Your commuting tyre size of choice?

jonny_trousers

I thought I'd cracked it by moving from 23s to 25s, but last night, having borrowed a colleague's spare front wheel while mine was being trued after Saturday's off, I discovered the delights of 28mm. Far from sluggish (as I had assumed) and super-comfy. May have to head down that route in future.

dhope

Thought that 25s were faster than 23s anyway
I'm on 25s atm

cjcp

23mm.

mudcow007

28's (Marathons)

2.8 on Stinky

alan_sherman

I use 35s. Good for the towpath and comfort.

Moodyman

28mm on the commuter and 25 on weekend bike.

28 far more comfortable and just as fast. Also better for carrying panniers

UndercoverElephant

23s on the BeOne and on the front of the Equilibrium. 25 on the rear of the Equilibrium, as everywhere had sold out of 23mm Rubino Pros last time I was looking. Not sure I notice much difference.

gtvlusso

23mm on fixie and racing bike

2.5" on MTB - can go to over 3" tyres if required....

Kieran_Burns

28mm when commuting on the tricross

23mm when crashing along on the Trek

(have tried 32mm but found them too heavy for day to day but have 38c for Winter riding)

Mr Plum

25mm Continental Supersport Plus - often over looked. 3000 miles, no punctures. Looks like they've got about another 1000 in them.

t4tomo

1 & 3/8ths.

Metric Shmetric.




Not that there is much choice for a Brompton

Agent57

700x20c for a long time, but these days I'm on 28s I think; mainly because they were the tyres on the Tricross when I bought it.

MaxwellBygraves

I agree that the wider the tyre, the more comfortable the ride.

But I can't understand how people can say that 25/28mm are just as fast - I once raced on 25mm front and rear and it felt like I was racing on a bus - much slower!

They're not as fast, but often the trade off for comfort is worth it.

jamesco

35mm (Marathon+) on the hybrid.
28mm (Conti 4Seasons) on the roadbike.

A bit of comfort is more important than full-on speed, to me, and nothing is slower than being too sore to ride the next day

HamishD

23mm Vredestein Fortezza Quattro

6,000 miles, no punctures. Fast-ish, too and pretty light . . .

Blandiblub

Only just started commuting - so still the same 28mm tyres on my Sirrus that came with it!

meanredspider

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

But I can't understand how people can say that 25/28mm are just as fast - .

Because the tyre testing institute place tested the rolling resistance and found it to be lower on 25s than 23s (due to less deflection and a shorter contact patch). I'm trying 25s right now and finding them at least as quick as 23s if my average speeds and downhill terminal velocities are anything to go by. Certainly I've measured far more difference between brands/types of 23s than I am the difference between 23 & 25 on the same tyres (Conti Gatorskins)

squeeler

Conti Gatorskins 28s for me, just that extra bit of comfort compared to my weekend bike's 23s as far as I'm concerned.

roger_merriman

my bike only just takes 25mm so thats the largest I can go for, though i'd probably not go any larger any how.

Koncordski

700x23 Conti Gatorskin

Comfy enough.

Barteos

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

I agree that the wider the tyre, the more comfortable the ride.

But I can't understand how people can say that 25/28mm are just as fast - I once raced on 25mm front and rear and it felt like I was racing on a bus - much slower!

They're not as fast, but often the trade off for comfort is worth it.

Wider tyres ARE faster. (other than at fast TT speeds)
Narrower tyres FEEL faster (due to high pressure required).

You CAN'T feel rolling resistance. You have to measure it.

will3

Barteos wrote:

Wider tyres ARE faster. (other than at fast TT speeds)

what? wider tyres are faster unless you're going fast?
That makes no sense.

I use 28mm conti sport contacts on the CX
25mm rubinos on one road bike
25mm zafiros on another (although the rear is worn down to the canvas so about to change)
32mm sport contacts on another bike

used to use Halo Twinrail 38mm tyres on the CX which were fast enough. Also wore down very slowly - got over 10000miles out of the front and around 6000 out of the rear.
Not using them at the moment because you have to deflate them to get the wheel off and that's a frequent task at the moment.

meanredspider

will3 wrote:

what? wider tyres are faster unless you're going fast?
That makes no sense.
.

Well, it kinda does. One of the downsides of wider tyres is aero. Aero is only a factor if you are going fast enough. At lower speeds, for the same power, the wider tyre should/may give better speeds (ie be "faster") when aero is less of a factor.

iPete

700x23

Do like a hard ride. I'd stick thinner tyres on my Brompton if they were avilable.

Barteos

will3 wrote:

Barteos wrote:

Wider tyres ARE faster. (other than at fast TT speeds)

what? wider tyres are faster unless you're going fast?
That makes no sense.

It does make sense. Narrow tyres offer marginal aero adavantage at fast TT speeds.
I don't know many commuters averaging +25mph

jedster

yeah, I think energy to overcome rolling-restistance is proportional to speed and energy to overcome aero resistance is proportional to speed cubed. Depending on the surface areas /rolling resistance of two tyres there will be a speed where he rolling resistance advantage of the fatter tyre gets overcome by the aero advantage of the thinner tyre.

Of course all this assumes similar tyre pressures which may be a bit of a stretch....

will3

Barteos wrote:

It does make sense. Narrow tyres offer marginal aero adavantage at fast TT speeds.

fair enough.

Barteos wrote:

I don't know many commuters averaging +25mph

you haven't been reading the SCR thread then, apparently they're all doing that

rick_chasey

25's are heavier.

My single speed/fixie is on 28s, which suits me fine since nowadays I don't have the time to actually care about how fast I go - It's more about looking cool (trying to anyway) and getting some exercise.