How W I D E are you?

[icepick_trotsky]

Preach.

I ride 25s almost all of the time. Wider tires, even on bad roads, strike me as sluggish.

I've happily ridden 23s on mild gravel and smiled the whole way.

[Mzilliox]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

i completely disagree with Jan on this one.

for my perception, 38mm is WAY too big for the road. i tried a set of the 38c compass tires for a while, and didnt like them at all. felt too sluggish to me, and worse, turning and handling felt imprecise and almost dangerous.

25c on the road is perfect for me.

this and this and this. Jan is selling fat tires.
Jan rides different to me ive decided. we ride similar rides, but he is a different animal. 650b low trail was a failed experiment for me.

38s are too wide even for most gravel for me.

there is no road ride where a 38mm tire is better than a 28mm tire.

[scottcw2]

So it seems consensus is 28-32 for road riding. This confirms my experience. I like 28s a lot, 32s start to feel a bit sluggish. I can only imagine using 38 for mostly gravel or single track. Maybe 650x42 if I was really expecting some poor conditions.

[David Kirk]

I'm also in the 28-32 camp. 28's on paved roads and 32's for mixed surfaces. Bigger seems floppy and imprecise to me and smaller feels harsh and fragile.

dave

[Black Dog]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

I'm also in the 28-32 camp. 28's on paved roads and 32's for mixed surfaces. Bigger seems floppy and imprecise to me and smaller feels harsh and fragile.

dave

This.

[livingminimal]

I dont really care about going fast, so 38mm are pretty nice/fun/sufficient/cool/whatever on the road.

[93KgBike]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

25-30 really, and that's with awful East Bay roads.

Anymore tire than that just feels needless for sticking to pavement.

I used to ride San Leandro - Emeryville - San Leandro as-the-crow-flies on 25's and they were fine. But when I switched onto 35r/32f my commute times dropped.

Dropbar mtb's are pretty old-school, actually.

[Big Dan]

Fat 28's is where I'm at.
Something measuring 28-30 on the road.

[bigbill]

I've got some 32's set up tubeless on a set of Altamonts, very nice ride and I don't feel like I'm giving anything up. When I travel, I like to take my Dirt Road Racer and two sets of wheels, the Altamonts for pavement, and the WTB/WI wheels with 38 GK's. Pretty much covers everything short of technical singletrack.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

I'm also in the 28-32 camp. 28's on paved roads and 32's for mixed surfaces. Bigger seems floppy and imprecise to me and smaller feels harsh and fragile.

dave

Agree, for 700c..

What's your experience been with 650b on your disc rig? Or is that a different animal entirely?

[merckxman]

No one riding 19s anymore? Those were harsh.

[mhespenheide]

6'4", #185-190. A lot of bad roads around here. I like a true measured width of 30-32mm.

If I could ever be assured of roads in good condition, I'd probably drop down slightly to a true measured width of 25-28mm. But thats not likely to happen, so I'll happily take the small aero and weight penalties to go a little wider.

[mhespenheide]

Originally Posted by merckxman

No one riding 19s anymore? Those were harsh.

In the late 80's and early 90's in New York's Dutchess County (Hudson River Valley), with good roads and only weighing ~150#, Michelin SuperCompe HD 20's were all I needed. Not the same conditions for roads or my weight anymore, though!

[Alaska Mike]

I ride mostly 25c tires on 23mm or 25mm rims. Any more won't fit in my current frames, which lean more towards road racing and have rim brakes. I have had several bikes with disc brakes that could accept larger tires, but never really liked the way tires bigger than 28c performed on pavement. Our roads are fairly rough up here (potholes, cracks, frost heaves...), yet I rarely want a wider tire than I already run.

I'm not against the trend towards wider footprints, but at a certain point the trade-offs just don't add up for me. YMMV.

[benb]

Actually I wonder how many of us use his tire pressure calculations/guidelines? I think some of his observations might make more sense if you're setting up the tires the same way he is.

I think that has a big effect with these wide tires.

I am a very strict adherent to hist tire pressure ideas.

I set up for 41% weight on the front and 59% weight on the back. That is a pretty big variation in pressure.

E.x. I said I have 26s and 32s on my two bikes respectively. Based on 41/59 I run these pressures, and I'm about 175lbs.

26c: 62psi front, 88psi rear
32c: 45psi front, 65psi rear

It works really well. Get the weight distribution right and you're running lower pressures without anything getting squishy or sloppy. It's seem absolutely nuts to me at this point to think I used to run equal pressure front & rear. That almost always leads to a really harsh ride on the front of the bike and a squishy rear tire.