Accepting the new "Plus size"

I didn't die from sickness #1, #2, or #3.  I just felt like it.

I'm mostly better.  Waking up in the middle of the night coughing but whatever.  No one wants to hear about that.

The wheels.  The tires.

Long, stupid story, but I had to have the wheels shipped to work and ride home with them on my back Friday evening.  With the free time that work sometimes affords me, I weighed them on our postal scales and mounted up the rotors before the end of the work day.  Within minutes after eating supper with my brood, I was downstairs airing up tires, weighing and measuring.

The fit of the Ikon/Rekon to the NOX Kitsuma rim was on the tighter side.  Not "Oh shit, these are never coming back off" tight, but "100% no tricks, no extra tape, no fiddling inflation" tight.  Snap bang boom and they were on, absolutely no air loss overnight.  Prolly that whole MAXXIS "TR" thing.  Maybe I didn't need two scoops of Trucker Co Cream, but it's in there now.

So anyways, my old race set up (Ardent 2.4fr/Ardent Race 2.2r/Farlow rims/24 spokes):

The new (mebbe) race set up (Ikon 2.8 fr/Rekon 2.8r/Kitsuma rim/32 spokes):

This is terribly unscientific.  Two not completely but quickly approaching worn-out tires, unknown amounts of sealant (if any), year old rotors (it all adds up) VS new tires, new rotors, two very full scoops (at 30 grams per) of Trucker Co.  Figure I gained somewhere in the neighborhood of .5-.75lbs... basically almost the same weight of the Industry Nine Torch Enduro™ front/Trail rear set up I used to run before I went to a crabon rim.

My biggest concern (after weight) was what these tiny wheels were going to do to my bottom bracket height.  I'm sorta picky about that.  Anything under 12" and I start smacking pedals way more than I'm comfortabru with.  Since I'm riding a rigid bike, I'm very used to a static height, so... yeah.  It is what it is and always will be.

That's so close to being exactly 12" that I almost shed a tear of joy when I saw it.  Magical.  Truly magical.

The Rekon fit inside the very roomy ENVE crabon frok, as if there was any doubt it would work, being that it accommodated a 3.0 Chronicle in the past.

The Ikon 2.8 fit perfectly in the rear of the Vertigo.

That's at 32X18, leaving lots of room to scoot forward to a 19 or 20T cog... bringing up another point.

Gearing. 

The smaller diameter tire goes @80mm less distance down the trail per revolution of the crank @32X18.  It's a hell of a lot closer to 32X18 on my normal tire selection than it is to 32X19 on my norm, so... I guess I'll either adapt to the fact that it's slightly easier or just figure maybe the slightly lower gear will help turn the extra meat in circles.

My back up plan if I didn't really go nuts with these wheels on the Vertigo was to try them on my Stickel with the 120mm Pike.  The front wheel fit just fine in the fjork, but the back?

So close, but not so much.  The part of the yoke that protrudes inwards towards the wheel contacts the casing in my wheelie practice friendly 32X21... but if I swap back to a 20 or maybe a 19 and shorten the chain a link?  Who knows?  There's always the option of running a 2.3-2.35 tire on the wide rim to get some extra cushion.  I'm not gonna fiddle with all that until I decide the wheels are a no-go on the Vertigo...

or, I guess, I figure out they're the best thing ever and I "need" them on ALL THE BIKES.  Even if I don't go that far, the I9 Farlows would end up on the Stickel, dropping the wheel/tire weight on my Pisgah (and wheelie practice) bike .75-1.0lbs.  Which would be killer.

Friday night, tires mounted and bike downstairs, I had trouble falling asleep.   Thinking about angle of attack, gearing variances, the view of a "smaller" tire from the cockpit, tire pressures...

I got weeks to figure it out and get used to it.  Ride(s) feedback tomorrow.