tyres

[grimme]

i just bought a bike, the first for 50yrs and first new one ever. most of my bikes came off the local tip, i had 20 one time and i never replaced a puncture, just found another wheel that wasnt, in fact the only bike i ever bought cost 30bob £1.50p it had double front forks with a big spring between them and cow horn handle bars, it was way more fun than my new merida crossway 20. my question is, when i ride with my brother on his road bike with tyres thinner than my thumb i notice my tyres (what ever came as standard) make a lot of noise compared to his and this noise makes it feel like its harder work riding, is this the case? and if it is what thickness of tyre should i get for road used? cheers

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Hi!
A quick google tells me your Merida has 700x40 tyres.
Those are quite thick, in keep with the bike, a MB.
They are semi slick tyres from what I can see in the pictures, ok for road and for not too rough off road.
Some fatter MB tyres do make a noise, have you ever "heard" a fat bike?
I think it has to do with the lower pressure, btw, are you periodically checking/topping up tyre pressure?
Once a week with a track pump that has a gauge is ideal.
The values for your tyres are written on the sidewall, in PSI/BAR, different measurement units for the same thing.
Yes, you could go narrower (check the rim first), say 700x35, more than that the wheels would look "lost" in the frame.
On a MB with front suspension the ride will feel you work harder on tarmac than on a road bike, but you can ride on surfaces that would be harder on a skinny tyred bike.
I bet your bouncy tyres make the ride comfortable on our roads full of potholes.

 

[Alan O]

i just bought a bike, the first for 50yrs and first new one ever. most of my bikes came off the local tip, i had 20 one time and i never replaced a puncture, just found another wheel that wasnt, in fact the only bike i ever bought cost 30bob £1.50p it had double front forks with a big spring between them and cow horn handle bars, it was way more fun than my new merida crossway 20. my question is, when i ride with my brother on his road bike with tyres thinner than my thumb i notice my tyres (what ever came as standard) make a lot of noise compared to his and this noise makes it feel like its harder work riding, is this the case? and if it is what thickness of tyre should i get for road used? cheers

Firstly, congrats on getting back in the saddle - it looks like you've got a pretty decent all-round bike there, which should be a lot of fun

And I'd emphasize the fun - while your brother and his skinny-tyre road bike might be faster on the road, you should have a much better ride if you venture on to any gravel or other off-road tracks.

But yes, fatter tyres can make a lot of noise - the knobbly tyres I have for my mountain bike make a terrible racket on tarmac and sound like they're sticking to the road. But then when I ride through the woods on them and tackle the mud baths they're great fun.

Right now I have 42mm semi-slicks on it, and I find them a great all-round choice, even though they are noisy on some surfaces. On tarmac I'm only a couple of mph slower than my road bikes, and on hard or gravelly off-road surfaces they provide a very nice ride.

As Pat "5mph" suggests, you could go for thinner tyres, but right now I'd agree with the suggestion of trying different tyre pressures. I have my semi-slicks pumped to near the top end of their indicated pressure range, which gets over the possible sluggishness but leaves them still comfortable. My knobbly tyres have a lot less pressure, which works better off road on soft surfaces.

But most of all, just have fun!

 

[night cycler]

Just in case @grimme doesn't realise what "MB" is, it stands for "mountain bike", as does "Mtb".

Are you sure about that bit? With suspension the ride will feel softer, surely. But riding a road bike on rough surfaces will be more difficult.

I thought that.

 

[Pale Rider]

The road noise you can hear is 'wasted' energy, but I doubt it amounts to much.

As said, you don't want to be pushing knobbly tyres on the road, but you are not doing that, the Kenda tyres on your bike have a shallow tread.

Narrower tyres might help a tiny bit, pressure is more important.

Around 50psi would be about right for your tyres.

That can be quite hard to achieve with a hand pump, so what you need is a track pump with a gauge.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Just in case @grimme doesn't realise what "MB" is, it stands for "mountain bike", as does "Mtb".

Are you sure about that bit? With suspension the ride will feel softer, surely. But riding a road bike on rough surfaces will be more difficult.

Yes, sorry, amended now.
I meant feel like you need to pedal harder to achieve the same speed as on a road bike.

 

[grimme]

thankyou all, i infer that they tyres i have are allrounders and for general get fit riding theres not much point in changing them?

 

[Vantage]

Around 50psi would be about right for your tyres.

That can be quite hard to achieve with a hand pump, so what you need is a track pump with a gauge.

That pressure depends on the ops weight. 50psi in my 35mm Kojaks is enough to rattle my head clean off my shoulders. I find 30psi supporting my 10st to be a nice compromise between comfort and rolling resistance. Those Kendas with the increased girth and stiffer sidewalls would need less pressure.

I rode for 30+ years without owning a track pump. They do make the job easier but a good mini pump can achieve 90+ psi without it's owner bursting a blood vessel.

 

[Tin Pot]

i just bought a bike, the first for 50yrs and first new one ever. most of my bikes came off the local tip, i had 20 one time and i never replaced a puncture, just found another wheel that wasnt, in fact the only bike i ever bought cost 30bob £1.50p it had double front forks with a big spring between them and cow horn handle bars, it was way more fun than my new merida crossway 20. my question is, when i ride with my brother on his road bike with tyres thinner than my thumb i notice my tyres (what ever came as standard) make a lot of noise compared to his and this noise makes it feel like its harder work riding, is this the case? and if it is what thickness of tyre should i get for road used? cheers

The hard work is probably more due to the suspension and weight of the bike. It’s a bike that built for rough terrain, or at least not for roads - do you ride off road much?

 

[Alan O]

I rode for 30+ years without owning a track pump.

Same here, but since I got one a couple of years ago it's made an enormous difference. The big benefit is really just consistency - I know which pressure works best for which bike and which tyres, and being able to reproduce it consistently is a big benefit. I never want to go back to the old hit-and-miss days of... keep pumping with no idea what the pressure is and just hope.

There are some decent inexpensive ones out there, and I'd recommend a track pump to anyone who does any kind of regular cycling.