Observations from this morning's ride(s) - wide tire content

[fa63]

Over the last couple weeks, I have made a bunch of changes to my bikes (wheels/tires and gearing, mainly). This morning, I thought it would be fun to go out for a back-to-back-to-back test ride on all three. All were ridden on a 4-mile loop around our house with ~250' elevation gain over that distance. I ride this loop all time, and it has become a good benchmark to evaluate fitness/changes. I wasn't pushing very hard; just a steady tempo effort.

Bike 1: Trek Emonda ALR, Reynolds Attack wheelset, Vittoria Corsa G+ 28mm tires; weighs 7.8 kg
Bike 2: Motobecane Ti, HED Belgium+ wheelset, Panaracer Gravel King 35mm tires; weighs 9.2 kg
Bike 3: Time VXRS, Shimano Dura Ace 7850 wheelset, Vittoria Zafiro Pro Slick 25mm tires; weighs 7.9 kg

The bikes are set up very similarly to each other from a fit perspective.

Here is the elapsed time for each:

Bike 1: 14:52 (16.1 mph)
Bike 2: 15:52 (15.1 mph)
Bike 3: 14:33 (16.5 mph)

I was expecting Bike 2 to be the slowest, but I was surprised at the difference. I also wasn't expecting the Time to be the fastest; the Trek felt fastest while riding.

This is not scientific by any means; just sharing some observations. Given that Bike 2 can accommodate a range of tires, I might try this again next week to see how much difference there is just going from the 35mm semi-slick tires to 25s on the same bike.

So next time someone tells you they can't feel a difference in speed between their 25mm road tires and 35mm semi-slicks, think twice [emoji4]

[Tickdoc]

I would guess the wheels are the biggest factor in this three way. You can’t really swap the 35’s to either the time or trek, but you could swap the other wheels to the motobecane and I’d be willing to bet the times would be close.

[fa63]

Perhaps. I have a set of Kinlin XR31 clinchers (close enough to the HED Belgiums) with 25mm tires that I can throw on the Motobecane; I will do that sometime next week and see what happens. I suspect the time will be much closer to the other two bikes. I was just surprised that the 35s were that much slower. They are still fun to ride though; takes comfort to a whole new level :) The real test for those though will be an upcoming gravel ride.