[Closed] Roadies - Tyre width and speed. (sorry)

Proper road tyres will make a massive difference over those. 25mm conti GPs or Michelin Pro 3/4

As above. The thinner tyres will make a difference, just makes the wheels feel a little bit more nippy and easy to spin up ( which helps on the uphills )

Will feel faster, but probably won't be much faster.

al +1

^^^ wat they said, narrower means a bit lighter and a bit higher pressure, feels so nippier but I bet the average speed is negligible.

There is a theory that a larger tyre rolls with less friction than a narrow one, down to differences in pressures.
One of my old colleagues was analytical about this sort of thing, he found he was faster with his mouth closed rather than open, but I can't remember his tyre resuilts. He did go down to 19mm at one point.

I would guess a slick 23mm tyre will def be faster than a knobbly 32mm tyre ..

al +1

Hmm so its kind of what I thought, theres probably not much in it then... certainly when I have 2 tyres that work.

Cyclist did an analysis of this and concluded that wider tyres deform less and subsequently have a better rolling resistance; there is a tipping point though where the added weight counters any benefit. I run 25mm grand tour contis which are really grippy, not too much weight wise and ok wearing.

Also be aware that there are recommended minimum tyre widths for rim sizes as well as maximum. There is a chart for his on Sheldon Brown website; if you have wider rims you should fit narrower tyres with caution. I thought it was a bit ott, but then mrs kept puncturing (even a couple of snakebites. On the front, and she is 9 st wet through!) 25mm gatorskins on her 19mm internal diameter rims whilst same tyres on my narrower rims and under a considerably heavier rider were fine. She has put 28's on and feels just as fast and no flats so far.

I love this forum.

No, your £10 tractor tyres won't slow you down a bit vs some nice light road tyres 🙂

I love this forum.

No, your £10 tractor tyres won't slow you down a bit vs some nice light road tyres

Have to agree. Better, lighter, narrower tyres will help. Don't go silly though 25 or 28 is fine the comments about rolling resistance still hold true if other factors are not greater.

Might be worth checking the weights too. I run cheap 32mm tyres to commute and the weight difference between them and my road tyres is 300g per tyre. Losing 7mm of width is a fair chunk of weight saving.

Laughs along with John_|

I swapped my 35s(75psi) for some 25s (110psi)and the whole getting home earlier must have been an optical illusion*

* or not 🙄

Yes, proper road tyres in 23 or 25, up at high pressure will feel better and be a bit faster. IMO its more in the feeling than the numbers. I have a regular 24 mile hilly road loop that I ride weekly. The time difference between good road bike with 23c tyres at 1hr 15 and the Croix de Fer with cross speed 35s at 1hr 23 is around 10%.

OP - conti Gatorskins are cheaper than the other suggestions so far and I have done 1000 miles of road cycling so far without puncturing. I run them at 90psi. Go for 28mm I suggest to lessen the comfort and handling difference between what you're currently running. But you will fell the difference between these and your commuting tyres definitely, I swapped 35mm semi slick CX tyres off for these Gatorsknins and was considerably faster.

Get some 25c slicks and latex inner tubes - you'll have to pump them up every day, but they roll so much better. I haven't noticed much difference between 25c and 23c Schwalbe Ones (having both), but the change in inner tube material was dramatic. I run the 23c 10PSI higher on wider rims, so they have a slightly wider profile than typical.

Schwalbe seem to come up slightly wider, anyway. Like most things, you get what you pay for, but there are diminishing returns.

Back in the real world: a year or so back I took the cross bike out on a road ride with a friend who'd just bought her first road bike. I was a lot fitter than her, but I was working like a dog to stay with her on my slightly overweight bike with 35s on.

Yes, proper road tyres in 23 or 25, up at high pressure will feel better and be a bit faster. IMO its more in the feeling than the numbers. I have a regular 24 mile hilly road loop that I ride weekly. The time difference between good road bike with 23c tyres at 1hr 15 and the Croix de Fer with cross speed 35s at 1hr 23 is around 10%.

You think that 10% slower is 'more in the feeling than the numbers'? That's a huge margin, particularly if you're riding with someone else of equal or greater fitness with the 10% faster tyres 😕

I wouldn't bother if you were just riding on your own, but given that the OP is specifically talking about fitting the tyres to ride with a fittish roadie, I know what I'd be doing. According to Strava I was six minutes faster up Holme Moss in space of two days on my road bike rather than the cross bike btw. I was going harder on the roadie, but even so, there's measurable difference ime, particularly on climbs.

I use 28 conti gatorskins on my boardman cx. Roll well and puncture proof.

I'd get a pair of the £49.99 conti gp400s from merlin. A proper road tyre will make a difference. Hard to say how much but when you ride with someone else a little bit does matter. On a road ride you tend to keep moving, not so many stop at the top of the hill breathers. All the little extra bits of effort you might have to make with slower tyres add up in the end.

You think that 10% slower is 'more in the feeling than the numbers'? That's a huge margin, particularly if you're riding with someone else of equal or greater fitness with the 10% faster tyres

Yeah, I suppose 10% does make a big difference in a group. I ride largely on my own on there road, hence me thinking not a huge difference, but I take your point 🙂