Seeking new user tips and accessory recommendations for 2020 Explore and Amiti

[Browneye]

That's $47 each.
Bike tires are still cheaper than car tires. LOL

 

[Grison]

Okay...the Continental Contact Travel tire set arrived yesterday...
BLAM, POP, CLANG. What the.... the front tire completely blew off the rim - one whole bead and the tube busting out between the tire and the rim. Probly a good thing it was mounted on the bike, or who knows what would have happened if that tire would have went flying, or even the whole assembly.

Dear lord, I sure don't want that kind of risk. Put my Schawalbe Marathons on, packed up the new Conti's, and shipped them back. NO MORE CONTINENTAL TIRES FOR ME!!!
From now on it's Schwalbe or Maxxis, all the way baby!

Oh my!! I'm glad I waited to hear about your experience before ordering! Sounds like the Marathons are the way to go, especially if I'm willing to admit that we'll probably spend most of our time on pavement. It seems like they could also handle a gravel or dirt road occasionally if needed.

 

[pmcdonald]

Okay...the Continental Contact Travel tire set arrived yesterday. They are great looking tires, thick center tread section showing lots of puncture-proofness, knobby shoulder, nice width, nice kevlar sidewall look to them. Seems like they would be ideal on the Explore.

Got home a little late last night and was anxious to see how they looked on the bike, so flipped 'er over and took the front wheel off, removed the tire, installed the new one. Very easy to mount, looking good. Blew it up to 55psi to seat the beads, put it on the the bike, spins true.

Hmmm...can't stand it, gotta put the rear one on too. So I removed the rear wheel, just got it deflated and one bead off, and BLAM, POP, CLANG. What the.... the front tire completely blew off the rim - one whole bead and the tube busting out between the tire and the rim. Probly a good thing it was mounted on the bike, or who knows what would have happened if that tire would have went flying, or even the whole assembly.

Dear lord, I sure don't want that kind of risk. Put my Schawalbe Marathons on, packed up the new Conti's, and shipped them back. NO MORE CONTINENTAL TIRES FOR ME!!!
From now on it's Schwalbe or Maxxis, all the way baby!

Yoikes! A similar thing happened to me the night I got my Explore.

I was swapping the stock Crosscut tyres with my Marathons. All was going swimmingly. I did the front wheel, moved to the back, no worries there, and was crouching down fumbling with the rear wheel getting it back on the axle. Suddenly BANG! An almighty explosion right near my head. Scared the living daylights out of me and probably gave me a little hearing loss for good measure.

It turned out I was a little overzealous tightening the Presta bolt near the rim. The tube must have expanded, had no more stem to pull on and the pressure tore a giant hole in the tube. Lesson learned.

 

[LeftyS7]

I put a 2&1/2" extender on my stem and it's just about perfect.

What seat do you have? From the photo it looks stock. I have to upgrade, stock isn't working for me. I'm looking at a Ergon Touring ST Core Prime Men's saddle. I haven't read any bad reviews about it.

I can't get my personal date to download to the app.

I just bought a Selle SMP Advant seat. The shape is terrific, it has a cup shape which distributes the pressure on your under carriage evenly, Much better than stock. However I did not get the gel version and I have to wear padded shorts for my 77 year old muscle free butt.

 

[gorse]

Big Ben Plus 2.0 are dreadful on wet asphalt - very hard compound. On the plus side they are quite puncture resistant IME. Have ordered Marathon Almotion Evo 2.15 hoping for some better road grip.