pic rel is a 28mm, and peloton is now running 25mm as a standard, as oposed to 2000s trend of 23mm, and in the 90s it was 19mm and 20mm tires.
In many of the gimmick new trends in road bikes (im looking at you 10-12 speed casettes and discs), going bigger tires is a positive move. Personally I run 20mm on a road bike, and 30mm on my commute and the difference is offcourse huge (20mm sucks btw but im stuck with them for now).
Tires on road will probably go to 28mm as a standard soon. Question is will the standard tires in the peloton go to 30mm? 32 seem to be the point when the profile of the tire becomes to tall which makes it flexy in the corners and less responsive (with 30mm tires, bike still feels like a very responsive road bike imho).
how wide is too wide? I say 32 is too wide for a road bike or the upper margin at least.
They probably won't go over 28 mm. Above that you start running into Aero and weight issues with the tires.
I ride 25 mm tires on 25 mm wide rims. Makes for really easy wheelchanges when there's no need to touch the brakes at all when changing tires. I feel like 25 mm is around the ideal width when in normal roads. If you're riding in cobbles or shitty roads then 28 mm or even 30 mm is probably the better choice. Good quality 25 mm tires already feel smooth as fuck so there's not much need to go wider for comfort.
Also since pros ride tubs the tire profile issue which comes with wide clinchers isn't a problem even if they went for really wide tires.
>>978792
Hard to say what will get adopted and what won't. everyone's always eager to provide the next standard or tech to sell.
Having said that, as for now I've only seen 28s on endurance style, and 32 on gravel bikes like the diverge. I doubt they'll go over 28, especially on "le tour" type shit where everyone's riding super aero bikes.
>>978794
>32 on gravel bikes like the diverge
32 definatly seems like a complete overkill for a road bike, but going 30 might be possible.
>>978793
>I ride 25 mm tires on 25 mm wide rims.
Nice combo, i bet they ride nicely. 25 seem so huge compared to my 20mm, however the jump from 25 to 28s doesnt seem that big.
>Also since pros ride tubs the tire profile issue which comes with wide clinchers isn't a problem even if they went for really wide tires.
Ive heard that with certain rim widht/tire combos the pneumatics give a better profile than tubulars, well see
>>978801
I had 28 mm earlier but my ride quality went up when I upgraded to high quality 25 mm tires. There doesn't seem to be much difference between them if you're not riding on cobbles or really shitty roads a lot.
I'm pretty sure that some teams already use clinchers on certain conditions like TTs as it can provide a better rolling resistance. Though even the best clinchers don't quite get up to tubs in ride quality so in normal races it's still worth it to ride tubs.
I have 40mm tires on both of my road-ish bikes - a Salsa Vaya and this weirdo dropbar-converted mountain bike frame.
Yeah, there's probably a significant aero hit, but whatever. I'm not racing. They ride SUPER smooth, don't weigh a ton, and are extremely confidence inspiring on steep descents - especially if the pavement isn't the best.
If I were going to buy a new road bike today, I'd consider 28mm the minimum acceptable tire and prefer clearance for at least a 32.
>>978818
>extremely confidence inspiring on steep descents - especially if the pavement isn't the best.
but if the road is good, a skinnier tire is actually better for descent - in corners it flexes less that the wider one, and it moves wth the rim more predictibly (teoretically, if the road is good, the widht isnt important but the profile height is)
>>978792
I got a pair of 25mm Contis by mistake a while back and discovered that I felt much more stable at high speeds, especially descending and taking curves at high speed, than 23mm, so now that's all I buy.
Sydney roads are fkn horrible. Currently running 25s for road and have noticed it feels better after 23s.
Going to try out 28s on the single speed for commuting next tyre change(currently 23) then also move to 27/28s on the road bike also if it goes well.
I don't think pros were riding narrow tires on the 90s just because it was on-trend
someone said that narrow tires were better back in the day, because tires weren't as good. The narrower ones had lower rolling resistance for some reason having to do with the width
Now we have wide tires that are just as good.
There's a lot of research on the Aero vs. Rolling Resistance of tire sizes.
Jane Heine
> "When we tested in ... an actual wind tunnel, the difference between a 25 mm and a 31 mm tire were too small to be statistically significant. "
>>978821
The ones on the bike pictured are actually nominally 35mm tires on a very wide 25mm rim - they measure 40mm wide in this configuration. Very little tire flop/flex sideways in corners, and the bigger contact patch is great. The one and only time my buddy with 23mm tires tried to stick behind me during a twisty descent, he washed out and wrecked.
Perhaps on a really smooth road that perfectly clear of debris, dirt, dust, and sand, a skinny tire would be better - but we don't live in a perfect world. Particularly, all of the mountain descents around here that have low car traffic are on pretty rough pavement.
28 mm is plenty good for a road frame unless one is doing serious racing or trialing.
>>978900
FYI when Jan did his wind tunnel tests, he decided to make the margin of error as big as possible by introducing lots of variables.
Then he does rumble strips to prove that fat tires are better for normal paved roads.
Don't take Jan at face value. He always skews the tests do that French shit ends up on top. He also perpetuates a lot of unscientific bullshit like planing when he can't skew a test to show how much better French shit is.
I'm not saying the information isn't useful or wrong. Just understand he is biased, but pretends to be unbiased.
I ride 23mm. They're fine even on smoothish gravel roads. But I totally plan on getting 25s for more grip and comfort. I hope it'll make my descents faster, maybe it'll give me more confidence to push the limits.
>>978898
I roll 37s on my crosscheck around Sydney. Used to run 32 but even those can get swallowed up by grates and expansion joints.
>>978925
>The ones on the bike pictured are actually nominally 35mm tires on a very wide 25mm rim
25mm inner diameter? is that a mtb rim? can you give us a few more pics of yourr orange bike, looks interesting.
>>978974
>I'm not saying the information isn't useful or wrong. Just understand he is biased, but pretends to be unbiased.
I was assuming he had some bias but I didn't think about skewing test results with weird methods, thanks for the heads up.
I got burned following rivbike ideals when I first got into biking. That's how I ended up with a canti-braking carbon fork riser bar piece of crap on my first bike build. Sigh
When will retrogrouches learn
semi-useless anecdote:
I can fit a schwlabe marathon supreme 32c in the front of a CAAD5, but it does not fit in the rear (caliper brake rub). Possibly looking into a wider rear rim and "low profile" brake but probably won't
32 in the front is nice for city streets
>>978792
They already run up do 32mms in Paris ROubaix, Flanders because of the shit roads, 28mm has been used in Strada Bianca
Thats for comfort
the 25mms supposedly roll faster than 23mms, dunno what a 28mm would do...those tires start getting heavier though
