23 vs 25mm tyre

mattbell

Everyones talking about 25mm, is it really worth the change.

I've got 24mm clinchers with 23mm Vredestein Fortezza Tricomps on at the moment. Is changing to 25mm going to dramatically change the ride, will it really dampen down that nasty vibration you get on poor road surfaces?

Cheers

chrisvanderkaap

I work in a bikeshop and we hear questions about this all the time lately. For me the short answer is, yes they do make the ride a little more buoyant when compared with the same but smaller tire. However! the difference between one tire and the other is far greater than the difference of 23 to 25mm. For example: a tire with supple side walls in 23 (like vittoria open corsa 23) will 'float' much better than a stiffer tire (like schwalbe durano) in 25. So it's not worth ditching you old (imho excellent) fortezza's just yet. The hype with 25 mm tires is brought forth by the wider type (23 mm instead of more traditional 20mm) rims currently available in the market place. What these rims do is fact make your regular 23mm tires blow up like a 25 because of the increased stance width. But I'm not sure if this benefit carries on equally with larger volume 25 mm tires. Fact is that it's worth a shot while your at it because the increase in weight compared to 23 is only marginal. I think this is why many people have believed it to me a 'free' performance gain, but im yet to be convinced!

Let us know once you've tried some! Ideally the Vredestein fortezza tri comp 25 for fair comparison.

Sprool

interesting info, maybe the ability to run 25's 5-10psi lower than 23's has more of an effect on the feel of the ride than the extra 2mm dimensions?

izza

I have the spesh s-works 24mm on my Enve's (which are 26mm wide front 24mm wide back). Lowered pressure from 115 to 100 psi.

Have found them to be very comfortable with great amounts of grip and yet lively feel.

Coach H

Sprool wrote:

interesting info, maybe the ability to run 25's 5-10psi lower than 23's has more of an effect on the feel of the ride than the extra 2mm dimensions?

I run 25s on winter and summer bike and find this to be correct.

Steve236

I've also had 25s (GP 4 seasons) on this winter. They've been comfortable enough (not that I have much to compare to) although I don't know if anything will completely remove the rattle you get from poor/broken road surface (of which there seems to be a lot around Surrey)

maddog 2

I run 25s and prefer them over 23s, but then I like lower pressures for more grip and better feel (and tubeless). But then some of my mates like their 23mm tyres to be rock hard with 120+psi and ride like a right skittery boneshaker, so it depends on the person

VTech

I changed from vitorria (sp) 23's to GP 25's and the difference is huge, vastly nicer to ride on the wider tyre.
Im no expert so the advice above is almost certainly best as my answer is only based on one to the other.

Hoopdriver

I too much prefer 25mm. Much nicer ride quality

hodge68

I have just changed to 25 gators from 23 fortenza and have to say it improved the ride quality and my ridley feels faster ?. Have yet to try out the attack/force that i have on my other wheels, but it will be intresting to compare.

Bordersroadie

I ride an alu bike/carbon fork both summer bike and winter. Just moved from 23c Gators to 25c GP4000s. Night and day. Very very comfortable now and less tiring on a long ride. On rough surfaces the bike definitely has lower rolling resistance, stands to reason I suppose.

The winter bike wears 25c GP 4 seasons. Not as comfy as the 4000s's but close.

The other bonus of 25c is that if you need to, a mini pump can far more easily get it up to operating pressure than a higher-pressure 23c. Extra peace of mind, for me personally, I worry less that a p****** will mean I may have to ride many miles on sub-standard tyre pressures.

guilliano

Depends on the tyres too. My current Michelin pro 3 tyres come up the same width as the Conti 4 seasons I had before. The 25mm Michelin I have used were amazing but looked like balloons.