Joe Biker and the Search for the Holy Tread

If you want to make a cyclocross racer curl up into the fetal position, rock back and forth and suck their thumb, tell them that the can’t get their favorite tire. No! Wait! Chill! Your tires are available! It’s not you, it’s me. And, it’s not that the tires aren’t available any longer, I just switched to tubular wheels and the tire I like for racing in the OVCX, the Ritchey Excavator, doesn’t come in a tubular. It’s okay. Take your thumb out of your word hole.

After my wife uncurled me from the corner, I got to work to find a tubular that I think would work for me in the OVCX series. The operative words are “me” and “OVCX.” Everyone rides a bit different, I tend to lay the bike kind of low in tight corners, so euro style tires with small knobs and very little side tread like Tufo elites or ones with the file pattern are out. Again, that’s me…and that’s my bike sliding under the caution tape. Until the November rains come, most OVCX courses are relatively hard packed, mostly grass and I think have a lot of off camber turns. I need a tire that can hook up in tight grassy corners. Grass is slippery. Dugast's (pictured left) are pricey. What's an OVCX tubie newbie to do?

Read more here. BioWheels Joe Bellante’s article continued on the Joe Biker Blog. Kill time at work and Google “Joe Biker Blog”