Rivendell Ruffy Tuffys.

[pale scotsman]

Anyone riding them and have any input?

Thanks!

[dbrk]

Many miles. Round, rounder than nearly any other clincher. Round profile tires keep you up in the corners and happy on the flats. Great wear, comfortable to a fault (since it leads you to the impression that a wider, gentler tire is "slower" which is patently false...), and easy to mount, unlikely to flat. I use them whenever they will fit since as a _true_ 27c they are larger than a 28c Panaracer Pasela or most others but the 28 Contis. The checkerboard pattern is a nice touch but the bug on the sidewall actually makes the tire roll better...The only tires I like better are Dugast tubulars. RPs are not for bikes without fork clearance or one on which you seek that modern, stealthy look that only skinny, uncomfortable tires can provide.

dbrk
rider of both uncomfortable skinny tires and RPs

[MadRocketSci]

Dbrk,

Will they fit in a steel fork like the one on my atlanta?

thanks,
madrocketsci

[dbrk]

Hmmm...I can't promise but I would say "yes." If you buy them and they don't fit then send them to me and we'll square up. I could always use another pair. Should fit, but not under tight carbon forks.

dbrk

[bfd]

This was a subject on rec.bicycle.tech a few months back. The problem with Rivendell's claim of being the "rounder than any other tire" is aren't all tires round? As one poster stated: "The roundness comes from basic physics of an inflated inelastic thin walled tube. That is what a bicycle tire casing is and all of them have a round cross section. Tread rubber can be formed to other shapes as we see in knobby tires but the tire IS round in cross section. There is no way they are more or less round. How much rounder can any tire get than a circular arc that, for instance, Avocet and Michelin use?"

I think the *advantage* of the Rivendell tires is not that they are truly "rounder" than any other tire, but that these tires are true 27mm wide. The wider width gives more air volume and thus more comfort (with 100-110psi) than the standard 700x23 used by everybody.

If you run a carbon fork or your clearance is tight, use a 700x25 like a Avocet Carbon 12 or Michelin. Pump up to 100-110psi and you will find them to be both comfortable, fast and *round*.....

[gt6267a]

dbrk

just wondering, which are you riding the, ruffy tuffy or the rolly polly? do you notice a difference? i'm currently riding rubino pros but might give these a try. always looking to soften-up the ride of my CRL(note: it's already comfy but why go all the way?) out of curiousity, have you tried the rubino pros?

thanks,
k

[dbrk]

When I noted the roundness of the RP/RT I had in mind other tires with a taller center profile, particularly the Panaracer Pasela. I can't comment on the other discussion but I think there is a real and genuine difference in the way the tires ride because the Rivendell tires have, well, a round profile all the way to the curve whereas tires like the Pasela have a tall tread in the center and much sharper edge. With wider tires this tall center profile seems to make for good center traction but not for much turning confidence. That is more than Rivendell's marketing, that is my own experience, fwthat'sw.

As for the difference between RP and RT, I think there is none. The RT weighs a bit more and wears a bit better but there is no discernable difference in the quality of the ride.

dbrk

[tch]

I will tell you that not all larger tires are equal. Last year, I really wanted to try a bigger tire, but Rivendell was out of Roly-Poly's. While I waited out a backorder, I went to my LBS and got a pair of 25c Specialized S-Works Mondo's, supposedly a decent tire. I REALLY didn't like them: yes they were a bit more cushiony, but they had no suppleness and it was like riding on tractor tires. When the Roly-Poly's arrived, I mounted them up with trepidation, afraid that the "big" tire idea was a hoax. Wow! What a difference! They are supple, smooth, and roll quickly and quietly. I really like them and they make my Concours ride like a big BMW.

But.... I will confess. I am thinking about going back to 23c: the tires are really tight on clearance, especially in the fork, and taking the front wheel off necessitate uninflating the tire. Any wheel that is slightly out of true means the tires rub. I cannot overstate the pleasures of the ride, but if you are fitting them to a modern "race" bike, you need to be aware of the practical issues involved. But if you have the room, they are far more comfortable than any 23 I've ever ridden.

[Orin]

First as to roundness, the casing might be round due to physics, but the profile including the tread might not be. If we mean circular in section, it won't be unless the tread is uniform thickness.

As for Ruffy-Tuffys, I don't like them. If you can ride a true 24.5mm tire, I much prefer Performance Forte 700x26 (also made by Panaracer BTW).

If I put just enough air in the RTs for comfort, I always felt like I as having a bad day*. Put more air in and they felt harsh. They made my Rivendell Rambouillet feel sluggish, especially out of the saddle, however much air I put in. I put Michelin Axial SuperComps on the bike a few weeks back and the bike is transformed. Little loss of comfort and no longer sluggish. More what I'd expected from the frame - it feels more like my old race bike (Koga-Miyata Full Pro) in handling.

I ride through the winter here (Seattle area) and therefore frequently in the wet. The RTs did not like wet metal and I had a couple of incidents where the RTs slid unexpectedly. Metal strips that I'd ignored on the Fortes, crossing at an angle while leaning, required care on the RTs requiring slowing and straightening my line. I called them California tires.

Orin.

*It just wasn't fun leading a "strenuous" group, supposedly 19-22 mph no wind, who got competitive and rode 23-24mph into the wind with me barely hanging on.

[Nemo]

This has no bearing on the veracity of Rivendell’s claim, and is moreover an unabashed exercise in pedantry. That said, I disagree with the assertion that all tires with inelastic casings are necessarily round in inner cross-section when inflated. To see why, consider a cross-section of a mounted inflated tire whose inside surface is truly an arc of a circle, from bead to bead. Pick any point on that arc – it must be a specific distance r from the wheel’s axis of rotation (i.e. the line running through the center of the wheel’s skewer). So the circumferential cord formed by the chosen point and all others at the same position on the arc has to have a very specific length (2 X Pi X r). Similarly with the circumferential cords associated with all other points on the arc – each of them has to have a length precisely determined by where it sits on the cross-section of the inflated tire. So the tire has to be fabricated with the lengths of all the circumferential cords just right to get a circular cross-section. Some further thought will show that square or ‘box’ cross-sections should be feasible under the (unrealistic) assumption of perfectly inelastic casings – you would just need a different set of lengths for the circumferential cords. You could even do triangular cross-sections if you wanted to be really perverse. You could also do various kinds of ovals, or in general any convex profile.

Physics only enters in that air in the inflated tire tries to maximize its volume. What shape the inelastic-casing tire assumes to maximize volume when inflated depends on its ‘geometry’.

Of course the casing is not truly inelastic so a tire fabricated with a ‘box’ inner cross-section would in practice have its ‘flat side walls’ bulging outwards and its ‘flat.top’ bulging upwards in the center. The variable thickness of the tread is an additional factor.

All this is much easier to see with car tires where the ratios of various dimensions are much less extreme than for bicycle tires.

Apologies for the pedantry.

[NateM]

Pale Scotsman,
the Ruffy Tuffy will fit within your stock Atlanta fork(steel) with aprox 8mm clearance top and 5mm on the sides. I used a Mavic Helium rim with 90 lbs pressure in the tire.You will have to let air out in order to get the tire through brakes(Shimano). I use a 26mm Performance Forte w/kevlar on my Atlanta because I use the Serotta F1 fork.The clearance is tight,3mm all around.The rear has a Ruffy Tuffy.Both tires are manufactured by National Tire in Japan.I use these tires with spin skin liners on my commuter year round and enjoy their comfort and handling.

[Eric E]

Hi all,

I just switched from 32c Pasella Tourguards to Ruffy-Tuffies on my Ti Rapid Tour, with some surprising results. These tires have about the same diameter.

On the positive side, the ride is more cushioned - I suspect that the rounder profile of the RT gives more uniformly than the Pasellas. And when going downhill fast, the bike seems less jittery - could the sharply angled sidewalls of the Pasella have been catching irregularities (e.g., chip-seal) and throwing the bike laterally?

On the negative side, the bike does "seem" slower and low speed manuvering is much worse. My bike has lots of trail (43 mm fork rake + 71.5 degree headtube give +7 cm of trail), but it is only with the Ruffy Tuffys that I've felt what could be called wheel flop (AKA oversteer). I find I have to be very careful on tight bike trails corners to avoid going off the inside of the turn. I suspect that the tire roundness "helps" the bike turn a little too much for the bike's trail at low speeds...

So, the jury is still out - we'll see how they ride loaded on our Eugene to Bozeman tour this year...

Enjoy, Eric