tomo

Guru
I use straight Marathon and don't find them too draggy.
Sufficiently so that I've toured on them.
me to, but nit sure you'll notice so much of a difference to change new to new, being a tight Yorkshireman, Id just replace them with standard Ms when they wear out.
 
OP
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ianrauk

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Sounds more like the bike than the tyres to me.

I can understand they might be useful for certain occasions but have never fancied getting one myself.

Are you doing short trips or decent mileage?


25 mile round trip daily
 

dan_bo

How much does it cost to Oldham?
Sounds more like the bike than the tyres to me.

I can understand they might be useful for certain occasions but have never fancied getting one myself.

Are you doing short trips or decent mileage?

Go on you must be bored of tripping over the other 6 by now.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
Bicycles built for speed and distance have big wheels, so I suspect the laws of physics mean there's no way to cure your problem while the bike has 16" wheels.

I think you have a six-speed?

On any view you are a strong cyclist, so it would be interesting to see how you would get on with a two-speed Brommie on Kojak slicks.

What I can't think of is any financially viable way of carrying out that experiment.
 
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ianrauk

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
This was my biggest reason for not buying a Brompton. The 16" wheels were too much of a compromise, and hence a Dahon with 20" wheels feels more "bike like"


Thing is my commute is broken up by a train journey hence being forced into buying a Brompton. I may start to look at other options like 20"ers
 
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ianrauk

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Bicycles built for speed and distance have big wheels, so I suspect the laws of physics mean there's no way to cure your problem while the bike has 16" wheels.

I think you have a six-speed?

On any view you are a strong cyclist, so it would be interesting to see how you would get on with a two-speed Brommie on Kojak slicks.

What I can't think of is any financially viable way of carrying out that experiment.


Yup 6 speed. And that's another thing. I just can't find a comfortable cruising gear out of the 6. They are all either too high or too low, no good inbetween.
 
My default tyres on 16" wheels are Marathons. I gave up on M+ after getting 3 punctures on them and taking the best part of an hour each time to get them on made me murderous. Kojaks are good but a rubbing brake will cut through the sidewalls before you notice there's a problem (DAMHIKT) and a discard Stanley blade will cut through them like butter (DAMHIKT, either)

There's nothing inherently slow about 16" wheels, btw.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
As mentioned, wind resistance from the more upright riding position of the Brommie is the major issue speedwise, not tyre rolling resistance.

Also, rear wheel removal on a a Brommie is not that great a faff compares to any other hub geared bike.
 
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