If Wider Road Bike Tyres Are Better, Why Not Go SUPER Wide?!

What width tyres do you use for road cycling? 🧐

I like how they call the 26mm ‘skinny’ - not so long ago 26 would have been considered very wide 😅

Careful! You start enjoying supple wide tires and you end up wearing jorts and flannel.

The Bike industry is 10% science and 90% fashion.

it would also be very interesting to do the reverse of this experiment and test the uphill times--ride at same wattage up the hill and compare the times.

I gradually got to 32mm tyres, and I think that's the sweet spot for casual road cycling. Performance, comfort, speed... all in well balance. Even light dry gravel isn't an issue on 32mm road bike tyres. In fact, it was the GCN doing the ''are wide tyres slow'' comparison videos that helped me to make my decision to go from 25mm to 28mm, later on 32mm tyres. The performance difference is negligible, the comfort however is what separates those three widths apart, also you get more grip with wider tyres. I weight about 92Kg at 198cm height, so I do need more air in tyres than a lighter rider would.

Having used 48mm slicks on my gravel bike it’ll be hard to go back to a narrow tire. The increased comfort and grip are drastic.

One thing I’d love to see discussed: tire pressure is one of the biggest question I get at the bike shop especially when people get into gravel and tubeless. I know there’s tire pressure calculators like silica’s where you plug in your weight and tire size etc. but how accurate are those? I’d love to see a day where you ride the pressure you “think” should work well, maybe a plus or minus (over vs under inflated), then run a few calculators, and see how much noticeably different the “right” pressure feels like.

You should do a second test and add 40/42mm tires to the mix, that size is more common than 50mm and could be a better option in terms of keeping agility and speed up while adding comfort.

Hi Fellas, Great video. But I think the physics of what’s happening here is more complicated than one might think. A fat tire is more massive and when it is rolling down a hill it has more angular momentum than a smaller width tire with less mass. The more angular momentum a rotating object has the more resistant it is to changing its plane of rotation. So what Hank may be feeling is not more grip but the “determination” of the fat tire to stay at the angle/plane of its rotations making Hank feel the fatter tire is more stable in the turn. It is more “stable,” but perhaps not because of better grip. Theoretically, the total friction between a tire and the road is independent of surface area. That is a theoretical statement. In reality, more surface area can improve the total friction, especially on roads with lots of debris and variations in the quality of the tarmac. Still, I think there is cause for more research here. And then, of course, there is the issue of lugging those heavier tires UP the mountain. 🥵

Been on 32mm tubeless for a while now and it seems to be an ideal width for endurance style riding - especially when I hit the less than ideal roads.

I’ve just upgraded (this week) to 30mm Schwalbe One Evo TLE running at 60psi from 28mm old Schwalbe One’s running at 70psi and can confidently say I am impressed with the comfort with no difference in speed (for me) I’m 63 and weigh 72 kg, it also rained quite hard on my way home so was able to test the grip which was confidence inspiring!

I think Hanks confidence is more with a decent he's done a couple of times a few minutes ago than with tires of any width

I went from 23 to 25 to 28 to 28 tubeless and each upgrade made an enormous difference in comfort and speed. Roads that would vibrate my entire aero race bike ('21 systemsix) now feel like when 23's were on a semi-nicely paved road. The only negative I found was high speed descent turns where it felt like more effort was needed and an earlier input. Other than that, prices are the same, garmin tracked laps shows improvements for the same watts. Plus, the systemsix now feels more comfortable than my slower endurance bikes.

I never thought the 23mm wide tires that were popular for many years made much sense for the average road rider. I tried them, and quickly moved to 26-28mm tires. Now I see the industry finally warming up to 32-35mm sizes for road use as well. I love to see it. Personally, I’m on 35mm gravel tires these days, and interested in going wider. My use is a mix of road and gravel.

It was so nice going from narrows to 32mm. My sit bones definately thanked me <3 And that's something I would trade any marginal gains for easily, since I'm not competing with anyone. Plus 32mm's give you much more confidence for unpaved roads. Sure, they're no MTB tyres, but even just knowing you can follow a navigation app without thinking about if the route is all paved or part dirt makes it all a lot more relaxed.

Progressed from 25, 28.,32mm on the same bike and same 40mm Fulcrum disc wheels. Upgraded my inner tubes to TPU thus saving weight and possibly lighter than tubeless. Being on the heavier side (96kg) and 56years old and still racing at the front of the group I feel more comfortable and relaxed about punctures. Still getting my head around lower pressure but I am now down to 75psi. Not sure I would go much wider than 35mm.

Now go uphill and compare

That 50mm tire is clearly a very thick treaded touring beast, you should try something much lighter/faster in roughly the same width.

Good idea for a video. It would seem that order would be a big factor -- I'd assume any rider would be more confident going through a corner on 2nd and 3rd iteration compared to their first time through. I'd be interested in tire pressures and tire compound conditioning. (I always felt my old michelins were a bit better after a few miles in them)