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700 x 19 or 20 Tires

Old 05-13-22, 08:34 AM
  #26  
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I always enjoy riding my skinny high-pressure tires on smooth roads 10 miles to the cafe and back.
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Old 05-13-22, 08:39 AM
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Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
That's the MAXIMUM pressure bro, not the ideal pressure for all riding. Veloflex gives a range and it's not '139-141 psi'
So I shouldn't pump my tires to the maximum? Why not?
Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
And you may be confusing 'responsiveness' for 'harshness'.
Harshness? I think you're too sensitive. Might want to look into gel saddles and foam comfy grips to go with those squishy tires. And maybe think about buying a touring bike. Racing bikes don't seem to be your cup of tea.

Last edited by smd4; 05-13-22 at 08:50 AM.
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Old 05-13-22, 08:41 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by nlerner
I always enjoy riding my skinny high-pressure tires on smooth roads 10 miles to the cafe and back.
Does road vibration make you tired?
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Old 05-13-22, 08:42 AM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by smd4
Does road vibration make you tired?
That cuppacino perks me right up.
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Old 05-13-22, 08:53 AM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
But you know better than the manufacturer, I am sure.
So...the best you can do is look at their website? You don't own, nor have ever ridden (nor seen, apparently) the tires I have?

Thanks for your "insight." Very helpful.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:00 AM
  #31  
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HEY! This is C&V! why are you guys running wider tires than the period of your bike? Don't answer that!
I am limitied in what will mount on my Italian bikes so 25 is the max. I keep saying this but here it is anyway. I have found the Vittoria G+ tires perform better at 130 ish than 110 or 100. It might just be me but that is what it is all about anyway, me.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:06 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
23mm is also the narrowest tire they sell as far as I can tell.
I know. Stop bringing me down.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:18 AM
  #33  
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From, "where are the 19 and 20mm tires?" to "everyone should ride at least 28s". IMO, anything more than 25mm looks pretty stupid on most any classic road racing bike with 28.6+/- main tubes and 25 is borderline stupid. Of course there are exceptions for the super rare wood rimmed "balloon" tired racers. Continental 22mm tubulars are the sweet spot for my bikes and for clinchers -- GP4000s in 23mm. (If I ever wear out my 4000s I'll give the 5000s a try.)
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Old 05-13-22, 09:19 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by Bianchi84
Wider tires seem to be the train everyone is jumping on. Is there anyone out there, like me, who used to use 19c or 20c clinchers and never had a problem?
I have searched, but is anyone making a 19 or 20c skinwall-type tire anymore? I think I had Trek and Panaracers "back in the day". It seems "the man" is forcing everyone into blackwall wide tires!
I had Panaracer Technova and Technova II's on some bikes, apparently OEM.
Some of them had screened 700x19 and embossed 700x18 on the same tire.
They were very hard, and not really confidence builders, but on smooth roads, seemed fast.
Combined with lighter rims, they certainly felt light, but the wheels were going out of true frequently.

I switched to 21's and may have noticed a difference, may have not, because it didn't matter at the time.
A bike shop gave me some free 700x18 Hutchison Fusions because a customer brought them back.
At 125 psi, they were rock hard, but they gripped better than the Panaracers.

As my tire inventory built up through maintenance, building, repairs, I didn't give it much thought.

My racer friends (not me), really liked the skinnies, and 130-135 psi was normal for them.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:20 AM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by Classtime
From, "where are the 19 and 20mm tires?" to "everyone should ride at least 28s". IMO, anything more than 25mm looks pretty stupid on most any classic road racing bike with 28.6+/- main tubes and 25 is borderline stupid. Of course there are exceptions for the super rare wood rimmed "balloon" tired racers. Continental 22mm tubulars are the sweet spot for my bikes and for clinchers -- GP4000s in 23mm. (If I ever wear out my 4000s I'll give the 5000s a try.)
My Vittoria skinwall 700x23's look petite, skinny, and fast.
They are the little black dress of C&V tires.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:31 AM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by smd4
So I shouldn't pump my tires to the maximum? Why not?
Harshness? I think you're too sensitive. Might want to look into gel saddles and foam comfy grips to go with those squishy tires. And maybe think about buying a touring bike. Racing bikes don't seem to be your cup of tea.
You can pump them up as hard as you like, double the max pressure for all I care.

It's just that I've learned from personal experience AND manufacturers' reccomendations, there is no advantage to doing so - you're just pretending that tires with no deflection is the same as tires that roll fast, and that's not generally true. Tires are filled with air because it compresses, and the goal should be to find the correct amount of deflection, not to treat tire carcass deflection as an enemy to be completely eliminated.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:35 AM
  #37  
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Maybe I should have my frame and fork widened to accommodate some P225s at 35 psi. Sounds like I'd be lightening fast with those! And comfy, to boot! Woot!

Oh...and your "personal experience" means very little to me.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:36 AM
  #38  
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To each his own. I have nothing invested in what size tires someone else likes, or what their reasons are. I do have a couple of observations though.
1. The default tire size in the pro peloton isn’t 23 anymore, and if those tires were faster, it makes sense that they would be.
2. Otoh, part of the rationale that I have read for #1 is that the frames and rims are stiffer than ever, so resilience from the tire is especially important. We on our steel frames and classic profile rims are not quite in the same lab. But some of the findings no doubt still apply.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:39 AM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by smd4
Maybe I should have my frame and fork widened to accommodate some P225s at 35 psi. Sounds like I'd be lightening fast with those! And comfy, to boot! Woot!

Oh...and your "personal experience" means very little to me.
Quite the opposite! You are so certain that maximum tire hardness makes you a harder man or whatever, you should take the tires off altogether... stretch a 26" innertube over the rim sidewalls for traction and enjoy the super-fast fun of riding directly on the rim.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:41 AM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
Quite the opposite! You are so certain that maximum tire hardness makes you a harder man or whatever, you should take the tires off altogether... stretch a 26" innertube over the rim sidewalls for traction and enjoy the super-fast fun of riding directly on the rim.
Now you're just being silly. Plus, if I did as you suggest, my brakes would be too grabby.

Last edited by smd4; 05-13-22 at 09:52 AM.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:42 AM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by smd4
Now you're just being silly.
So are you, you just don't know it.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:46 AM
  #42  
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Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
So are you, you just don't know it.
'Cause I can handle riding skinny tires at the recommended pressure? Gotcha!
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Old 05-13-22, 09:46 AM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by nlerner
That cuppacino perks me right up.
Neal doesn't even need tires to ride his bike as long as caffeine is involved.


pix cause it happened
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Old 05-13-22, 09:52 AM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
Quite the opposite! You are so certain that maximum tire hardness makes you a harder man or whatever, you should take the tires off altogether... stretch a 26" innertube over the rim sidewalls for traction and enjoy the super-fast fun of riding directly on the rim.
We used to tell newbies that the missing notch on the parachute was for training, and eventually, you could take another one out of the other side, then 3, then 4, until you barely needed one. You could tell they thought about it.
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Old 05-13-22, 09:56 AM
  #45  
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I have found that it's pretty impossible to convince those in either camp to give up what they like best, whether it's the skinny or the fat-tire crowd (fwiw, I'm in the latter camp). It seems a matter of ideology given the gazillion variables that would affect perceptions of how a bike rides. I'm just glad the tires I like to ride are readily available (really an explosion of availability in 700 x 32mm; I'm riding some new Continental GP 5000s on the road bike I use most often, and they are terrific).
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Old 05-13-22, 09:59 AM
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Originally Posted by Classtime
From, "where are the 19 and 20mm tires?" to "everyone should ride at least 28s". IMO, anything more than 25mm looks pretty stupid on most any classic road racing bike with 28.6+/- main tubes and 25 is borderline stupid. Of course there are exceptions for the super rare wood rimmed "balloon" tired racers. Continental 22mm tubulars are the sweet spot for my bikes and for clinchers -- GP4000s in 23mm. (If I ever wear out my 4000s I'll give the 5000s a try.)
I really don't care what any one else rides, but I'm happy looking stupid on all of my bikes. In the past 10 years the skinniest tire I've ridden is 32mm. Roads in rural Oregon can be rough, some aren't even paved, wider tires make riding on them much more comfortable, and safer. YMMV.

The issue on a lot of classic road racing bikes is there isn't room for bigger han 25mm tires.
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Old 05-13-22, 10:04 AM
  #47  
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Originally Posted by gugie
Roads in rural Oregon can be rough, some aren't even paved, wider tires make riding on them much more comfortable, and safer.
I don't know what style of bike(s) you ride, but for the conditions you describe, a mountain, gravel or cyclocross bike would be better than a racing bike.
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Old 05-13-22, 10:08 AM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by smd4
I don't know what style of bike(s) you ride, but for the conditions you describe, a mountain, gravel or cyclocross bike would be better than a racing bike.
Oh, I've ridden with @gugie, and every bike he is on immediately becomes a racing bike!

Fwiw, I can remember putting 700 x 19mm tires on my late 70s Raleigh SuperCourse (this was around 1988), which, along with brown-anodized aero rims just made me feel like greased lightening. Of course, I was in my 20s then, which helped.
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Old 05-13-22, 10:24 AM
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Originally Posted by gugie
I really don't care what any one else rides, but I'm happy looking stupid on all of my bikes. In the past 10 years the skinniest tire I've ridden is 32mm. Roads in rural Oregon can be rough, some aren't even paved, wider tires make riding on them much more comfortable, and safer. YMMV.
+1
I deplored GatorSkin 25's and 28's as "combat boots" for bikes.
Then I rode in St. Louis.
Necessary.
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Old 05-13-22, 10:28 AM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by smd4
I don't know what style of bike(s) you ride, but for the conditions you describe, a mountain, gravel or cyclocross bike would be better than a racing bike.
Well, depends on what you call a racing bike. I work with some guys from the Netherlands, anything with dropped bars on them they call a racing bike. I think here in the states we have as many names for types of bikes as eskimos have for snow. Almost all of my fleet would probably be characterized as sports touring. I typically look for frames with "long legs" - room to upside tires from the original application.

When in doubt, show a picture. Is this a racing bike?


700c x 35 tires on a 1974 Raleigh International

Maybe this one?

Motobecane Le Champion


700c x 32 tires
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