[Closed] Plus size, just for newbs?

Well, you know what they say - "[i]if you've ridden one Plus bike, you've ridden them all[/i]".

Oh no, they don't...

Nobody has inflicted one on me so far.

I bought one blind (fully rigid) having only ever ridden a plus sized ebike for 5 minutes. Personally I love it. It feels really alive and is very fun to ride. It's more physical to ride fast over rough ground which has meant adapting my riding. Those adaptions have translated to my full suspension bike and improved flow on that bike as well. The steering on my particular bike is precise and while the wheels are heavy it is surprisingly spritley, much more than I thought it would be.

Designed for newbies, no I'd say not. They are just different.

Whats this [i]sport[/i] that [i]we're[/i] all in to then ? 😉

It's just bikes.
It's got two wheels, matters not if they're thick, thin, big or small.
Ride on.

I have an Orbea Loki plus bike, I've been riding for over twenty years. Maybe I'm just shit at riding!

There's nothing wrong with a bike that has a bit of extra grip, fantastic predictable
braking and muting minor trail buzz. Braking in deep mud is slightly different but you
just learn to trust the grip and roll through. It has Chronicles fitted and I specifically sought out
the worst muddiest, steepest, most off camber trails I could find just for giggles. It's been
totally fine and awesome on most places I've ridden.

I've only had my for just over a month but it gets used all round Scotland. Seemed fine
round Dunkeld, Innerleithen (both sides), Aviemore, Aberfoyle, Ae, Crieff etc..

For the record I've had no issues with punctures either. 🙂

I'm just waiting for one of my tyres to arrive, looking forward to it. I don't expect it to be [i]better[/i] than my 29er wheels/tyres, or faster, but it'll definitely be different, so if I can get a bit of different fun out of my bike why not?

I don't "have the confidence to push the tyre" particularly, but I can't say a plus bike has helped with that when I've tried them.

🙂

Its awful that those nasty scheming bike industry bullies have forced you to experience an alternative, the absolute cheek of them giving you choice. How dare they!

Its awful that those nasty scheming bike industry bullies have forced you to experience an alternative, the absolute cheek of them giving you choice. How dare they!

D+ troll.........

Plus size etc. Is it the bike industry taking advantage of people who are never happy?

They are awful...that's why I only own two 29+ bikes 😉

Plus size etc. Is it the bike industry taking advantage of people who are never happy?

Western society is pretty much based on the fact that people are never happy and consumerism is a big part of that.

I wont be responding any further as I will be in my Buddhist retreat from now on having found the path to true enlightenment.

I wont be responding any further as I will be in my Buddhist retreat from now on [b]having found the path to true enlightenment[/b].

I just want to stop parts of my breaking grrr. I don't care for the next best thing. I'm still on keeping the thing rolling!

Whats this sport that we're all in to then ?

It's just bikes.
It's got two wheels, matters not if they're thick, thin, big or small.
Ride on.

😀

Whats this sport that we're all in to then?
It's just money.
It's got two wheels, matters not what pointless toss we come up with next.
These idiots will buy anything.

🙂

why do the rest of us have to be inflicted with them on such a wholesale level?

GW? Is that you?

Perhaps it's not about the bike 😉

Try washing the sand out your vag. You might be a little less irritable.

Apologies just logged on, different time zone. Thank you for the best insult I've heard all week and spookily I'm now somewhere very sandy.

Gunz - Member
I recently had a go on a plus size and found the steering imprecise, the wheels heavy, grip lacking in wetter areas and overall found the ride ' muted' in some way.

Keep at it, I think you will improve. Maybe get some coaching too

I dare say hora 3" tyres might help your stuff stop breaking, it has certainly reduced my puncture levels.

I think we need a strava off. OP please post some impressive times for us to coo over.

I would go for racing but work saturdays so that's unfair :p

Although in your defence, I rode WTB bridger and trailboss combo and came away very unimpressed. Chronicles much better, everywhere. Weird because they look like a semi slick..

I'm about to pop out for the third ride on my plus bike - the first two were very enjoyable

I think the problem with early ones was pretty poor tyres being run an too high pressure, now some decent tyres are out its all good. Spesh 3" tyres are nice and I'm awaiting the glut of semi plus tyres for some experimentation.

@pigyn Done the Strava thing. I've a set of Plus wheels for my Solaris so rode the same loop up here in the Dales on 29er and 650b+ wheels. The loop was about 24Km long and a variety of surfaces from trail centre like path to grass fields. Everything else was as equal as I could make it: clothes; the amount of water in my Camelbak; equal effort and rest in the days beforehand. I also waited a month or so after getting the wheels so I didn't get the new gear, halo effect. I knew the ride pretty well as we do those trails several times a year.

The result (from a single run on each): the Plus tyres were about 7% faster. I knew some segments would be as they were stony, slightly loose, steady climbs but was surprised that others were. Most segments I got PBs on with the rest being second fastest. Some of the time differences (both better and worse) were minimal and well within error margins but others like those I knew would be faster were quite significant, 2mins down to 1min40, that sort of improvement.

All of which was quite a surprise as the wheels and tyres (Alpkit Rumpus and WTB Bridger and Trailblazer) are 1.5Kg heavier than the 29er kit (Hope wheels with Bontrager XR4/3 tyres)

There's one area where they really don't shine: tarmac. Normally I have to coast or even brake to let my wife keep up, with the Plus tyres it was the other way round. This has a knock-on effect in that long distance rides like the various ITTs become quite hard work.

The Solaris now has rigid forks and having a Plus tyre on the front makes a big difference to the comfort though I'm getting more used to riding rigid so it's not so much a benefit now.

My initial thoughts were that the Plus tyres turn a hooligan of a bike into Begbie!

Had my Plus Hardtail for 3 or 4 months.

Just brought a Santacruz Hightower Plus..

Liking the fatter tyres

I've been riding for over twenty years. Maybe I'm just shit at riding!

Hope that helps and gives you comfort that you can keep riding for as long as your wallet allows!

Running 4" tyres on my bike so slightly bigger than plus.

Acceleration from slow corners can be an issue sometimes but otherwise it's a bike.

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Whitestone - if you can run the 3" WTBS try switching to Chronicles, they really are better all round! Even on wet stuff :p Much faster on the road as well.

To the people saying they are rubbish in deep mud, why not try changing your riding to suit the conditions.. you know, like we used to do before new trails got ruined at the first sign of rain 😀

@pigyn - it's the Mk1 Solaris so the Trailblazer is about as big as I can get in the back (it's quoted as being 2.8" but is closer to 2.5"). The Bridger is genuine 3", it just fitted in my X-Fusion Slide forks when they were on the bike, currently got Travers Prongs and I could probably fit a 3.5" tyre!

I've not tried +size tyres yet, but do fancy it, having got everything from 2.1" 29ers to big 2.3" 26" tyred bikes currently.

Perhaps not so keen on 29+ but B+ for sure, on [s]something like[/s] a Stooge they look ideal, for me I'd like to try them for wheels on the ground type riding, bike packing maybe, just bombing around the woods. I like quite light bikes, having those huge tyres, then suspension, then a dropper etc etc all seems to make for something a bit dead feeling to me.

I like the 26+ wheels I built and I call them my 'cheater' wheels because it makes difficult stuff loads easier 😀 They're not properly [i]plus[/i] plus but they're great as the tiger used to say. I don't use them all the time because I'm tight and I don't want to wear the tyres out on the tarmac linky bits around here 😆 They get dusted off for local DH races though.

@core - they make more sense on a rigid bike IMO, think of them as simple undamped suspension. I don't think they are suitable for hammering down technical rocky trails, to keep the weight reasonable they don't have heavy duty sidewalls though that may change. They are ideal for ground like rough fire-roads as they take away that high frequency buzz. If your 29er frame can take + wheels then get a set of the Alpkit Rumpus and you can swap them in and out as you wish.

[b]hora[/b] - Member
Plus size etc. [b]Is it the bike industry taking advantage of people who are never happy?[/b]

You owe me a new keyboard, this one seems to be full of tea.

You owe me tea as well.

I'm just building up a fortitude frameset (which I nearly sold) that will share wheels with my Scandal for now. So I'll be trying rigid and 1x for a simpler winter and training rides, if I like it I might be tempted to get something nicer along similar lines (did I say Stooge.....).

I think the fortitude fork will take B+, but not the back end, and sure my Scandal won't, especially with a reba up front. Still, if I can find some wheels locally to try it wouldn't hurt.

I've had 29+ Chronicle on the front of my rigid for a year or so now and its great most of the time. I very briefly tried a B+ Hightower on Reckons and felt it was slightly unwilling to change direction, and the lack of edge bite a little un-nerving. It also felt a bit disconnected to the trail (you couldn't feel exactly what the grip was doing). I'm sure they are all things you can learn to adapt to, however following someone else riding it (who loved it) the plus bike was surprisingly sliding and moving around a lot more than I was on regular tyres.

Maybe they just [i]feel[/i] faster?

Riding my hardtail with both 29er and 650b+ depending on how wet it is.

It's fun, and to me that's what it's all about.

I've been MTBing for over 20 years too, so don't consider myself a newb.

So it's like most things.

Di2
Full suspension
Trail centres
650B+

Great for newbies (forgiving, predictable, intuitive), but a whole lot of fun for everyone else too.

I love my fat bike. Would I have it as my only bike, no. But it's a whole lot of fun. It's like that rose tinted view of riding bikes off road 20 years ago is in my head, where trails were quieter, dustier and every corner kicked up a cloud of roost, but transposed into and actual bike!

Any excuse Wwaswas!! But is 4" not fat anymore?

I love my semi. Marin Pine Mountain. It is pretty cheap, pretty heavy and scares me, particularly in the woods at night

I wasn't going to mention your semi.

To be honest no one really notices it

Running 4" tyres on my bike so slightly bigger than plus.

Acceleration from slow corners can be an issue sometimes but otherwise it's a bike.

Having established that this bike+owner rolls down tarmac hills at least as fast as me on my skinny tyred bikes, despite my weight advantage, I have deemed this to be cheating! 😉

while all you plus-happy lot are here in one place...

any suggestions for a nearly-plus 2.6ish* 29er tyre that'll suit my hardtail through a grotty winter of mud and rocks?

(*about the limit of my frame)

if it helps, i'm thinking 'sturdy and grippy' rather than 'light and fast'

Wwaswas, that looks good fun, what is it?

WEll, I picked up a set of secondhand wheels (off roverpig of these here parts) and slapped 'em in my Solaris.

I liked them so much I sold them after a couple of months.

And ordered a B+ Sherpa.

It might even arrive any day now too!

They suit where and what I ride. But then again, I've only been mountain biking for 25-odd years. So still a newb really...

I arrived at the chubby niche via the gateway drug of a proper fat bike. First a Trek Stache (which went from 29+ to 650b+) and now a Cotic Flare Max. Both fun, Flare Max also super comfortable. I'm a bit faster in singletrack on it than my other bikes, but that's from a baseline of average 😉

Here's the flare max before I put some proper tyres on it. That rear lasted exactly one run at CwmCarn.

[url= https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7779/28877816334_2c3813ab58_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7779/28877816334_2c3813ab58_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/KZQmH5 ]Cotic Flare Max.[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

And here's the stache now with a 140mm for on it. Kept the 29+ stuff and I'll stick 'em back on at some point to compare.

[url= https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8891/28339266921_3dd3d09b61_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8891/28339266921_3dd3d09b61_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/Kbf9Jn ]Enlongened Chubby![/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Considering taking the Cotic to Antur next weekend. Just for a laugh. Assuming it'll fit on the uplift trailer.

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🙂

Rich - Salsa Bucksaw with a 100mm Bluto.

I've been dead impressed - all the advantages of fat tyres with added suspension at the back to keep it under control.

The frame with shock weighs less than the Puffin it replaced.

Considering taking the Cotic to Antur next weekend. Just for a laugh. Assuming it'll fit on the uplift trailer.

Thanks Stu... sounds like it'll be fine then... I'm sure it'll be slower than my Aeris but I don't think it'll be any less fun 🙂

any suggestions for a nearly-plus 2.6ish* 29er tyre that'll suit my hardtail through a grotty winter of mud and rocks?

A 2.75in Dirt Wizard comes up at 2.37ish on a Crest, so depending on your rim width, it could be ideal, too skinny or too wide.

ahwiles - Member

any suggestions for a nearly-plus 2.6ish* 29er tyre that'll suit my hardtail through a grotty winter of mud and rocks?

Minion 2.5, or Shorty 2.5 TW? Not much difference between "plus" and "normal" at this point.

2.4 ardent comes up pretty big especially on rims 35mm+ might not be aggressive enough for you though

Wwaswas - Very nice.

the are great for hanging around the trails on
[img] [/img]

I like mine, even sold the fat bike
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I'm a recent convert, won me over so far....

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7469/29528285344_9e9e47e2b7_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7469/29528285344_9e9e47e2b7_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/LZjbu1 ]14570228_10153961266818225_2894961327039827279_n[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/2strokesteve/ ]Stephen Williams[/url], on Flickr

Cheers, Steve