23 in the front/25 in the rear... any advice ?

Brocade

Folks,
Are a lot of people riding 23 in the front and 25 in the rear on their road bikes ? What are the advantages/disadvantages ?
Thanks,
Tolga

Monty Dog

The 25mm tyre has a bigger air pocket and therefore will offer more comfort and grip in comparison to a 23.

Brocade

Thanks. But then, why run a 23 in the front ? I see some people doing this, is there some innate advantage to this set-up ? Why not just run 25 both front and rear ?

Smokin Joe

I have that combo.

I have it because when I ordered a 23mm folding blue Conti Ultrasport from JE James they sent me a rigid black 25mm and I couldn't be bothered to send it back.

Maybe everyone else who has the same mix also bought them from JE James.

gkerr4

23 at the front for the aero-advantage and also cos less than 50% of your weight is on the front - which means that a 25 at the back can offer more comfort.

continental do a package - force/attack I think it is - which is 23f / 25r - that could have started it

or perhaps everyone got their tyres from JEjames - it could easily be that.

redddraggon

gkerr4 wrote:

continental do a package - force/attack I think it is - which is 23f / 25r - that could have started it

It's 22mm/24mm I believe

Brocade

Nice...

spanielsson

gkerr4 wrote:

23 at the front for the aero-advantage and also cos less than 50% of your weight is on the front - which means that a 25 at the back can offer more comfort.

continental do a package - force/attack I think it is - which is 23f / 25r - that could have started it

It's nothing to do with aero at all. A narrow section front tyre drops into corners far easier and provides more positive feedback and steering, the rear being larger for surface contact area and the majority of your weight being over the back of the bike. Have a look at a motorcycles tyres.

I have Force/Attack tyres, they are 22 front and a 24 rear.

gkerr4

spanielsson wrote:

gkerr4 wrote:

23 at the front for the aero-advantage and also cos less than 50% of your weight is on the front - which means that a 25 at the back can offer more comfort.

continental do a package - force/attack I think it is - which is 23f / 25r - that could have started it

It's nothing to do with aero at all. A narrow section front tyre drops into corners far easier and provides more positive feedback and steering, the rear being larger for surface contact area and the majority of your weight being over the back of the bike. Have a look at a motorcycles tyres.

I have Force/Attack tyres, they are 22 front and a 24 rear.

I understand that on a motorcycle - I have one of those too - it has a 120 section on the front and a 190 on the rear - it's a massive difference - i wouldn't have thought that 22or23 vs 24 or 25 would have made any odds!

i can see the logic though.

red - is it 22 / 24? rather unusual sizes - perhaps it's all marketing!

spanielsson

gkerr4 wrote:

I understand that on a motorcycle - I have one of those too - it has a 120 section on the front and a 190 on the rear - it's a massive difference - i wouldn't have thought that 22or23 vs 24 or 25 would have made any odds!

i can see the logic though.

red - is it 22 / 24? rather unusual sizes - perhaps it's all marketing!

The marginal difference on our road bike tyres is probably because we can't deliver 175 bhp to the rear wheel! What type of motorbike do you ride? I'm guessing 750cc + with a 190 rear?!

I don't think the 22/24 tyres are marketing hype, the Continentals are the best I've used yet in all conditions, My Madone handles like it is on rails.

redddraggon

Would you use them over winter though?

spanielsson

redddraggon wrote:

Would you use them over winter though?

Yes. I used them on the ride in the snow and sh1te earlier in the year, through Macc forest when you couldn't see the road they were just fine, much better than Michelin Pro3's.

careful

I guess it makes sense as the rear tyre carries more weight. I often run this combo just because my front forks leave very little mudguard clearence. I dont really notice any difference in handling, comfort or vibration etc though.

Brocade

Many thanks for the discussion folks. Think I will attempt to run gp 4000s 23 in the front and gp 4 seasons 25 contis in the rear and see how that goes.

SDP

good choice ..

i been running force/attack on my light wheels & mrs sdp's all summer ..

on my cosmic carbone sl's i been running 23 front & rear ..

on my summer daily wheels i been running conti GP 22/24mm combo ..

i am sure the mix of 22/24 etc gives a bit more comfort but saying that the cosmics are very stiff

winter wheels i am using 23mm GP4season but may slip a 25mm on when its very mucky

as you can tell i am a conti fan

cougie

Cant see it makes a huuuge amount of difference. I ride 23mm on my race bike and 25mm F&R on the winter bike.

Would you get slightly better grip with a wider tyre on the front perhaps due to the more rounded profile ? You really dont want to lose your front wheel when cornering.

chrisw12

I run things the opposite way round, a 25 on the front and a 23 on the back and here are my reasons, feel free to enlighten me if any are wrong.

1) My road bike is set up with tri bars and I spend a lot of time on them so my weight distribution is probably more towards the front than most.

2) Pinch punctures. These are the only type of puncture that I seem to get. Over the last three weeks I've been running a 23 up front and I've had two of them (punctures) because I've seen a pot hole too late and hit the front wheel, on the back I've had slightly more time and pulled it out of the way.

In the 8 weeks before changing to 23s I had no punctures. In fact I've never pinched a 25.

3) Grip. I presume that a 25 will have a bigger contact point and therefore offer more grip. Now ime if the back end goes you can control it, if the front end goes you're off, so for that reason I use the better gripping tyre/wider on the front.


Ideally I'd like to run a 25 on the back as well, but I'd struggle with clearence and I don't see it makes that much difference to me on the back. On the front I prefer a 25.

At the end of the day this is something that you could argue about all day, so I would advise the op to experiment and find what works for him, that's how I've come up with my fav. combinations of tyres and that's the great thing with tyres, because you have to buy them often you can try lot of different flavours.

Brocade

Good point. Hmm, subtle. I think the tri bars point is a good one, I see why the wider tyre in the front would make sense then.

And good point re grip in the front. In a motorcycle, you're wearing kangaroo leather or what not and when you lose the front, you just slide into gravel and get over it. Also, you're actually accelerating out of the turn so the rear lands more weight on the tarmac, so this combo would never make sense there. But on a bike, it's different. I've luckily only crashed twice but both times, I lost the front on a turn. So more front grip definitely would have helped.

In any case, I don't ride tri bards so the regular set-up is probably what makes sense for me. I'll report back on how it has worked out with me on that tyre combo, 700x23 gp4000s conti front and 700x25 4 seasons conti rear.

balthazar

spanielsson wrote:

It's nothing to do with aero at all. A narrow section front tyre drops into corners far easier and provides more positive feedback and steering

What is , "dropping into corners"? I can't understand this image at all.

Smokin Joe

balthazar wrote:

spanielsson wrote:

It's nothing to do with aero at all. A narrow section front tyre drops into corners far easier and provides more positive feedback and steering

What is , "dropping into corners"? I can't understand this image at all.

Just another term for leaning the bike.

cougie

If you go very narrow section = then the tyre isnt very round - its almost square - so it really doesnt corner very well.

Personally 23mm is the narrowest I go. I used to use far narrower tyres for racing, but they dont handle as well.

Brocade

actually, i just ordered the force/attack combo, cheaper and simple, let's see how that goes

spanielsson

balthazar wrote:

spanielsson wrote:

It's nothing to do with aero at all. A narrow section front tyre drops into corners far easier and provides more positive feedback and steering

What is , "dropping into corners"? I can't understand this image at all.

Sorry, that's the motorcyclist in me!

Dustine

Im thinking of a 25mm on the front of my audax bike for a little extra comfort over the longer distances, and a little extra grip i guess too. Unfortunately, despite being an audax bike, it will only just fit a 23mm with mudguards out back, so im stuck with that. Odd, but true. So you may see another 'reverse combo' out on the roads.

rake

softlad

rake wrote:

no. i havent any advice.

good input, thanks.....