Quote:
Originally Posted by Tambohamilton
So tyres rely on hysteresis in the rubber of the tyre in order to provide some sort of damping. Lighter tyres (less rubber and generally former compounds for efficiency) have less damping and feel more sketchy than heavy tyres. Think of the muted ride quality of DH tyres, Vs xc tyres pinging and skipping along the trail. For normal size tyres (2.3-2.4" ish) we can generally strike a decent balance between weight and drag and grip and damping. But the larger the tyre, the more that has to be skewed towards light weight in order to just keep the system weight reasonable.
So plus size tyres do get a lot of grip at low speeds, but get more and more unruly as you go faster. Which is the opposite of good!
There are also quirks and problems with handling which are in a similar vein, for plus tyres.
All that said, fat bikes are hilarious fun! But they're essentially fun for all the wrong reasons. And if you already have a plus bike, crack on! No harm in it. I just wouldn't recommend them to anyone  |
Thank you for the thorough explanation. My personal experience with plus tires has been overall positive on hardtails - a little sluggish but that’s all. My only concern is that plus tires are particularly popular with 27.5 wheels which seem to be declining quickly in popularity against 29er’s. I’ve read a lot of the issues with plus tires were mainly with full suspension bikes which forced bike manufacturers to dial things back to 2.6” tires a few years ago.