Compass Standard vs Extralight casing comparison?

[donevwil]

I'm at work, day is done, it's 109° outside, fires all around so the air is thick and I don't want to go home (no A/C) until the sun sets.

Can anyone directly compare the ride difference, or improvement, of the Compass extralight casing vs standard casing in a given size? I've got thousands of miles on Stampedes and Snoqualmies as well as hundreds on Barlow, all standard casing. I'm going to buy some Babyshoe 650b x 42s for a new bike and am curious if the premium for the ELs would actually yield an improvement I would realize. I'm not concerned about the weight saved, merely the ride quality.

Thanks

[Hilltopperny]

Fwiw I have never had a flat on my standard casing compass tires, but within 3 rides on the El casings I had a blowout. I like the ride and piece of mind of the standard casings.

[ColonelJLloyd]

For pavement use they are absolutely worth the premium. They are a cut above. Trying to quantify it is an exercise in futility and I don't really care to type of bunch of adjectives about them.

What I can tell you is that I have ridden the older Grand Bois 700x32 in both standard and extralight and the Compass 700x32 in both. Both those tire experiences demonstrated to me that the extralight casings are that much better. They make a difference to me. Subseqently I have bought several more pairs of Compass tires in different sizes (from 54-559 to 26-622) and always choose the extralight casing.

When you get into fat, supple tires air pressure needs more attention than the old two finger squeeze. It can be the difference between feeling a tire is ho-hum or the best tire you've ever ridden. I recommend a good gauge with a bleed valve like this (https://www.amazon.com/Accu-Gage-Presta-Valve-Pressure-Gauge/dp/B07219QP3P/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1504313167&sr=1-1&keywords=accugage+presta+60).

Going further down the worm hole, I believe wider rims make a big difference. Of course, with tires wider than 32mm this means you more or less are talking about a disc brake bike to accommodate the rims that make those tires shine.

38-48mm extralights setup tubeless are the best tires I've ridden.

[Rada]

Both my bikes must be defective as I run bigger than 32mm on them with rim brakes. :eek:

[marciero]

The vast majority of my riding in the last few years has been 42 EL. Years ago I did have 32 in standard before they had EL casings, and subsequently had EL in that size but never did do a direct A/B comparison. New tires always feel nice, for one thing. That said, my subjective feeling is that the ride of EL is noticeably better. One interesting thing that comes to mind is that Jan Heine once recommended 10psi more in pressure for the EL. That was years ago and I dont think they still recommend or advocate that. That would certainly serve to mitigate things, or make the comparison less clear.

I will say that after many thousands of miles on 42 EL on our tandem I put a standard in the rear and EL in front but I honestly cant say I noticed a difference.

I agree that pressure is key with the wider tires. It is really great to be able to fine tune the ride and handling.

I recently went even wider with 48mm Compass Switchback Hill. I went with Standard because I was not sure they would fit- they are reportedly slightly narrower than the EL; esp when run tubeless. Also I thought they would be easier to set up tubeless. These things are awesome, but again I dont have the direct A/B. It may be that the differences EL vs standard are less pronounced with wider tires.

Finally, I will say that tubeless seems to give another jump in ride quality. Here I do have direct A/B as I first tried the SBH tubed.

[donevwil]

Thanks for the detailed reasoning, I'll try the ELs.

Colonel, the good gauge recommendation makes a lot of sense, I'll definitely pick one up. I'm well aware of the pressure sensitivity of standard casing 32s and will definitely need better pressure awareness with ELs. It's always irked me that my Silca and Joe Blow are a good 8 psi apart and who knows where relative to true pressure. I've had the same experience with rim width, very noticeable going from 23mm HEDs to 25 Pluses so I'm having a 650b wheelset built with i29s.

Marciero, 42 ELs on a tandem gives me confidence that they can handle my girth. I'm still trying to wear out a set of Grand Bois Cypres now at 3k and love the standard casing.

This might get expensive.

BTW, it was 111 here yesterday, not the 109 I'd claimed.