Forum menu
Interested to know what people are comparing these to when they say 'fast'? Fast compared to another wide tyre or a 23mm road tyre etc etc.
Fast compared to any other tyre of similar size, and faster* than a lot of smaller ones.
* The asterisk is because its a tricky thing to compare, as most people don't have clearance for >30mm tyres on their nice light 'fast' bike so they invariably get put on heavier gravel bikes/allroad/tourers etc, where the previous choices of big tyres were invariably stiff, overly built or armoured touring tyres, so the expectation is lower anyway, so it's no surprise these are quicker.
The interesting bit is that in a lot of cases they are also faster and more comfy that a 23/25/28 tyre that you might run on a lighter bike, but it is dependant on conditions, there's no getting away from the fact that a 350-400g 38mm tyre is always going to be heavier than a 200g 23/25mm tyre, but on rough roads the bigger tyre at lower pressure can be faster overall, certainly more comfy, and certainly grippier, and definitely no slower than an equivalent 28 or 30mm tyre.
On perfect roads, over shorter distances, and for big long climbs I'd say there's an advantage to lighter and smaller racier tyres, but if the road is a typical UK road, and over longer distances the bigger tyres win for me as they are no slower, but give you an edge on fatigue so end up fast for longer with less battering.
I guess from my POV it comes down to this: if I have the clearance I would fit them to any bike except a full on race bike, and for bikes with less clearance I've started using the 28mm compass tyres as they are excellent and on a par with other flexible tubular-like casing clinchers.
As it is they live on my do everything bike as it's the only one with enough room to fit them, my faster lighter bikes have smaller versions of tyres with similar build. The extra 200g on each wheel, and aero drag of a slightly bigger tyres is irrelevant when you bike weighs 30lbs nude, > 40lbs loaded and has two whopping great panniers at the front acting as a wind break.
If you want some numbers to chew on, I'm by no means fast but this might give you an idea of the baselines of my comparisons:
My commuting and pootling round town rides normally end up in the 14-15mph average area regardless of tyres, a little over if it's a clear run, a bit under if I've got 15-20lbs of panniers on or towing the trailer, this is more to do routes and load than anything else as there's little variation between bikes.
A Sunday club run could be anywhere from 16-19mph average over 50-80 miles and I'd have no qualms about running these tyres IF my bike had clearance, the weight is offset but the comfort and there's basically no extra rolling resistance to worry about.
Longer and hillier Audaxes averaging 15-16mph on rides over 100miles is where they really shine, they're just as quick as 23s or 25s but a lot more comfy, you'd get less fatigued and any tiny disadvantage on climbs is negated anyway as you're not sprinting up them and it evens out over time.
Great indepth overview amedias - that's just what I hoped to hear and sounds very promising.
Putting a pair on my shopping list then!
Cheers