>>2023989I'm on rims with 23mm internal width and I'm happy with how these ride with 32mm tires. I'm willing to entertain the idea that a more noodly steel bike with rim brake fork and something like a HED ardennes plus with 700x28 tires (pic not related) might be adequately comfy but I'm not sure that getting a genuinely antique bike with 14mm internal width rims is going to give me a very good sense of what to expect on a better modern steel bike with rim brakes, or is it? If it is, then that would be a solid confirmation that I shouldn't go down this road at all.
I realize I could get an antique and tear the whole thing down and spread the dropouts and build up a whole new wheelset and so on just so I can try to apples to apples it but at that point my mild curiosity is not adequate to overcome my aversion to buying antiques and fucking around with them as a sort of test drive. I know what works for me now and that's modern wide tires and dick brakes. I can just ignore the weeb in my head telling me to buy new shit that looks like old shit (but is presumably better than one would expect, pic related).
>>2023996>noodley in a bad way when cornering or sprinting hard.I wonder if you might be overestimating my watts though, I'm no Chris Hoy. I did feel what I take to be a big change in flex when I went from metal to plastic wheels, at least when stomping up particularly steep hills and pulling up on the bars, but that applies to approximately 2% of my time in the saddle, on a good day. So unless it's incredibly obnoxious I could probably tolerate that if the overall experience is good.
Titanium is the kind of thing I might get for the lolz if I had room for at least 3 bikes but it has always given me a serial killer vibe for some reason. Not the warm fuzzies like other materials. So I wouldn't consider it for my primary main bike. I realize this is not rational at all but none of this is rational.
