700x23 vs 700x25 time difference

fatsmoker
fatsmoker Posts: 585
edited January 2013 in Commuting general
Morning
Just done my first 16.5 mile commute on my new specialized secteur which has 700x25 tyres. It took 10 mminutes longer than on my old vintage road bike which had 700x23 tyres. Does that sound about right? The ride is obviously smoother, but I was hoping to trim a few minutes off, not add a few. An hour and 10 minutes this morning. No wind and traffic in town as busy as ususal.

Comments

  • edhornby
    edhornby Posts: 1,780
    10mins aren't added by tyres, there will be something else, are you sure it's not the traffic ?
    "I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, how good is that"
    --Jens Voight
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    25mm tyres tend to roll better than 23mm ones. The biggest culprit will be you not performing the same either from poor recovery or not being adapted to the position on the new bike (assuming it's not identical), after that aerodynamics and finally it may well be that the 25mm tyres aren't as supple or at too high a pressure as your 23mm tyres generating more rolling resistance.
    Neeermad
    Carbon 456
    456 lefty
    Pompino
    White Inbred
  • MichaelW
    MichaelW Posts: 2,164
    Measure a decent sample of times for 25mmthen switch the tyres to 23 on the same bike.
    Really you should switch to the same brand of tyre to reduce the variables.
  • meanredspider
    meanredspider Posts: 12,337
    MichaelW wrote:
    Measure a decent sample of times for 25mmthen switch the tyres to 23 on the same bike.
    Really you should switch to the same brand of tyre to reduce the variables.

    I did this with Gatorskins - on average (for my 15 mile hilly commute and my 93kg body on a Focus Cayo riad bike), the 25mm Gators were 0.5mph faster than the 23mm Gators (just for info, 23mm GP4000s were 0.5mph faster again). I now ride 25mm tyres (albeit Vittoria Rubino Pros - which I've found to be as fast as 25mm GP4000Ss)

    To summarise, though - like-for-like, I don't think you could tell the difference between 23 & 25mm tyres on one ride.
    ROAD < Scott Foil HMX Di2, Volagi Liscio Di2, Jamis Renegade Elite Di2, Cube Reaction Race > ROUGH
  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    You can only compare the same model of tyre, or actual known width - some 25mm might come up smaller than some other 23mm. Then we have compounds, weight, etc.
    GT ZASKAR CARBON TEAM

    VOODOO CANZO

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  • fatsmoker
    fatsmoker Posts: 585
    Cheers. All very complicated. I'll just pedal harder on the way home and see what happens.
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    fatsmoker wrote:
    Cheers. All very complicated. I'll just pedal harder on the way home and see what happens.

    You won't notice a difference attributable to the tyres. Far too many other variables which will make a bigger difference. Eg today is a few degrees colder than yesterday. It took me nearly five and a half minutes longer to do the 19 miles today compared to Yesterday morning. If the conditions had been the same for both days, I'd have got less of a time difference running the Carbon Ribble on one day and the heavy old 1990 Dawes tourer the other!
    Faster than a tent.......
  • father_jack
    father_jack Posts: 3,509
    can only be done in controlled test, just too many variables.

    One example you may feel more energetic one day.

    It may be a placebo, but I think I notice difference between 23mm and 28mm tyres.
    Say... That's a nice bike..
    Trax T700 with Lew Racing Pro VT-1 ;-)
  • fatsmoker
    fatsmoker Posts: 585
    I pumped the tyres up a bit more. That worked.

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