With the LeMond homeward bound and the Roadini assuming all-around road bike duty it was time for the Milwaukee to step back into a more sporting role, so I re-fitted it with skinnier tires and road pedals:
I then took the wheels and tires that had been on there…
…and put them on the Roadini to see how it felt:
The wheels themselves are identical to the ones I’ve already been using on the Roadini, but apart from the tires the other difference between them is that’s an 8-speed cassette as opposed to the 10-speed that’s on the other set. This meant I had to do a lot of tinkering to get everything to work.
No, of course I didn’t. We’re talking friction shifting here! If you’re switching across 8, 9, and 10-speed you don’t even have to touch the derailleur limit screws. (Unless you’re going from Shimano to Campagnolo or vice versa, in which case you might have to fiddle with them a tiny bit, big deal.)
Anyway, I’ve been using relatively plump 43mm Panaracer Gravel Kings on the Roadini, and overall I’ve been quite pleased:
But I figured I’d try something a little smoother and skinner for the sake of comparison, since it is a Road-ini after all.
Those 32mm Paselas fill out the Milwaukee pretty good:
But on the Roadini it’s like feeding a hippo a Tic Tac:
I mean look at all that extra clearance!
[Bike to tire: “Is it in yet?”]
As for the ride itself, while the tires were certainly a little smoother and quieter on pavement and a little firmer when climbing, overall they didn’t feel appreciably faster. (The knobby Gravel King is surprisingly sprightly on the road.) The bike also sits a little lower with the skinnier tires–not a bad thing, but something I noticed. Also, while this shouldn’t matter, with the reduced tire volume the bike kind of looks like it’s taking Ozempic:
I don’t know if that would have occurred to me if I’d been using those tires from the beginning, but I’m used to seeing it like this:
And so now I can’t unsee it.
Here’s what Rivendell has to say on the subject of tires and the Roadini:
Based on my ride with the 32s I’d have to agree. Yes, the bike still felt great, but it seems to me that going wider on this bike is pretty much all upside. The Gravel Kings suit the bike well, especially in winter when it’s good to be able to seek refuge from the wind on wooded trails, and so for now I’ll going to go back to those. But ultimately I suspect something in the high-30s with a smooth tread would be ideal.
Speaking of tire clearance, check out what’s going on in America’s Wang:
Manatee stuck in bicycle tire was last seen in Pompano Beach https://t.co/6oaS6abrFj
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) January 15, 2025
Marine biologists believe it was trying to mount a Rene Herse tire, which is notoriously difficult.
This would not be hard for me to believe, because you know if manatees rode bikes they’d be all over the whole Party Pace/Supple Life/Path Less Pedaled thing:
The designer tires, the boutique frames, the expensive machined high-performance components…all so they can ride to the park with friends at 6mph, have a picnic, and complain about how the bike industry hates them. In addition to the sea cow stuck in what I can only assume must be a Snoqualmie Pass with the Extralight casing, I bet there are at least three other manatees out there who have swallowed Ingrid drivetrains:
And this isn’t even the first time a manatee has gotten stuck in a bicycle tire, either:
He’s since been freed and has listed his Crust on the local Craigslist for almost what he originally paid for it.
But yes, while the idea of a manatee stuck in a bicycle tire may elicit feelings of guilt from environmentally aware cyclists, there’s one group whose conscience remains clear and whose smugness remains intact, and it’s the Bromptonauts:
“Don’t look at us,” they’re saying. “Our tiny tires can’t fit around a manatee!”