Recently i've been doing an experiment in relation to tire size.
I put 25mm tires on my CX bike when I bought it. -Vittoria Rubino Pros. - Hindsight this was a regret. The ride was jarring everywhere I went on the road. Night rides were the worst time for me, despite being my favorite time to ride - And even with an amazing torch I couldn't help but stare down rather than ahead, fear of potholes or even the smallest rut would bother me. - I didn't ride anywhere especially bad.
I would ride in the rural areas, in the suburbs, in the towns and in the county parks. No matter where I went the ride would always keep me alert for what i'm about to smash my pelvis into again.
This nearly lead to me crashing on multiple occasions; constant fear of potholes and looking down -
I started to ride lower pressures, but I ended up hitting a deep pothole and buckling both wheels and popping my rear tire. -despite being in the correct weight range for the PSI I lowered down too.
This left me stranded miles from home. I got there in the end after arranging transport.
But i was angry at the 25mm tires and what they were offering me on the places I ride on. - It was like a spoilt child, the smoothest looking piece of road would be screaming at my tires for no apparent reason .
So, to really get away from the 23-25mm range, I went ahead and got a 32c tire. Vittoria Zaffiro Pros - Giving the finger to the 28mm tire because it "wasn't enough" of a comfort gap.
32c muted and nulled the road more. Muted is the best word I could think of it, as if the imperfections, ruts and potholes were some neighbors arguing and you turned their voices down with a remote. It made everything softer and less violent. Really took the edge off it.
I had assumed that if the gap of comfort between 25-28 is so huge; that by doubling that difference (going to 25-32c) I would get "invincibility!" in terms of comfort
I was wrong. 32c tires suffer the exact problems of a 28c tire. They pick up annoying jars from a glorifed ruts and will not stand a good chance at fighting a even half-decent pothole at speed.
They can definitely mute the road surface; make no mistake - but the size is misleading. It really feels the same as 28c tire in terms of comfort. - It mutes the smaller imperfections but not the bigger ones.
This ruined my idea that my huge wide 32c tires were invincible. I couldn't ride care-free on the roads.
I had to go bigger than 32 now; but I had another issue. - The speed. I had covered that converting from 25-32 had only cost me somewhere around 150 grams per wheel (give/take) using light innertubes on all sizes.
I had a slight speed difference with the 32 over the 25. on the rough roads, 32c helped for comfort but not enough for me to feel like I could plant serious power down. - But i could still go faster than the 25
I didn't want to get a 35-38c tire because I felt like it would feel the same as the 32. - and then ultimately the 28. - (not enough)
At this point I wanted to maintain the speed of the 25mm but I wanted to mute all the harsh imperfections. Not the smaller imperfections that the 32c had muted down.
I spent ages looking for the perfect size. My cyclocross bike can take 50mm tires with room to spare, but too wide would spoil the speed.
Sadly, it's very hard to find tires past a 37mm that are
1) Lightweight
2) not diamond pattern or knobblies
you can find them of course, but they're often way more expensive than I was wanting to pay.
I found some Continental Contact II tires. They fit most of my criteria, they were very light for a 42c tire coming in at 690 Grams which was only 300 grams heavier per wheel than my 32c.
And they had a mostly road-orientated tread design. - Marathons were another tire I would of considered, but they have too much rubber which makes the weight shoot up and more importantly, the tire is more dense and less comfortable.
With these, I've just completed about 50 miles of my conti contacts II.
And They've done everything faster than both my 25-32c tire despite being heavier. I didn't even feel the weight on the hills.
People say that it won't have the agility or nimble behavior of what a road bike should be, but 42 (which actually was 39mm on my calipers) felt just as agile and nimble as a skinny tire - But with the ability to mute all imperfections on the roads.
By all, I mean all imperfections. They truly are an invincible tire size for the most serious of ruts or hits. They mute it all down to a very tolerable level.
My only regret is not going this big sooner. I should point out, that I ride these on the country routes daily. - I have not felt a change in my speed for the negative on the smooth country roads - but considerably faster in the suburbs, towns and county parks.
I had a quest to find at what point does going too big of a tire become inefficient. -
When does the speed loss outweigh the comfort gain?
For rough-road countrys like the UK, we can go bigger without losing benefits in speed. Not to mention the levels of exploration you can unlock too. For smoother road countries perhaps a 32c would be the same as a 42c tire in the UK.
But for what i can tell you, the 42c tire size is the biggest you need to get rid of all problems related to comfort on the road. 45c if you're on the heavier side I'd say. Any bigger than this, and you'd only be adding unnecessary weight.
It's just a shame that not many road bikes will accept anything past a 28mm tire. Which, is one reason I bought a cyclocross bike as a road bike.
*PS i'm very tired and semi-drunk trying to write this, so, if it's off a little I apologize. I hope you get what i'm trying to say in a rough shell. *
I put 25mm tires on my CX bike when I bought it. -Vittoria Rubino Pros. - Hindsight this was a regret. The ride was jarring everywhere I went on the road. Night rides were the worst time for me, despite being my favorite time to ride - And even with an amazing torch I couldn't help but stare down rather than ahead, fear of potholes or even the smallest rut would bother me. - I didn't ride anywhere especially bad.
I would ride in the rural areas, in the suburbs, in the towns and in the county parks. No matter where I went the ride would always keep me alert for what i'm about to smash my pelvis into again.
This nearly lead to me crashing on multiple occasions; constant fear of potholes and looking down -
I started to ride lower pressures, but I ended up hitting a deep pothole and buckling both wheels and popping my rear tire. -despite being in the correct weight range for the PSI I lowered down too.
This left me stranded miles from home. I got there in the end after arranging transport.
But i was angry at the 25mm tires and what they were offering me on the places I ride on. - It was like a spoilt child, the smoothest looking piece of road would be screaming at my tires for no apparent reason .
So, to really get away from the 23-25mm range, I went ahead and got a 32c tire. Vittoria Zaffiro Pros - Giving the finger to the 28mm tire because it "wasn't enough" of a comfort gap.
32c muted and nulled the road more. Muted is the best word I could think of it, as if the imperfections, ruts and potholes were some neighbors arguing and you turned their voices down with a remote. It made everything softer and less violent. Really took the edge off it.
I had assumed that if the gap of comfort between 25-28 is so huge; that by doubling that difference (going to 25-32c) I would get "invincibility!" in terms of comfort
I was wrong. 32c tires suffer the exact problems of a 28c tire. They pick up annoying jars from a glorifed ruts and will not stand a good chance at fighting a even half-decent pothole at speed.
They can definitely mute the road surface; make no mistake - but the size is misleading. It really feels the same as 28c tire in terms of comfort. - It mutes the smaller imperfections but not the bigger ones.
This ruined my idea that my huge wide 32c tires were invincible. I couldn't ride care-free on the roads.
I had to go bigger than 32 now; but I had another issue. - The speed. I had covered that converting from 25-32 had only cost me somewhere around 150 grams per wheel (give/take) using light innertubes on all sizes.
I had a slight speed difference with the 32 over the 25. on the rough roads, 32c helped for comfort but not enough for me to feel like I could plant serious power down. - But i could still go faster than the 25
I didn't want to get a 35-38c tire because I felt like it would feel the same as the 32. - and then ultimately the 28. - (not enough)
At this point I wanted to maintain the speed of the 25mm but I wanted to mute all the harsh imperfections. Not the smaller imperfections that the 32c had muted down.
I spent ages looking for the perfect size. My cyclocross bike can take 50mm tires with room to spare, but too wide would spoil the speed.
Sadly, it's very hard to find tires past a 37mm that are
1) Lightweight
2) not diamond pattern or knobblies
you can find them of course, but they're often way more expensive than I was wanting to pay.
I found some Continental Contact II tires. They fit most of my criteria, they were very light for a 42c tire coming in at 690 Grams which was only 300 grams heavier per wheel than my 32c.
And they had a mostly road-orientated tread design. - Marathons were another tire I would of considered, but they have too much rubber which makes the weight shoot up and more importantly, the tire is more dense and less comfortable.
With these, I've just completed about 50 miles of my conti contacts II.
And They've done everything faster than both my 25-32c tire despite being heavier. I didn't even feel the weight on the hills.
People say that it won't have the agility or nimble behavior of what a road bike should be, but 42 (which actually was 39mm on my calipers) felt just as agile and nimble as a skinny tire - But with the ability to mute all imperfections on the roads.
By all, I mean all imperfections. They truly are an invincible tire size for the most serious of ruts or hits. They mute it all down to a very tolerable level.
My only regret is not going this big sooner. I should point out, that I ride these on the country routes daily. - I have not felt a change in my speed for the negative on the smooth country roads - but considerably faster in the suburbs, towns and county parks.
I had a quest to find at what point does going too big of a tire become inefficient. -
When does the speed loss outweigh the comfort gain?
For rough-road countrys like the UK, we can go bigger without losing benefits in speed. Not to mention the levels of exploration you can unlock too. For smoother road countries perhaps a 32c would be the same as a 42c tire in the UK.
But for what i can tell you, the 42c tire size is the biggest you need to get rid of all problems related to comfort on the road. 45c if you're on the heavier side I'd say. Any bigger than this, and you'd only be adding unnecessary weight.
It's just a shame that not many road bikes will accept anything past a 28mm tire. Which, is one reason I bought a cyclocross bike as a road bike.
*PS i'm very tired and semi-drunk trying to write this, so, if it's off a little I apologize. I hope you get what i'm trying to say in a rough shell. *
on whatever tyre size you fancy
