Road Bike?

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Josh from Kansas City on 1/17/2023 1:22:53 PM:

I am going to be completing the trail in late April this year. Currently, I have a 2020 Specialized Tarmac and I run 25mm gatorskins. Do I need to use a more rugged bike to complete the whole trail? My wife isn't going to let me buy another one, so it's either use the Tarmac or borrow one.

I haven't seen the entire trail, so I would appreciate any suggestions on whether or not the Tarmac would be a safe option.

Thanks

Bill in Houston from Houston on 1/17/2023 2:24:30 PM:

How much do you weigh? How good are you at changing flats? What's the widest tire that will fit on the Tarmac?

Anonymous on 1/17/2023 3:50:44 PM:

When the trail is dry, stay in the track and out of the loose chat and you should be fine. When the trail is wet, unless you're on a 29'r fatty nothing is going to work very well.

We've ridden our Santana tandem road bike on the Katy when it was dry and stayed in the track without problems with gatorskin 700 x 28's.

Anyone is going to have issues if they ride on the wet slurry trail, run over every stick and rock they can find, and just don't generally pay attention to what they're doing.

Ride what ya got and pay attention, like you should anyway, and you'll be ok. Happy trails!

Jack on 1/17/2023 4:50:41 PM:

We rode it two years ago. My son has a steel road bike and he can fit 32's on it but with little clearance.

We had thunderstorms on the Rock Island, which was much softer than the Katy, and it almost got him to quit. Everything clogged up and he ended up burning himself out trying to ride through it. He needed to stop and clean out the muck. My gravel bike had no problems.

The rest of the trip was dry and he had no problems. Sometimes the limestone gets water ridges in it and that was pretty shocky but other wise it was a good ride.

Don from Dallas on 1/17/2023 5:27:25 PM:

I’ve done it on a road bike with 25mm tires in June with no rain and well groomed trail. If the weather calls for much rain then knobby 32 to 38mm tires would be best. My 25s were Gatorskins. 28mm would be better if you take the road bike.

Fran from Detroit on 1/18/2023 8:02:17 AM:

Personally, I wouldn't attempt it in April with 25s. Can you complete it on 25s? Yes, probably, but I don't think it would be pleasant. The trail is likely to be soft and possibly rutted, and is more amenable to wider tires. I would look for wider tires, or maybe Conti 4-Season tires, or whatever is the widest you can fit on your frame.

Jerry Whittle from Belleville on 1/18/2023 1:27:39 PM:

I've done the Katy Trail end-to-end 11 times on different sized tires and tread.

I've done short stretches on 25s around St. Charles which is very packed it. However I wouldn't recommend them for the entire trail.

I've mostly done the Katy on 700x32 which were adequate for my combined 250 lbs person and bike weight. It's the smallest tire which I would recommend.

I've also done it on 650b x 47s which were a little overkill. The first time was on very smooth tires and they did slide around when the trail was wet. I did it on mild knobby tires last October with two days of rain and they were great.

I've also done the trail twice on 26 x 2.125 knobby tires but that was on a tandem. They worked well.

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