For those familiar with the C&O towpath, would Schwalbe Almotion tires have enough traction to do the job? My wife and I are planning to ride it late Sep/early Oct. Any advice much appreciated!
by Exciting_Junket9856
For those familiar with the C&O towpath, would Schwalbe Almotion tires have enough traction to do the job? My wife and I are planning to ride it late Sep/early Oct. Any advice much appreciated!
by Exciting_Junket9856
6 Comments
28’s?? That’s pushing it. They are a little knobby which is good but I ran 32’s (not knobby) and that was okay. There’s lots of rocks and tree roots you have to avoid but I was lucky in that it wasn’t wet. I’ve heard it can be a mess after rains.
My road bike has 28’s, my touring has 32’s. GAP trail would be fine for 28’s but I personally wouldn’t trust 28’s.
Maybe you’d be fine but I wouldn’t be comfortable with that.
That seems like a good choice. Most of the towpath is compacted crushed gravel nowadays. You’ll have no problems there. Near DC (miles 27 to 1 IIRC), it’s rock-studded dirt, so you will want lower tire pressure and bigger tires. The need for good dirt traction is not totally critical, as the trail is mostly totally straight. The only way you can really go wrong while riding the Towpath in Spring, Summer, or Fall is slick tires under 32c.
See also r/towpath for other discussion.
I just rode from DC to PGH and ran a set of Almotion in 700 x 38c and they were fantastic, even after lots of rain. 28 x2″ should be good also, with the wider tire more comfortable on the few rougher stretches
They should be adequate in a larger size. As others have said near DC and Great falls area is pretty rough chunky stuff. The rest of the towpath I’ve ridden when it was relatively dry on my roadbike with 25c gp5000s it’s not bad at all. There’s even a 15ish mile stretch you can do on the western Maryland rail trail that’s paved.
The C&O trail is virtually flat. It follows a river. A little bigger is probably better than a little smaller cross section tire. I rode it during a dry spell and I imagine it could be a bit gnarly after a wet week. I used Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires in a 47 width. I would have no compunction using 32s.
https://preview.redd.it/xe3nygli2jyg1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29484c92eed337cd7bcc32c36d174406058fbdc7
We came across a woman doing it on 25mm road tires… you’ll be fine. I did it on 38s and there were a few sandpits I had to walk through, but that was about it.