40mph commuter: slack hardtail on 29" tire or steep full-suspension on 26"?

[goatman]

youre not going to get everything in 1 bike, id just build a bike and ride it and then youll know what you really want for commuting and pretty soon youll have a couple bikes.

if you commute in all kinds of weather, you really want a fairing in front of you to keep the cold wind off in the winter and the rain too and reliability from your system. thats why i run phaserunners, if one goes down i can just rob 1 from the other bikes but havent had any real issues with them.

 

[dogman dan]

My favorite e bike burning my house helped me just say,, time to just be riding motorcycles. Nobody sees that BMW 1100 and thinks I'll be going slow. Nobody tailgates me and honks on that monster. Plus, now I have all the time in the world for 6 hour rides. I'm not fixated on my carbon footprint. I already did my part to save the earth by not reproducing.

I still bike, a lot, but mostly on dirt trail. Out playing with cars, I actually have ten times less close calls on the moto than when I commuted on a fast e bike.

Things change, live moves on. But the car avoidance skills I made even better riding the e bikes has helped me ride the bmw safe. But one thing is for sure, every e bike I made before the fire got slower and slower. So I could relax and just enjoy the ride. But things are different in every area. During the house rebuild, I needed a fast e bike to survive the downtown traffic. I was sure glad to get back out of town when the house got fixed.

So you do what you need, at the moment. It might be a fast FS bike one year, a slow cargo bike the next, or even just a gas bike. But my experience commuting was that if 30 mph is not enough, your route is all wrong, or it just needs a much faster than 40 mph ride, that people expect to be going 40 mph +. Tires is everything above 30 mph, and a good motorcycle has em. So you need same on your e bike if its actually an electric motorcycle.

 

[fatty]

Tires is everything above 30 mph, and a good motorcycle has em. So you need same on your e bike if its actually an electric motorcycle.

Thanks. I'll use an E-50 bike tire in rear, and had planned for a 27.5"x3.0 Vee Speedster in front.

I could try to fit a radial, tubeless, directional motorcycle tire in front:
Bridgestone Battlecruise H50 80/90-21 has section width of 80mm and outside diameter of 677mm
Michelin Commander II MH90-21 has section width of 84mm and outside diameter of 688mm
Outside diameters match a 26x2.4" rear, but I'm concerned about serviceability (custom drilled moto rim & custom cut spokes) and weight.

 

[Chalo]

Moto tires and rims are stupid heavy. Use them if you must, but by that point you might as well use the whole moto.

 

[donn]

Moto!

I sold my Moto Guzzi, but then I'm happy going a lot slower. At much higher speed, it's like the man said, you're learning from the motorcycle designers how to ... do what? Build a motorcycle, is what. Mine unfortunately weighed so much that in my decrepit old age I couldn't reliably right it again if it fell over, and it wasn't much fun to wrestle around at slow speeds, but the worst thing was that high speed "cycle" travel calls for so much protective clothing, every inch of my body was swaddled in armored gear.

 

[fatty]

Moto tires and rims are stupid heavy. Use them if you must, but by that point you might as well use the whole moto.

I agree. The cost, complexity, and weight penalty is worthwhile for inter-city travel or racing, but a 130mph-rated tire seems excessive for 40mph (33% beyond rating) intra-city errands unless flats simply cannot be tolerated at any cost.

 

[Chalo]

Moto tires and rims are stupid heavy. Use them if you must, but by that point you might as well use the whole moto.

I agree. The cost, complexity, and weight penalty is worthwhile for inter-city travel or racing, but a 130mph-rated tire seems excessive for 40mph (33% beyond rating) intra-city errands unless flats simply cannot be tolerated at any cost.

I would trust pretty much any good quality bike tire at 40 mph. The rest of the bike, maybe not so much. You have to be hyper-alert and limber, ready to use your body to provide necessary suspension.

Mopeds weigh 120 pounds despite only going 30 mph. That’s because the manufacturers had both DOT safety regulations and product liability concerns to mitigate. You are free to ignore both those things, but keep in mind that it’s your safety and liability on the line.

 

[fatty]

I would trust pretty much any good quality bike tire at 40 mph. The rest of the bike, maybe not so much. You have to be hyper-alert and limber, ready to use your body to provide necessary suspension.

Yeah, I hope to get by with a (ghetto) tubeless Speedster up front, and 85mm rear travel and 180mm front travel.

 

[Chalo]

I would trust pretty much any good quality bike tire at 40 mph. The rest of the bike, maybe not so much. You have to be hyper-alert and limber, ready to use your body to provide necessary suspension.

Yeah, I hope to get by with a (ghetto) tubeless Speedster up front, and 85mm rear travel and 180mm front travel.

That’s comparable suspension travel to my last motorcycle. Somewhat more in the front than what I had, I think.

 

[fatty]

That’s comparable suspension travel to my last motorcycle. Somewhat more in the front than what I had, I think.

Yeah, I had previously modeled after small motorcycles; even the Honda Grom has 4in F&R.
I'd really like to be around 100-110mm in the rear, but that would invoke big sacrifices in usable main triangle volume.