Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
None. Advantages in rolling resistance come from more supple casings and thinner tread. At your weight, you might even be better off with wider tires. Take a look at the Conti Speed King 2.2:
https://www.continental-tires.com/bi...speed-king-2-2
Though these are heavy tires - almost a pound each, not exactly supple tires. OTOH, they might take care of your durability issue. I'd say that you'd be faster on tires which didn't flat as often. It takes a heckuva effort to take 10 minutes of time out of a route.
I'm ok changing a flat for a thorn in the tube or something like that -- my main concern is a giant hole in the tire itself, rendering the tire unusable, and that's happened several times on major rides. What's a "casing" on a tire? And I'm assuming by thinner tread, you mean fewer grippers for when you wander off to gravel?
Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Reality: 18 hours on RR is a in-saddle average speed of ~8.5 mph. Increasing that by even 1 mph will take over an hour and a half off your time. Plain to see that's not going to happen with equipment changes, no matter what they are. I did a quick calculation: losing 60 lbs. might increase your speed on Cayuse pass by ~1 mph. That's a big deal.
RAMROD is a 15-hour ride, of which I'm spending 12 hours in the saddle. I've tried mightily to reduce rest-stop time, but you just have to go No. 2 in the porta-potty, and it's darned near impossible to get enough calories on that ride, (and they don't have much in the way of serious protein) so you really need to take the time to stuff your face.