I’ll try and find the podcast I listened to about it but basically, away from lab tests done on un-roadly surfaces, narrow and hard tyres were thought to be faster because they feel faster!!

Turns out, all those filling-jaring bumps and rattles are losing energy.
As long as tyre deflection isn’t extreme enough to be causing excessive energy to be lost as heat- the suspension effect of lower pressure and wider tyres makes them far and away the faster option.

I have ordered the Hyper Voyagers in 35mm as my frame can fit them and they were fairly cheap. I hope they’re not much slower than the Kenda 28mm ones I currently have, they should at least be better on gravel etc.

If only bigger road tyres were available that were not the heavy commuter type things. My 42s offer great ride but are noticeably more sluggish than the 30s. The former are clunkers, the latter tubeless. 42mm versions of the Schwalbe G one or S one would be great.

If only bigger road tyres were available that were not the heavy commuter type things

Have a look at Compass, the 38mm Barlow Pass are excellent and about 350g for the EL casing version which is very supple and extremely comfy.

They do a 44mm model as well now but I’ve not yet tried them, but can only assume they’ll be like slightly bigger Barlows…

I don’t even know what rolling resistance means, but I don’t think it needs a genius to work out that a narrower tyre is going to be fast than a wider tyre on a smooth bit of tarmac.

In reality there is no such thing as a smooth bit of tarmac (not as in sheet of glass smooth) which is why the wider tyre is faster in the real world even on smooth roads.

If the roads were made of polished marble then yes the narrower harder tyre would be faster, in fact it would be faster to ride on the rims and get rid of the tyres but may cause some cornering and grip issues….

Thanks everyone – have ordered 28mm GP4000’s. Here’s hoping they fit!

Just fitted some 28’s to my commuter (from 23) does feel nicer shall compare times over a couple weeks see if I notice any difference.

On a side note has anyone tried making none tubeless road tyres tubeless? I’m unsure if I’m willing to experiment due to the high speeds you gain on a road bike!

Anecdotal – I built my new Mason up with Vittoria Corsa G+ in 28 flavour (on Hunt Wide rims) and I’m blown away by the performance. It took me a while to get used to the suppleness and the comfort of the Corsa’s (carcass and increased dimensions) but now that I have I’m never going back. PS – I would happily race on them too, but perhaps increase the pressure to something like 90psi rather than the current 80psi. So far they have also help up well to our less than ideal Sussex road conditions and some London commuting

I use Conti GP4000s 23c that actually measure 25mm wide

I think there’s almost as much variation in road bike tyre measuring as there is mountain. The 23 specialized tyres my old Roubaix came with were huge compared to the 23’s I replaced them with (they were at least 25). Katie’s got a set of Giant P-SL1 wheels/tyres on that are supposed to be 25 that measure as 26mm.

The Conti 4 Seasons 28s that I’m running at the moment measure at 28.

I run 28c Vittoria Zaffiro on mine, im sure they come up a little small tho, ive run 28c on all my bikes with real issues/disadvantages.

Mine is about 80% commuter.

I’ll probably check out something bigger soon if these are measuring small as the road round here are awful along with the cycle path i ride.

I have a pair of box fresh 28c GP4000S if anyone is interested – no road bike now

Lol! Literally just fitted a set today 🙁

My hybrid has a cheap alu frame which is heavy, and steel project 2 forks. They are both really stiff though, and with the nice supple 32c tyres the bike is superb to ride.

CyclingTips Podcast, Episode 9: Rethinking road bike tire sizes and pressures