Trail surface

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Jess Brooks from Hutchinson, KS on 10/4/2008 8:08:51 PM:

Could you let me know the type of trail surface and type of tires you would recommend, also 'generally speaking' is there a prevailing wind.

jp from St. Louis on 10/4/2008 8:29:45 PM:

Jess, the trail surface is crushed limestone. My wife and I rode fifty miles today, from Defiance to Treloar and back using Panaracer T-serv 700-25c Hybrid tires. These tires have decent puncture protection and we had no troubles with them or the trail surface today. There were some spots where the trail had more of a gravel surface; seemed to be in areas where the floods may have washed out the finer crushed stone, we just navigated carefully in these areas. We had a tailwind going west today, and a slight headwind coming back eastbound. I think the winds can be tricky along the river, however; someone whom rides the KATY more than myself might have a greater knowledge than me on that. On the tires, we ran 100 P.S.I.; and had a decent pace the whole way. Hope this is helpful.

Anonymous from lsmo on 10/5/2008 5:24:30 PM:

I usually ride with 700x28 cyclocross tires on my road bike. Never had any problems with them. But I only have riden the western half of the trail. I haven't made it to the eastern half yet. I am assuming it's the same.

Murf on 10/5/2008 9:47:48 PM:

I usually ride a hybrid with 700x38 tires and those are sufficient. My wife rides a recumbent with really wide tires and that does help when the trail is soft or washed out. I rode a few miles east of Jeff City today and the trail is washed pretty bad in a few areas. If one isn't careful, it could be bad. Just look carefully, especially where driveways or gravel roads intersect the trail.

Murf on 10/5/2008 9:51:05 PM:

Forgot to mention. The wind is usually out of the west. Most of the time, I ride an out and back and start out going west so I have the wind to my back on my return when I am getting tired. But today the wind was reversed so we rode east and then back west.

Richard from Creve Coeur on 10/6/2008 3:25:26 PM:

I use Kenda Kross Plus 26 x 1.75 on the road and on the Katy's crushed gravel. I have a commuter bike so I ride it 90% of the time (road bike 10%). Don't max out your tire pressure on the Katy trail, about 50lbs will do it. I doubled tube my tires to give it extra puncture resistance. You could buy tires with Kevlar (or some other material) in the tread or put Kevlar strips between the tube and tires and really make it puncture resistant. Double tubing seems to help me resist punctures plus it's an inexpensive way. Slime is not that good, save your money and time.

Aaron from Columbia on 9/6/2010 9:59:20 PM:

On my mountain bike, I ride Kenda Klimax Lite 26x1.95" tires (although, they're more like 1.7"). Very little tread and extremely light.

I've ridden at least a couple hundred miles on my road bike, with 25c slicks at 80psi, too, and they get the job done just fine. A typical rider will probably prefer something like a 28-38C tire on a road or cyclo-cross bike, just to help smooth out the rocks.

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