Took the Miyata out for a Seattle loop: Golden Gardens, Ballard, across the locks, and into Free Range Bicycles. Picked up a pair of Rene Herse Snoqualmie Pass Endurance — the 700×44s I’d been hunting from my favorite LBS (Hi Shawna!).
Endurance casing instead of Extralight. Still a light folding tire, a bit more protection for tubes on these older clincher rims. Feels right for this bike. This will be the first bike in a while that I run with tubes. They only measured out to 39.5mm initially. This is only 3mm more than the Barlow Pass “38’s” I have on my Homer. It will be interesting to see if these stretch.
At this point I don’t mind them being a bit shorter as the top tube is touching the taint when I swing a leg over…
The Miyata Triplecross is almost ready — still needs tires. Clearance tops out around 700×44. The rims are not tubeless-compatible, so I’m fine running tubes. I’m still looking at light folding casings (including tubeless-ready models that work fine with tubes).
I have a soft spot for the Rene Herse and Schwalbe lightweight stuff. Wanted to put a short list up and hear what you’d run.
In the running
Rene Herse Snoqualmie Pass 700×44 — Exact size. Folding, tubeless-compatible, great with tubes. Standard casing is about 380 g; Extralight around 335 g if I want the softest ride. Local Cascade pass name doesn’t hurt. This is the front-runner in my head.
Schwalbe — No true 44 that I can find right now. Closest: G-One Allround in 700×40 or 700×45 (45 may be tight on this frame), or a Marathon Almotion around 700×40 for a more touring/conventional setup. Happy to hear other Schwalbe picks in this width band.
WTB Byway 700×44 — Fast center, light gravel shoulders. Folding, tubeless-ready, works with tubes. More “pavement plus a little dirt” than a knobby.
Panaracer GravelKing SK — 700×43 sits under the limit. Familiar Japanese folding casing, TLR, solid all-road option. Also scratches the old Pasela which seem to be discontinued.
Tufo Gravel (Speedero / Thundero / Swampero) 700×44 — Light folding TLR casings that also run well with tubes. Speedero if it’s mostly road; Swampero if I want more bite.
What I’m asking
If you’ve run any of these at ~42–44 mm on older clincher rims (tubes), what stuck? Anything I’m missing that’s light, folding, and happy under 44? I’ve been out of the tire game for a bit and it seems that a lot has changed in the past 5 yrs.
Comment here or poke me elsewhere — I’ll pick something and get this bike out for real miles.
It’s been a long quiet stretch here. Last steady writing was years ago, and a lot of life filled the gap, graduations, jobs, weddings. I’ve got more time now, and I want to write here again as a creative outlet — short notes on bikes, trails, and the miles around Seattle and Whidbey Island in the Pacific NW. Some words next to the photos, when there’s something worth getting off my chest.
A New Build
I rebuilt my father’s old Miyata Triplecross. It was his RV travel bike that he kept on the rack when he travelled back and forth in retirement. Lots of dust from the trips from AZ, and some good beausage. The base is a Taiwanese-built triple-butted steel lugged frame that’s a real gem. Rides like a champ.
I went through a few upgrades/changes: new Compass drop bars, brake/shifter cables, flat pedals, and some new old stock Longboard SKS fenders for the coming deluge. Shifters are some Silvers from the Rivendell stash, on Shimano bar-end pods. I had the pods, but no related shifters, so had to order a few parts and figure out how to set up a friction setup that worked. I also had to find a brake cable stop for the front. I had an older part I had modified that attaches to the fork crown and works great.
Bar tape is my signature harlequin green/orange with 2 coats of amber shellac. I had to remind myself how to do this via my old video: harlequin wrap video if you want to geek out on the pattern. I kept the 7-speed Biopace drivetrain and Exage deraileurs. It is barely used, so still shifts quietly/quickly in friction mode – almost perfect for this. As for the Biopace, I feel it on the downstoke mostly when climbing hills, so it is a win.
I replaced the saddle with a really old Selle Anatomica from a trade. I added this, after the shakedown bare-bar 20-miler around Seattle (Golden Gardens, the canal) reminded me I needed something kinder to the taint. Major bruising from the terrible Brooks Cambium C15 I had laying around. Felt like a brick after 10 miles. Nope…
On the geometry, the bottom bracket sits higher than I’m used to, it being a hybrid/cyclocross style, but I set it close to my Homer Hilsen, and it feels pretty good. I basically set the rear of saddle to bar center, and then the center of crank to seat height, and bar height to seat height relation (about 1-2cm higher bar).
It’s pretty well set up – I do need to add new tires and will probably order up some soon. Now I need to ride this thing…
In an attempt to get out for a quick ride today, I chose the MTB. I found reasonable trails even in the winter in the Trillium Park on Whidbey Island. I headed up the eastern edge on mostly damp leafy single track until I reached the access road on the north end. After the climb, the real fun starts. There were a few trees down that I had to stop and hop for, but it was a good flow, nevertheless.
On the downhill nearing my favorite twisty section, I ran into a hiker who warned me that it was “wet up ahead”. I soon ran into a pond where the trail should have been. Being at least a foot deep with no way around, I abandoned and headed home.
The Kona was impressive as always. After a nice wash and oil, it’s ready for the next adventure.
Late January rides are hit or miss in the Northwest, but when a nice day comes along, they may be the best time to be on the roads. Little traffic greeted me a few weeks ago on a winter ride on Whidbey Island.
This one was to have some hills, and my bike was a fendered island bike – an old Miyata RidgeRunner Team. Not the lightest bike, but it seems to go as fast as I can go on anything this time of year. I have ridden a few of these hills recently, but wanted to try out Swede Hill on the south end of Whidbey.
As the elevation graph shows, most of the big climbs were done in the first half of the ride. A couple were quite steep. Swede Hill hit at about the 12 mile mark. It went straight up from a picturesque beach area into a forested ridge. No real views west, but this picturesque farm awaited me at the top.
The next scenic stop was just past Clinton at the 20 mile mark. This area of the island is mostly high bluff. You can see Camano Island peaking out on the left.
The mountains were out, and I had great views of the Olympics and the Cascades, but I find most roads on the southeast side of the island are buried in dense forest with sporadic scenic stops.
This stop overlooked Baby Island – a small refuge where Holmes Harbor meets Saratoga Passage. It is on a small dirt road with a mean, steep hill up to the main road near the end. Very secluded, it offers a great rest stop and views north and east into the Passage.
The next time out, I’m going to reverse the course and see how it works out. It felt like a lot of work too soon going counter-clockwise.
I shaved about 10 miles off what I had planned when the route got a little too close to the cabin. I was done. The hills had taken their toll…
Cycle Seattle 