Originally Posted by
rootboy
Or to Jan Heine.
+1 on that! ^^^^^^^
I did a lot of training on heavy wheels in the 90's, on wheels that I built from "obsolete" 22-25mm rims.
Seemingly no one was doing that on the rides back then, in L.A. and Silicon Valley, that I frequented, but I persisted for many reasons:
First: As my vintage-bike collection began to grow, I found that wider rims and tires could be run at pressures that were further under the blow-out pressure limits that aged tires would tolerate, and I have long since confirmed that this is the way to go for maximal tire life of my ever-aging tires (the rims and tires that could so often can be had for free).
Second: The lower pressure was more comfortable, the wider, softer tires could cross invisible scatterings of gravel with noticeably less effect on traction.
Third: The wider rims also gave the wheel/tire more lateral stiffness that could be felt, with seemingly no increase in harshness as would result from using higher pressures with narrower rims.
Fourth: The wider contact patch afforded by lower pressure meant the tread lasted longer.
Fifth: Wider contact patches are also safer in peloton (group) riding, since there is less tendency for the tire to track pavement seams that are obscured from view by the riders in front of you.
It was quite a surprise for wider modern rims to emerge as being more aerodynamic, not less! This really tips the scales, since the aero benefit can overcome the weight penalty.
I look forward to the rim/tire industry further developing the wider contact patch products.
I suspect that the pinch-flat-prone, fast-wearing, groove-tracking 20mm tires of the 1980's went a long way toward limiting people's perception of road bicycles as "useful" and "fun", and it also feels great to finally see my own strange choice of wider rims and tires vindicated within group-riding and racing fraternities.
Now, I wonder if steel frames will perhaps follow the same re-discovery among group-riding cyclists(?), although, unlike wide rims, steel frames never disappeared so completely.