I've done the Roubaix and I was giddy when we hit the first section of cobbles around 100km from memory but by the 200+km end it was like 'f*ck not another section...' What ever you will find most comfortable to ride on the rough for a long and brutal day. I wouldn't be afraid to ride the CX bike and I ride a Cannondale Evo with Pacenti rims too.

I've done flanders in the most horrible weather. It was freezing cold, it rained.. it was hell on earth. I would have given alot of money for a bike with wider tires and discbrakes to ride the cobbled climbs and descents that day.

I'd leave the cannondale at home

If you were riding only cobbles i'd recommend the wides tires you can manage at lower pressure. However usually you are alternating stretches of asphalt road and stretches of cobble road so you need to make some sort of compromise. When i ride cobbles in Flanders i use my regular road bike with 23mm tires and slightly decreased pressure. (I only do those flemish cobble ride once or twice a year though. Not enough to buy an extra set of tires for.)

25 or 28mm tires would give more comfort and alow for a lower pressure.
Also bear in mind that on cobbles you have oncreased risk of a flat. Make sure you have plenty spare tubes et cetera with you.
Some people use a double ribbon on the handlebars and cycling gloves to increase comfort on the hands, arms and upper body. After a long day of cobbles it is recommended to check your bike if no nuts and bilts have come loose.

Hooe this helps..

Man, if it was me I’d roll my fat tire road bike and use 650x42mm slicks or 700x38 slicks. Go for maximum enjoyment!

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28s are better than 25s, 32s to me are optimal, 36-38s if it is really rough and 40s and up are just pushing too much rubber on the pave is what I have found on my road/ gravel bikes. I ride a cross bike a good bit of the time on the road, but it is nice to see a funky gravel road and just follow it on a "road ride".

I’ve personlly found using 650x42mm compass baby shoes with latex tubes to yield the best speed / comfort balance. They barely feel slower on pavement and they roll faster on anything remotely rough compared to a 28mm. The smaller wheel diameter with the 42mm is approximately equivilant to a 700x23mm, so the handling is still “sporty”. Just my experience!

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I rode my everyday road bike (specialized allez) with 27mm Challenge Parigi-Roubaix tyres and latex inners. Those tyres inflated up to maybe 29mm mounted. Wheels were Vision Team 30s which worried me for the 20/24 spokes but it's all I had and they were fine.

Only mods I made were double wrapping the bars, which I'm not convinced makes much difference, and the redshift shockstop stem, which might have done.

Whatever you do, don't be like the Dutch rocking up on your full suss bike..

Me and my bike made it out intact :-).

Cheers, Rich.

I rode a handful of the Flanders climbs last July, with 25c tires and it was doable but rather unpleasant. But I was also using road pressure as I was doing it as part of a longer ride. 34x28 gearing which was also doable but still difficult (because of the cobbles). If it had been wet, not sure I would have made it up.

The day before I rode the Arenberg section of cobbles. 25c was way insufficient there, bordering on unrideable. I would agree with what others have said and go for comfort. While I was there a big group came through at speed, and 5 or 6 of them flatted.

Please post how it went. Those 2 rides are on my bucket list.

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll probably take my CX bike, since having the discs and the ability to ride wider tires will come in handy if it rains. I'm thinking the Schwalbe G-One Speeds, 30 tubeless for tires. They seem to get good reviews and should provide enough cushion. The Redshift ShockStop stem is tempting, especially since it got great reviews from the media. I'll post what I used and how it turned out.

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"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
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Good luck and please do post how it all went. It’s on my bucket list as well as probably a lot of others!

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What operator are you going with?

I'm just doing Flemish week, and I am doing the full Tour of Flanders which is going to be a long day in the saddle.

As far tire recommendations for Flanders (recognizing PR is a different beast), do people think 27 or 28s are enough?

I'm thinking I am going to bring my OPEN New Up (disk brakes and I am running 47/32 x 11/32 so plenty of gears), but I can run also tires as big as I want. I have some 30mm Gravel Kings or some 27mm Vittoria Open Pave? that roll really nice, leaning toward the Vittorias.

My tour operator is Sports Tours International out of the UK. Used them for the Tour de France a couple of years. Lots of my friends have also used them.

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"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
Blog = http://extrememomentum.com|Photos = http://wheelgoodphotos.com

I did Flanders in bright dry spring weather. Rode my road bike as normal. Only changes were a 25 at the back 39/52 and double tape on the bars. R-B is a different beast.

As for where to stay go on AirBnB and book somewhere. I think paid about £50 a night and had a 10 mins ride to/from the start/finish.

Best of luck with your events. Make sure at Paris Roubaix that you avail yourself of the free access to the centre of the velodrome for the pro race next day. All Challenge participants get free entry to a fenced off area track centre and they have a massive TV screen up in one corner of the velodrome to watch the race, and then you get to see the live sprint finish (if there is one) on the track. We had a great time watching Sagan last year and drank a load of beer (they run a bar) and ate loads of pommes frites. You'll be even more astonished at how fast the pros move over the pave after having your own teeth rattled the day before!

If you are serious about the Redshift Shockstop stem drop me a line if you fancy, I took mine off after Paris Roubaix and haven't used it since - you can have it for half retail. I'm in the UK. Nearly new, just a couple of short test rides and one long (and quite bumpy) ride ;-).

Cheers,
Rich.

That's who I went to Ardennes week with and I booked with them again. I guess I will see you at Flemish week then. Daryl and Roy are great guides.

I am planning on doing Flanders this year but was not yet thinking about changing the 23mm tires on my cervelo s3. How big a difference do you think I’d notice between 23 and 25mm tires? I am about 175 pounds

Change them. I've done both. The bigger the better especially if the weather gets sour.

How big would you run on a traditional road bike? Also, any particular tires that are made for/good for the cobbles in the wet?

All depends on what you can fit. I ran 28mm Conti GP4K tyres when I did them. They measured ~30mm on my wheels.

There are a few tubular tyres that are specifically for this, but I don't think you will need them.

Tires aside, bring a couple pairs of thick-ass gloves. A friend rode the Roubaix Challenge and decided to channel Tom Boonen and skip the gloves, never mind his otherwise total inexperience on anything rougher than chip seal roads in hos home town. His hands were so badly blistered at the end of the day the rest of his trip was miserable and he had to duct tape his hands to be able to hold the bars at all.

I will ride Falnders too. Planning on putting 28mm tires on my road bike.

30-32mm tires currently define sort of a sweet spot at Roubaix for the pros and what I'd recommend for you if you can fit them. Many of the teams we work with were on 32's labelled as 30's last year (including race winner Sagan) which allows a pressure decrease of ~4% over a true 30 while maintaining an extra 2mm of compressible space between the rim and the cobbles which dramatically reduces the likelihood of a rim fracture. You can also take the 32mm to ~8% lower pressure and achieve the same impact performance as the 30..

Either way, ride the largest tire you can fit and don't be shy to stop and let a little out as you go, just be sure to have a pump so you can go back up if you over do it!

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This maybe informative.

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