The Skinny

Over the last six years the vast majority of my rides have occurred on plus tires, either on one of my two Jones bikes (3.0") or my Salsa Timberjack mountain bike (2.8").

My gravel bike saw little use while I was inFATuated with big tires. Mostly it was relegated to indoor use on the stationary trainer in bad weather. I was pretty content riding slower with the big tires and being more comfortable with the upright position the Jones bikes gave me. I also lived in the foothills surrounded by rocky trails, so the Jones bikes were perfect.

When I acquired the Wolverine in January, I started to mix in a little gravel riding here and there when I wasn't riding with Jennifer (who also rides a Jones). The Wolverine fits me really well and the position is much more comfortable than my other gravel bike. I found that the 55mm tires were a pretty damn perfect compromise for mixed surface riding around my new home area. The bike opened up a fresh way to approach the rides around here that were starting to bore me. It was fun to go fast again.

Then a couple months ago, Jennifer broke her foot. During her recovery I shifted to riding the gravel bikes almost exclusively. As I jumped back and forth between the two bikes, one running 45mm tires and the other 55mm tires, I thought a lot about tires and how far we have come since I first stared riding over 40 years ago.

♦♦♦

My first mountain bike was a 1984 Ross Mt. Whitney. It was a pretty good starter bike and the gateway to my lifelong passion for riding.

At this point in our lives, my friends and I were transitioning from BMX to road bikes. After deciding to buy mountain bikes, we actually rode all three disciplines for a while. It was hard to completely leave BMX behind, but eventually we did as mountain bike fever took hold of us.

My Ross came with 2.125" Snake Belly tires. These tires were pretty common at the time for both BMX and mountain bikes. They looked like this:

This is a Panaracer reissue that stays true to the original.

You can see why they were called snake bellies.

The mountain bike guys simply borrowed the 26" version originally made for BMX cruisers. Here is Tom Ritchey rocking a pair of red snake bellies in 1981:

In BMX we basically had two tires sizes to choose from: 1.75" and 2.125" (not counting sew-ups and speed rims). In our circle the use cases were pretty clear. We used 2.125 for general riding (jumping!) and 1.75 for racing. There was no way you would run 2.125" tires in a BMX race because they were noticeably slower.

My buddy Steve catching air.

That same mentality prevailed when we decided to race mountain bikes in 1985. We believed that 2.125 inch tires were simply too wide for racing. We weren't the only ones. The 1984 Stumpjumper Team, a purpose build racing bike, came with tiny 1.5 inch Tricross tires.

If they were good enough for the Specialized pros, they were good enough for us. Here we are rocking 1.5 inch tires at our first race:

Doug and I unloading our bikes at Sly Park.

My second race was the 1985 Rockhopper. Those tires are narrow!

Yes, my handlebars are bent.

My fourth race:

Looks like I cut my bars down, which I don't remember doing.

We suffered our fair share of pinch flats that year, many of which could have been prevented with wider tires. But we survived.

By the next season I was on my new custom Ibis using 1.95" Ground Control tires, and they were a huge upgrade in every way.

RIP, Charlie.

I bring all this up because sometimes when I am riding my old gravel bike through a technical section, the 45mm tires can feel woefully inadequate and tiny. Obviously after looking down at a three-inch tire for so many years, a gravel tire is going to look small. And railing a corner with a gravel tire is going to feel a lot different and less secure than a big three-inch knobby.

However, it's all relative. When doing the math a 45mm tire measures out at 1.77 inches. It's funny to me that these gravel tires are significantly larger than my original 1.5" MTB racing tires in 1985. I look at 45mm now and think there's no way in hell I am racing on the Rubicon Trail with these tiny things. But we did. We raced the 1985 High Sierra Challenge on those tiny tires. Not coincidentally, I suffered a high-speed pinch flat on my front tire and hit a tree, resulting in my first racing concussion. (I repaired the flat and still finished the race.)

Thankfully tire technology has improved and science has proven that bigger is better, for the most part. Even road racers, who tend to cling tightly to the old ways, have finally embraced wider tires. Back in the 1980s we wanted the narrowest possible tires, as small as 19mm. We pumped them up to crazy pressures, as much as 120 PSI. They rode like crap and we flatted way too often. Over the years I moved to 23mm, 25mm and then 28mm tires on my road bikes.

My racing bike, late '90s to early 2000s.

Currently a 30-32mm tire is pretty standard in the UCI peloton with even wider choices for more technical races like the spring classics. Tadej Pogacar ran 35mm tires in the 2026 Paris-Roubaix. These measure out at 1.38 inches, not much smaller than my MTB racing tires back in 1985. Crazy.

The UCI rules for road tires are now based on total rim/tire diameter, not width. The cap is a 700mm total diameter. There are a lot of variables involved, but for the most part this limits tire width to about 39mm. The UCI is using a super sophisticated 3-D printed device to check tire width. Incidentally, 39mm is about 1.54 inches. My first MTB racing tires might just fit in the checking tool!

In my first year of cyclocross in 2002 I was running 30mm tires, which is on the low end of road racing standards now. However, the UCI is still enforcing a 33mm maximum for cyclocross, a rule that was in place back when I raced. Why would cyclocross tires be narrower than road racing tires?

I actually understand and endorse the logic here because the point of cyclocross is to test the skills of racers riding what is essentially a road bike on mixed terrain.

District Championships, 2002.

For cross country mountain bike racing, the current standard is about 2.4 inches. The Maxxis Aspen and Schwalbe Racing Ralph are pretty popular options. These dwarf anything we could even dream of in the '80s.

On the gravel side, it's not uncommon to see 2.2 inch tires on race bikes. Manufacturers are currently battling in an arms race to see who can cram the biggest tires into a frame and still provide short chainstays, chainring clearance and a narrow Q-factor. The new Crux 5:

The winner of Unbound this year was running two-inch tires.

I don't think the tire wars have been settled yet. Tires are still evolving and racers are pushing the envelope in an attempt to shave precious seconds from their times. The cycling disciplines are all cross-pollinating and stealing bits of technology from each other. The end result is fatter tires winning races.

Like it or not, these trends trickle down to the general public. You can't go into a bike shop and buy a road bike off the floor with 23mm tires and rim brakes. A typical road bike will be equipped with disk brakes and 32mm tires now.

I for one and happy that I can have my cake and eat it too. Tires now are amazing compared to what I started with so many years ago—light, fast, supple, tubeless and wide. I am thankful to leave all the skinny in the past.

Later.

Truckin'

Today I needed to return my dad's bike to him in Incline Village. I installed some taller handlebars, which also required new cables to accommodate the height difference. Like all of us, my dad wants his handlebars higher as the years go by. After a quick tune-up, it was ready to go.

Jenn and I figured it was a good opportunity to ride on the bike trails in Truckee that we drove by so, so many times while we were working on the condo in Incline.

After dropping off the bike and visiting, we drove back to Truckee. By the time we started riding at 12:30 it was 84 degrees. It was hot in the sun, but the wind helped.

Truckee has a fairly substantial trail system. We started at the parking lot on 267 (red marker) and rode towards Truckee, eventually meeting the Truckee River and riding along it up to the Union Mills neighborhood. 

Towards the end is a steep climb with great views.

At the terminus, benches are provided for you to rest.

We then backtracked down the hill and along the river.

We made our way back and rode past the truck towards Northstar. We had set a two-hour time limit for the ride because of dinner commitments, so we turned around before reaching ski area. All told we rode 19.94 miles. It was a pleasant ride and certainly a lot less crowded than our Folsom trails. We will go back at some point.

Later.

The Shore

After finishing a big real estate project, we often find ourselves drawn to the sea. Off to Monterey.

We rode at home on Monday morning and left around noon. By 4:30 we were checked in, unloaded and sipping a beer at Fieldwork. Good stuff.

After beers we ate at a place called Alejandro's on Alvarado Street. We walked right by this place for years and never tried it, and that was a mistake. The food was excellent. We started with the ahi ceviche (ceviche de atún), which was fantastic. The chips come with four sauces, all of which were great. I had the mole enchiladas while Jennifer had a vegetarian chile relleno (chile en nogada). Both were terrific. Highly recommended.

The next day we rode south along 17 Mile Drive. At 54 degrees, the weather dipped a bit below refreshingly cool into grab-a-jacket territory. The June Gloom is real.

Still, what's not to like riding along this scenery?

Later we went to the grocery store. Next to the store was this:

I haven't eaten at a Carl's Jr. in years, and I don't thing anyone will be eating at this one for a while. Burned to a crisp.

The next day we decided to head inland seeking sunshine. As we rode north along the coast, conditions were cool and overcast.

As we climbed into Fort Ord, the blue sky was teasingly close.

Eventually we climbed above the marine layer and it was glorious.

I had a new route mapped out, but we ran into some road closures due to the Army and BLM preparing for prescribed burns. Although it wasn't in the original plan, we climbed up to Laguna Seca once again. Jennifer handled it no problem.

The views from up top are great.

Then we descended back down into the gloom. All told we rode just short of 30 miles with over 2000 feet of climbing.

The next day we rode north to the end of the trail and back, a nice 25-mile ride. We did not see the sun even once. Nothing about the ride really inspired me to take a photo.

That night marked the return of Peter B's, a mainstay of our Monterey dining and beer experience for many years. The restaurant had been closed for four months during a $2 million renovation.

The restaurant itself looked great. The booths and walls were removed from the main dining area leaving it brighter and open.

Unfortunately that's where the improvements ended. The beer menu lacked anything I was really interested in, so I had a Legend of Laguna IPA, the only beer that's always on the menu. It typically falls somewhere between great and awful. (I was far more excited about my new Cal Poly shirt than the beer.)

I rarely complain about my food. I have a discerning palette, and appreciate great food, but I also realize I am not "great food rich." If you frequent breweries, you should be pleasantly surprised by great cuisine, but expect mediocrity. Still, a restaurant promoting an all-new menu should perform.

They did not.

Again, I am not a complaint person. However, they left a comment card with the bill, so I let them have it. I believe "bland, boring and uninspired" was part of my review.

Today we opted not to ride in favor of getting a jump on Friday traffic. Still, we hit a major slowdown on Highway 101 because of construction that cost us an extra 45 minutes of drive time.

Another nice getaway in the books, and some lessons learned: Try new things and be adventurous.

Later.

Short Coast

We took a short trip to Monterey. Three nights is probably our shortest stay in many years, but it was just fine.

We only went on two rides which was also unusual. The first day we rode south on 17 Mile Drive. The roads were very quiet and it was a peaceful, contemplative ride.

The next day we rode north on the coastal trail with a loop through Fort Ord.

We saw a few people on gravel bikes as we first entered Fort Ord. After that we were all alone except for the occasional wild animal, like the coyote below.

I really can't get enough of this place. It's so cool to link together rides on car-free roads, and you also have gravel and singletrack options.

The climb up to Laguna Seca is tough, but Jenn did great and even pretended to like it.

Once we reached the racetrack (1000 feet), it was mostly downhill back to the hotel (barely above sea level).

All told we clocked 28 miles with 2000 feet of climbing.

After a shower and a snack, we had a great Russian Imperial Stout at Dustbowl.

One of the unusual things about this visit was the smell. It was . . . not great. This was caused by an unusually large presence of anchovies in the bay. This leads to more predation in the bay, attracting larger fish, sea lions and birds. These predators produce a lot of organic waste matter, and the process of breaking down all that waste creates a hypoxic environment, meaning there isn't enough oxygen to support all the fish. The anchovies are dying off because of it. Most of the dead are consumed by predators anyway, but basically the whole chain reaction results in a bad smell that we could never totally get away from. I could smell it in our hotel room even with the windows closed.

We have seen large numbers of sea lions before, but in different places. This is Sister City Park and I don't think any of the benches or tables will be salvageable.

Nobody likes a crowd:

Pictures will never do justice to just how many birds there were. We have visited Monterey more times than I can count and there were easily 20 times as many birds as I have ever seen.

Anyway, other than gagging on a few occasions as we passed sea lion central, it was a good trip.

Later.