At the moment I have chosen to put Fat Frank tyres onto my mountain bike. The reason for this was that I wanted a change from the extremely gripping, knobbly tyres that came with the bike, and were really designed for off-road cycling. Now, when I was choosing a new type of tyre for my bike; there were a lot of things that I needed to take into consideration. One of them was rolling resistance; and this is achieved by decreasing the amount of friction between the tyre and the road, i.e. using a tyre which does not have gripping knobbly bits on it, as well as a tyre that is really thin.
Personally I do not feel very safe on thin tyres (used a bike with them for about a week); despite the fact that I am aware that in order for a cyclist to aquaplane (a problem common in cars) you have to be cycling at 200 miles per hour or similar.
So in the end I decided to go for a tyre which was really thick but was relatively smooth. The fat franks, due to their large volume, do not need to be pumped up to quite as high a pressure, and therefore provide a certain level of shock absoprtion, as they are massive tyres which hold a lot of air.
The sad thing is; I don’t get to use my bike very often. Used to cycle to work all the time during summer and autumn; lovely girlfriend in tow (on her own bike) and that was a lot of fun. However, as it got dark after 5 towards the end of the autumn and it became more dangerous to ride the cycle (to the low visibility of course) we decided to give up the cycling for the time being.
We keep talking about how we will go for a pleasurable cycle at the weekends in the nearby Finsbury Park; but it hasn’t happened for a while. I suppose the cold does not encourage one to go for a pleasurable ride! I did use the bike recently to go the sorting office so that I could pick up some parcels that we’d missed but that was about it.
As an addendum, added on the 13th Dec 2011:
The fat frank has been a wonderful tyre for a very long time. My cycling to work has been coming on in leaps and bounds during September, October and November this year. I have opted for a new bicycle via the cycle to work scheme. the tyres on my new bike I have also changed over; I have opted for two Specialized Fat Boys on it. Not sure why they are called Fat Boys, the tyres themselves are very thin. They are also completely smooth, no tread on them whatsoever. The width is 1.25″, or 30 mm (as measured with my calipers). I didn’t quite have enough traction with a fat boy on the back wheel, so I have changed the back wheel to a Schwalbe Kojak (the 2 inch version). I first rode this configuration to work this morning, in the wet. The addition of a 2 inch kojak on the back has helped the feel of the bike enormously, and now I have a spare front tyre (as I have only ridden the other specialized fat boy for less than 100 miles).
That’s it for now, folks!!!