Narrow tyres

[Andy W]

In recent years ive been riding disc equipped road and touring bikes. Tyre widths vary between 32mm on the Fairlight Strael and 45mm on my Croix de fer. I run the 32s at 80psi and thats my default.
Recently i dusted off my trusty 18 year old Longstaff audax, i gave it thorough service including a new pair of 25mm Conti gp 5000s, inflated to 100 psi.
What struck me was how spindly the old bike felt. With road surfaces having deteriorated over the last few decades i felt that 25mm tyres were not really viable. Running 40mm plus tyres on the Croix i dont usually bother about road surfaces just plough on. Now i have to consider carefully the route i take on the Longstaff. Its a pain as i dont usually plan a route, rather, i just head out with a rough time in mind.
Do others now consider narrower tyres to be almost obsolete?

[quixoticgeek]

Do others now consider narrower tyres to be almost obsolete?

Completely.

J

[De Sisti]

Do others now consider narrower tyres to be almost obsolete?

No. Still possible to ride on 25mm and 28 mm. Both sizes are still available to buy in multiple outlets.

[grams]

I could write an equivalent post about how I tried large tyres and they felt spongy and slow and weird and I’m not doing that again.

Do others now consider wide tyres functionally obsolete?

[rogerzilla]

I am a narrow tyre fan.  Wide tyres are a fad IMO.  There are bad narrow tyres and bad wide tyres. A narrow tyre with stiff sidewalls will feel awful, whereas a wide tyre might get away with it due to the lower pressure.

I don't notice any harshness with good 23mm tyres.

A lot depends on how fast you ride.  Wider tyres on a touring bike are ok but the extra weight and drag on a racing bike are not a good thing.  Rolling resistance is only part of it.

[aidan.f]

Good thread to ask this..

I'm trying to avoid the bother of fitting Schwalbe Pro-Ones in 32C instead of Ones 30C on my trike for PBP.

Pro ones   - A bit plusher ride maybe somewhat faster. Could wear out fast on a machine which scrubs tyres on corners
Ones - wot I have used - run OK wear OK - apparently a different compound to Pro's. a bit cheaper.

The maybe? marginal gain is nagging me  - someone please convince me I'm being anal, I'm riding PBP on a barrow not TDF!

[Duckfoot1606]

I don’t believe narrow tyres are obsolete, but do understand the sentiment that a bike with 25c tyres feels v different to one with 32c, for example. I’ve fitted the latter to my everyday bike and have the luxury of having a second, Audax bike using the former. I love riding both but the feel is completely different between them. Bearing in mind speed is not a major consideration in either case.

A

[robgul]

No problem with "narrow" - running 25 Marathons on the Ti tourer as that's dictated by the mudguards, 25 Pro Ones on the carbon as that's got very tight fork/rear stay clearances - 28 Marathons on the ebike tourer as I found the OEM 35s sluggish . . . I have a pair of brand new 23s that I might use on the Ti road bike, just 'cos I have them.

Overall I've found wide tyres slooooow . .  and I run most tyres at about 5% more than max pressure stated on the sidewall (I'm quite heavy)

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Good thread to ask this..

I'm trying to avoid the bother of fitting Schwalbe Pro-Ones in 32C instead of Ones 30C on my trike for PBP.

Pro ones   - A bit plusher ride maybe somewhat faster. Could wear out fast on a machine which scrubs tyres on corners
Ones - wot I have used - run OK wear OK - apparently a different compound to Pro's. a bit cheaper.

The maybe? marginal gain is nagging me  - someone please convince me I'm being anal, I'm riding PBP on a barrow not TDF!

A trike's rear tyres are quite lightly loaded, so their tyre pressures and/or widths should be similarly less. HK is running fairly quick 32C on her commuter trike, my trike is 28C now and I was happy enough with good 25C. I would be careful with trike tyres with flexible sidewalls that are significantly wider than their rims. Wide tyres may 'roll' on narrow-ish rims when cornering, at low pressures.

[quixoticgeek]

Four years ago while people were odd at PBP, I did a 300k Audax from Groningen. Due to riders having nav failure I ended up guiding a group of 4 round the route as I had the only working navigation.

In the group we had me on 32mm tyres, and then one rider each on 28, 25, and 13mm. We had headwinds a lot of the way back and had a good pace line going. There were sections of Pave along the route, and everytime we hit pave, i left everyone behind until the end of the sector. My 32mm GP5K tyres at 5bar pressure just glided (as much as anything does over pave) over the surface. While the other riders really struggled with it. I was already a big fan of wider tyres, but that ride really drove home how good they are when the road is anything other than perfect.

That said, winner of this year's race around the Netherlands Gravel Edition did it on 28mm gp5k tyres.

J

[Ian H]

Four of my bikes are on 25s, one has 38s.  The 38mm and one of the 25s are tubeless, which does seem to make a difference (though not enough to make changing the others urgent).

[Andy W]

Some very mixed replies. I did say I fitted 25mm go 5000s, decent tyres I’d say. I ought to add that as I’ve got older, I prefer to cycle more on rural less trafficked roads and by default they’re in poorer condition. When I was in my 30s and 40s I’d happily time trial on dual carriageway roads and use A roads for speed.

[citoyen]

I wouldn’t consider 25mm “narrow” on a road bike.

I agree with RZ - performance and feel vary so much between individual tyres that you can’t give a definitive objective answer based on the width alone.

[mrcharly-YHT]

What citoyen said.

I'm using 37mm Vittoria Hypers. They have a rolling resistance similar to a mid-range road racing tyre. So definitely not 'slow'. Could reduce RR by about 9W per tyre if I used an expensive racing tyre.

However, on bad road surfaces the 23 or 25mm tyres would tend to get caught in raddle grooves, slam and be damaged by sharp potholes.

The 37mm hypers just glide over the rough crap.

[Paul H]

Wide tyres are a fad IMO.

Some fad, 1 1/8" - 1 3/8" has been the most popular size since the invention of the safety bicycle.  The fad has been for some cyclists to imitate those racing, regardless of how appropriate. It's a fashion in decline, replaced at the other extreme by a few riders. The happy medium will remain where it's always been, 30 - 40mm are capable of most things without losing much to tyres better suited to specific disciplines.
Ride whatever you like of course, though it's easy to confuse familiarity with suitability.

[T42]

I find it amusing that 25mm tyres are now considered narrow.  My old Ti Audax bike won't take anything wider, and even 25mm I have to deflate to get into the frame.

Back when I first got it I put 23s on it, and an old chum who had been racing since the year dot was surprised at the width. He used to race on 18s.

[aidan.f]

Good thread to ask this..

I'm trying to avoid the bother of fitting Schwalbe Pro-Ones in 32C instead of Ones 30C on my trike for PBP.

Pro ones   - A bit plusher ride maybe somewhat faster. Could wear out fast on a machine which scrubs tyres on corners
Ones - wot I have used - run OK wear OK - apparently a different compound to Pro's. a bit cheaper.

The maybe? marginal gain is nagging me  - someone please convince me I'm being anal, I'm riding PBP on a barrow not TDF!

A trike's rear tyres are quite lightly loaded, so their tyre pressures and/or widths should be similarly less. HK is running fairly quick 32C on her commuter trike, my trike is 28C now and I was happy enough with good 25C. I would be careful with trike tyres with flexible sidewalls that are significantly wider than their rims. Wide tyres may 'roll' on narrow-ish rims at low pressures.

Thank you  If it ain't broke don't fix it!  -see you at Rambouillet.. bonne route!.

[Lightning Phil]

Good thread to ask this..

I'm trying to avoid the bother of fitting Schwalbe Pro-Ones in 32C instead of Ones 30C on my trike for PBP.

Pro ones are available in 30C , assuming you don’t have the 32C already.

[Lightning Phil]

As to aero penalty of 32mm vs 25mm tyres, don’t make me laugh

I run anywhere from 28mm to 40mm on my recumbent with the wider options being fitted through winter. Road bike which is my de facto gravel bike these days runs 35mm tubeless “gravel” tyres. Brommie is 32mm I think.

As has been pointed out 30mm to 40mm has been most popular tyre width for decades outside racing.

[L CC]

As has been pointed out 30mm to 40mm has been most popular tyre width for decades outside racing.

How do you define racing? When I rode with a club 15 years ago everyone ran 23mm summer 25mm winter. Touring bikes and all-terrain bikes need fat tyres, road bikes don't.

Going gently off road is more popular/necessary these days, is all.

[Jethro]

Back in the day, I did Audax rides inc' 600's on Vittoria Florida's which were 18mm and loved them.

My best TT wheels had Soyo tubular tyres which were 17mm fitted to 16mm Assos rims.

For many years I have been riding Continental GP4 Seasons 23mm but have recently been trying some 25mm and 28mm of the same make.  I am not convinced about the 28mm and have gone back to the 23mm or 25mm.

[mrcharly-YHT]

As has been pointed out 30mm to 40mm has been most popular tyre width for decades outside racing.

How do you define racing? When I rode with a club 15 years ago everyone ran 23mm summer 25mm winter. Touring bikes and all-terrain bikes need fat tyres, road bikes don't.

Going gently off road is more popular/necessary these days, is all.

When I rode with a club 30 years ago, the club riders used 1 1/4" (32mm) , fast club riders used 1 1/8" (28mm); only the 'racers' used narrow, but those were really narrow - 18mm at times.

[JefO]

Get mirrors so that you are always aware of what is behind you, without having to keep looking around. That way you can use the nicest bits of the road almost all of the time.

I was a fat tyre boy, and now I ride a fast road bike (and have a neck that is in its 60s) I find mirrors essential!

I watch in amazement as people on road bikes (without mirrors) ride on the crappy road surfaces on the left side of the tarmac, and wonder how much damage they are doing to their spines, and tyres, when there is nothing coming up the road behind them.

[hubner]

An actual 25mm wide tyre would be wide for racing but narrow for touring.

The most important thing is not the width but the construction. I've got Panaracer Paselas one on one bike and Veloflex Masters on another, both are are marked as 25mm and both are actually 22.5mm wide on 20mm external width rims. The handing, speed, comfort and ride are completely different.

The Pasela is a touring tyre, ie with stiff thick tread and sidewalls, although the Pasela does have relatively thin and flexible sidewalls for a touring tyre. The Veloflex has a paper thin sidewall and tread.

I also have an ebike with 40mm touring/commuting tyres, I wouldn't want to ride those without e power.

[FifeingEejit]

Get mirrors so that you are always aware of what is behind you, without having to keep looking around. That way you can use the nicest bits of the road almost all of the time.

I was a fat tyre boy, and now I ride a fast road bike (and have a neck that is in its 60s) I find mirrors essential!

I watch in amazement as people on road bikes (without mirrors) ride on the crappy road surfaces on the left side of the tarmac, and wonder how much damage they are doing to their spines, and tyres, when there is nothing coming up the road behind them.

Where are your roads?