OUGrad05

Obviously this can be dependent on original wheels/tires and which ones you switch to. As I get used to riding my road bike and looking at speeds of others I'm wondering how big of a difference does the gear make?

The first hour of today's ride I averaged right at 18mph with very little wind. The last 35 minutes the wind started to pick up and I had to ride into it for a bit to get back home. Also had a substantial hill toward the end of the ride, all served to bring the average down to a finishing speed of 16.8.

Riding the routes I normally ride, my speeds are usually 17.1 or so with a reasonable amount left in the tank. I could probably average 18 to 18.2 if I pushed fairly hard.

I'm thinking next spring I may upgrade my wheels/tires and see if I can't squeeze another 2-3 tenths of an MPH out of the upgrade. Is that expecting too much?

datlas 

One.

Shimagnolo

It all depends on how susceptible the rider is to the placebo effect.

WhyFi

Will the tires make you hit more green lights?

f4rrest

How much harder will you pedal?

OUGrad05

So basically sounds like it's not worth the upgrade...

No clue if I will pedal harder, I don' have a power meter. I use a heart rate monitor to see my effort.

DrIsotope

Could be some speeds, could be many speeds... could be negative speeds.

Truth is, bending your elbows more and getting your head lower will add more speed than any tire ever could.

popeye

If you can get to 20-21 you might feel the diff with aero wheels.

12strings

Wheels: hardly any.

Tires: could be substantial.

OUGrad05

I get to 25+ on every ride, but with the small rolling hills I can't average 20 and our winds sometimes are brutal especially by the end of my rides (at least this time of year).

datlas 

You are kidding, right?

WhyFi

There's so many factors that go in to the rough figures that you're talking about that it'd be impossible to tell you what to expect and, in terms of tangible improvements, it might not be huge. OTOH, changing to a lighter weight, well-built wheelset and good tires can change the handling feel of your bike in a very noticeable way.

gregf83 

I saw 3-4 kph difference between commuting on studded winter tires vs Conti GP4000s. You're unlikely to see anything close to that.

For a rough estimate it's easily possible to save 15-20W with decent tires. Your power to go 18mph is likely in the 150-200W range so you might get an extra 10% power applied to moving you forward. That will make you roughly 3% faster or 18.5mph instead of 18.

What kind of wheels/tires are you riding now?

gregf83 

On the other hand it's not worth riding on crappy tires.

OUGrad05

I just bought this bike, my first road bike. It's the standard wheel/tire setup on the Roubaix Elite. The wheels are Axis Elite Discs and the tires are the specialized 26mm

gregf83 

If those are specialized turbo they're decent tires so you are unlikely to see much of an improvement by changing them.

edit: This article compares the rolling resistance of a number of tires including the turbo pros that come on the Roubaix:Specialized Road Tires 2014 - Slowtwitch.com Could be a reasonable difference.

wphamilton

gregf83 is talking sensibly, and don't let others bring you down. IF you have stock tires, or otherwise relatively speaking crappy tires, then easy rolling tires will make a difference.

OUGrad05

They are Turbo's it says it on the tire, Just looked.

gregf83 

Specialized has numerous tires with Turbo in the name. Turbo cotton, S-Works Turbo, Turbo Pro etc.

Psimet2001 

As a wheel builder I can answer this with authority: It's not about the wheels.

OUGrad05

Doesn't say much else on it, says "Turbo Pro" in red/white and then big black letters along the side it says "Specialized" so I suspect its a somewhat generic tire that they make.

gregf83 

It's in the report I linked earlier. There's a substantial difference in power required compared to a GP4000s.

Abe_Froman

For a normal person, and it seems like the OP certainly falls in that category, tires matter, wheels don't, barring reliability issues. Also..tires are a personal thing. Many might trade everything for a slightly but measurably faster/more comfy ride. Others might never want to change a flat. Also, as others mentioned...there is a huge range of quality in tires. If your current ones are not top end, you may have significant room for noticeable improvement with minimal $ expenditure.

Regardless, tires are the cheapest meaningful upgrade/change on a bike. Find what you want, and get the best you can afford that does it before making any other changes to the bike, IMO.

OUGrad05

Yes that was super helpful if I'm reading those graphs correctly.
Good to know the sausage king of Chicago rides bikes

I'm going to buy a turbo trainer so I can ride year 'round, something I haven't done previously. I may also get some gear that will allow me to ride when its down in the 30s or 40s. Much cooler than that with our winds though and I'll probably ride the turbo trainer. I'm hoping that plus tires/wheels will have me closing in on significantly higher average speeds next year.

I was pleased with my first hour today at 18.0 mph. I had a touch left in the tank but probably not more than 18.3 or so if I was really killing it. The heat probably didn't help the last 40 mins of the ride along with the winds starting to increase.

asgelle

I never understand what motivates someone to spread such clearly wrong information.