shelbyfv

There are plenty of 32mm tubulars.

biker128pedal

Just ride it for a bit. Upgrade tires and you’ll notice. For most tires the measured mounted width will be a little above the marked width. Don’t sweat it.

For road riding I’d go with 28mm Conti GP5000 either tube or tubeless. Or other better tire. Your preference and tools on hand. Later upgrade to a second set of wheels for road and put gravel type tires on the stock rims for mixed or comfortable riding. N+1 without two bikes.

rsbob 

Bought a used Orbea that had 23s which road like a truck except on very smooth surfaces. Swapped them for Conti GP5000 25s and it was a world of difference for the better. Probably could have gone with 28s, which I have on my tubeless ride which ride like magic.

If one gains comfort without a speed penalty, or even if you do, go for wider.

genejockey 

You know, if you can only fit 25s, but you want to feel more comfortable, do what I did - get an old racing bike with tubular rims, and run 22mm tires at 140 psi for a day. You'll feel real fast - AT FIRST. Then you'll get tired of feeling every single grain of sand on the road, and spending all your time trying to find the smoothest part of the bike lane.

When you go back to your 25s (in my case, at 90F/95R), they'll feel like a magic carpet.

genejockey 

My fastest bike, by a significant margin, is the one with the 28s. It's not that the tires make it faster than the other bikes. It's more that the tires DON'T make it slower. Fast and comfy - what's not to like?

rsbob 

A pic of the perp with new shoes

PeteHski

That’s a good way of putting it. Lots of useful pros and no significant cons.

mschwett 

i'm about due for a new rear tire again, currently on 30mm. debating going to 28 or 32, just to see the difference again. i recall being very happy going from 26 -> 28 but can't remember if 28 -> 30 was as noticeable. at this point i would not go below 28.

eduskator

In that case the whole thread is moot since the definition of ''road bike'' is too broad.

Saying that ''road bikes come with 32s now'' is an overstatement.

urbanknight

Fair enough. The OP was still incorrect, but yes they were using a broader definition of road bike than just racing.

xroadcharlie

Giant still uses 25C tires on their TCR Advanced Disc 2 race bikes, But 32C tires on their Defy Advanced 2 Endurance bike. It may be to eek out that last 1 - 2% of performance on a perfect track a 25 - 28mm tire may be best. That might be enough to make the difference between placing 2'nd and 8'th or worse in an important race.

For most of us, for the street or in a cycling club ride the Defy Endurance road bike with it's 32mm tires might provide that perfect balance between efficiency and ride quality. But a 32mm tire may not fit on many older road bikes, So going as wide as you can might work well too.

Redbullet

Many of us still make relatively short rides (60-80 km) on reasonable quality roads where 25 mm tires (or sometimes even 23 mm) would marginally harm (or not harm at all) the ride quality, but they perform a little better. In such cases, it would be nonsense to switch to wider tires with associated penalties in weight and aerodynamics, for a comfort that remains theoretical.

Pros can often take advantages from switching to wider tires because they make much longer rides, on variable quality roads, and their bikes (including wheels) compensate for weight and aerodynamic losses by much more expensive setups that are not reachable by casual riders. I think that the general "necessity' of going wider to 28-32 mm does not exist; it is valid only for specific riding conditions.

urbanknight

Playing devil's advocate here, I spend about as much time going 50 miles as the pro tour riders spend going 100. Furthermore, I put more weight on the saddle for various reasons (I sit more, I have less powerful legs, and I'm simply fatter). That could give me (personally) a reason to go wider than the pros. With that in mind, I imagine the fast and thin recreational riders are still mostly on the 25mm tires.

zandoval 

It could be that the increase in tire width is related to the increase in abdominal girth of the riders...

PeteHski

Unless you are obsessed with marginal performance gains on the smoothest of roads then the benefits of slightly wider, lower pressure tyres are pretty obvious for most riders. Especially on the endurance road bikes that are often fitted with 32 mm tyres eg Trek Domane or Giant Defy. Those bikes are by definition intended for longer rides on variable quality roads. It wouldn’t make any sense to fit those bikes with 23 or 25 mm tyres, which is why they don’t.

PeteHski

How wide are your rims? If they are >20 mm I would give 32 mm tyres a try. But if they are narrower rims then maybe not. I have run 32 mm tyres on 17 mm rims and the profile was a bit bulbous. They were okay, but felt a bit squirmy under hard cornering. I currently have 30 mm tyres on 22 mm rims and they feel great. Maybe I’ll try 32 mm on these wider rims at some point.

mschwett 

21 inner, 27 outer on my main road bike.

25 inner on the gravel rig. that one seems to achieve the perfect aero profile with 32mm tires. the 21 inner do look a little light-bulbed to me with 30mm tires, but it rides great. corners far harder than my skill allows.

i may go with 32mm in black for a change of pace. the only thing i don’t like about the GP5000 S TR is that the “transparent” ones are kind of dark and the brown part is small. although - it’s summer… maybe 28 for summer and 32 for winter 😂

the rears last 3,000 ish miles for me, almost exactly 6 months.

scottfsmith

I put a link to a study earlier in the thread which clearly shows the overall speed advantage of wider tires in actual bike tests on average roads: less power is needed to go the same speed. The comfort gains are just gravy on top. It has absolutely nothing to do with how long pros are riding compared to non pros.

Redbullet

I also saw studies reaching the conclusion that the best efficiency is obtained by the skinniest tires that can offer the minimum acceptable level of comfort you need for your typical rides, in conjunction with fit rims. But I rather go on feeling: 23 mm tires still have a thin edge over 28 mm for my typical rides.
I have no doubt that pros can obtain much better efficiency than me with wider tires, but they use 10000-15000 EUR optimized bikes, while I use mass production bikes below 1/3 of that price. Thus, it might not be a surprise that the old benchmark “skinnier and lighter – the better” is still suitable for my poorly optimized bikes. There is no efficiency in trying to mimic the gears of the professionals, if my pocket does not allow me to go full of their range.

shelbyfv

How would a "pro" bike be optimized that a wider tire would be more "efficient" than it would be on some other bike?

mschwett 

i've not seen a study which takes into account road surface that actually concludes this. on a drum in a lab, or a wind tunnel, sure.

if you have a link to one, i would love to see it. remember that the energy to vibrate the bicycle on narrow, hard tires on a rough road has to come from somewhere....

genejockey 

Really, it would have been best to stop there, because the remainder is simply handwaving to justify what you want to do.

Redbullet

For example, look at their wheels. They have a reason to spend thousands eur for wheel sets that are aero in combination with the tires they need. And to switch setups for different purposes. My new "mushroomed" 28 mm on aluminum rims simply do not behave the same with theirs.

yaw

I recently switched from riding 25mm and 28mm GP5ks on a 19.5 internal/27 external rim to riding 28mm on 21 internal/30 external.
Night and day in how the same tyre sits on the rims, how wide it looks and measures, and how the bike corners and feels at all pressures I run.

Consequently, I think that it is not ideal in terms of handling, and thus safety, to go wider than works with a given rim. If I had 19mm internals, I would personally stick to 25 as a concession. I say no to rubber mushrooms.

I think the improvements a wide tyre on a wide rim can bring over a narrow setup makes it an investment to consider. Many modern wheels now also particularly come with wide external dimensions in consideration of the interface, so better aero is just a given bonus.

shelbyfv

Sorry, different rims don't constitute a bike "optimization" that isn't available to non-pros. If your bike can fit a 28mm tire, it can fit an appropriate wheel of whatever material.