Anyone still using 23 C tyres?

[Chislenko]

My Orbea Orca came with 23's. It will take 25's at a push but a very close fit in regard to rear frame and extremely narrow Ultegra brake calipers. Even with the caliper open a 25 will only just go in.

I never had a problem riding on 23's.

 

[Dogtrousers]

My bike goes up to 28s. I could possibly go to 30 ifI took the mudguards off.

I sometimes ponder the idea of getting a new bike that would take fatter tyres (and would have disc brakes) but I know deep down that I probably wouldn't be able to tell any difference and it would be a waste of effort and money. Not to mention that it would be terribly disloyal to my current bike.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I never had a problem riding on 23's.

Nobody did.

Till wider tyres became the thing and people started to convince us that we used to hate 23's.

 

[Hover Fly]

I can’t remember old-fashioned thin tubs and fig-roll rims being uncomfortable, how much do the modern aero deep rims affect comfort?

 

[cyberknight]

It's not just the tyre size that makes a difference, so does the construction. I've just gone back from 25mm to 23mm on one bike and it's made a whole lot of difference to the ride comfort.

I've been running my PlanetX Pro Carbon on 25.5mm Jack Brown Race tyres which were made for Rivendell by Panaracer and sold through PlanetX for a while and are as below (not my pic)
View attachment 782562
They should have been good with a folding bead and light weight, but were possibly the worst tyres I've used - harsh ride and just didn't seem to provide any cushioning effect against the local crap roads. Don't know if it was caused by a very stiff and short sidewall - couldn't even do a quick thumb test to check the pressure as there was no give - or a harder rubber on the tread.
I swapped them out for a pair of dirt cheap (£7 each when I purchased them a couple of years ago) 23mm Vittoria Zaffiros this morning and went for a quick test ride - what a revelation. No road buzz, smoothed everything out nicely and I found myself going for a longer ride to try out known crap roads to confirm the better ride.
I suspect that a softer and deeper rubber compound on the tread combined with a taller and more compliant sidewall construction has helped with the improved comfort despite the narrower width and 10psi higher pressure.

Indeed
I had some wiggle brand tyres that on paper should have been good but they were harsh and slow

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

You’ve prompted me to take the ‘blue Ribble’ out of the shed, pump up the tyres, ‘diesel’ the chain, & go to work on it one day this week
(I finish at 20:00, so lights not required)

It’s got a fairly dire saddle on it, at the moment, as the ‘Flite’ (90s original) went onto the CGR that replaced it, & is now on my ‘Spa’

I’ve ridden it in this morning
Even with that (standard) Ribble supplied saddle (that can’t go back far enough for me), it’s a good ride
Light/fast/nice handling
I remember why l liked it so much

It must be longer than l thought since l rode it, as there’s no ‘British Cycling’ sticker on the top-tube, just the one for ’Squires Cafe’

 

[Bristolian]

You don't need a gravel bike for this. Any road bike from the last 2-3 years that markets itself as an endurance bike (e.g. Canyon Endurace, Giant Defy, Specialized Roubaix, etc.) will have clearances for at least 36mm nowadays and will probably come with 30-32mm tyres on the stock wheels by default.

As I said, wider tyres is just one of the reasons. I'm not in the market for another road bike and my Allez is limited to 28mm so, to meet my other considerations, a gravel bike is the best solution.

 

[froze]

I run one bike with 23's, the rest of the road bikes are 24 and 25, but nothing larger than 25. I don't care about what the trends are, I buy whatever tires that are high quality on a low closeout price, and a lot of the times I have no control over the size of the tires, and I don't care. I have a touring bike that I run 38s on.

 

[chris667]

I doubt I would be able to ride on 23mm tyres now. But...

I genuinely miss the feeling of having to ride a machine that feels like it's right on the edge of failure. Hit a pothole and you get a puncture or pringle your wheel. There's a feeling of being at one with a machine like that.

Modern bikes are boring.

 

[lazybloke]

I doubt I would be able to ride on 23mm tyres now. But...

I genuinely miss the feeling of having to ride a machine that feels like it's right on the edge of failure. Hit a pothole and you get a puncture or pringle your wheel. There's a feeling of being at one with a machine like that.

Modern bikes are boring.

What else do you do for kicks?

Avoid vaccines, eat cheap Fugu fish, play Russian Roulette? Drive the wrong way on the M25?
Walk on the cracks in the pavement?

 

[chris667]

Avoid vaccines, eat cheap Fugu fish, play Russian Roulette? Drive the wrong way on the M25?
Walk on the cracks in the pavement?

No, none of those things. Those are stupid.

I do sometimes miss operating a very highly-strung bike though. Dangerous, and sometimes inconvenient? Yes. But fun all the same.

 

[fossyant]

I doubt I would be able to ride on 23mm tyres now. But...

I genuinely miss the feeling of having to ride a machine that feels like it's right on the edge of failure. Hit a pothole and you get a puncture or pringle your wheel. There's a feeling of being at one with a machine like that.

Modern bikes are boring.

What sort of crap bike were you riding then. I've still got my 35 year old steel bikes and they never felt like that. I'd be more happy pushing 60 mph on my handbuilt bike that's never had a speed wobble, than a mass produced modern bike.

I've only more recently squeezed 25c on them as the roads have been getting much worse, and I'm also doing more back lane cycling. The frame is usually more of an issue than the tyre width in terms of comfort. TBH, I feel the difference more by switching to the alloy/carbon bike than the steel - that gives a harsher ride even with 28c.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

No, none of those things. Those are stupid.

I do sometimes miss operating a very highly-strung bike though. Dangerous, and sometimes inconvenient? Yes. But fun all the same.

23mm tyres dangerous?

Lucky I didn't know that, I spent over 50 years riding them. Except for a couple of years when I switched to 20mm.

 

[chris667]

What sort of crap bike were you riding then. I've still got my 35 year old steel bikes and they never felt like that. I'd be more happy pushing 60 mph on my handbuilt bike that's never had a speed wobble, than a mass produced modern bike.

Ooh, get you, danger man! Not sure why you're trying to tell me how fast/good you are.

For the record, I've owned many bikes of varying levels of quality. Some of the ones I've enjoyed most were pretty bad, and I didn't like some of the good ones.

23mm tyres dangerous?

OK, dangerous is a poor choice of words. But the point I'm trying to make is you have to be careful riding hard on a bike with 23mm tyres in a way that you don't have to be when you ride 1.75 tyres. Riding a bike like that gives you a different sort of focus because the tyres and wheels are more fragile, no matter what you say.

I love my road bikes, but I'm not interested in riding them now. Even if I did, roads are not as good here in Derbyshire as they were when I lived in Oxfordshire 20+ years ago. I used to do 250 miles a week on road bikes with skinny tyres back then, and I loved it, mostly.

I was never into measuring how fast I was, but I know I used to get to work faster on 25s than I did on 23s. But that's a different discussion.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

OK, dangerous is a poor choice of words. But the point I'm trying to make is you have to be careful riding hard on a bike with 23mm tyres in a way that you don't have to be when you ride 1.75 tyres. Riding a bike like that gives you a different sort of focus because the tyres and wheels are more fragile, no matter what you say.

That simply isn't true, the width of the tyre has no bearing on how stable the bike is. Up to a short few years ago no one turned up at the start of a race with tyres wider than 23, and that was from the lowliest amateur level all the way up, including the often wet and muddy cobbled classics and 60mph mountain descents.

Wider tyres are now seen to have performance advantages, but itis nothing to to with safety.