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

What width tyres do you use for road cycling? 🧐

I’m on 700c x23

For the data to be more scientific multiple runs should be done with the same tire then the average taken then compare the averages.

❤

This makes no sense
Faster descent but not while pedaling uphill

Of course the wider the tire, the better it’s going to handle. Straight line speed is another story. The 26 will smoke both of those ridiculously wide “road” tires!👊😎🚴🏻

I am old, in my early cycling days 26mm would be considered a bus tire 🙂18mm was the norm and you can guess how horrible it was in terms of comfort, none of it, hard as rock.

this wasnt very scientific despite apperances , to see the true lean angle it must be measured from a rear view not a front because the front wheel also has steering angle to take into account , also the way to correctly measure the angle is use a protractor , not just eyeballing it , could have been done with a very simple overlay , try harder lads.

36mm all day on my Bianchi infinito @45psi

Casing is likely too thick on your 50mm tire to be comparable with the other two.

Would be interesting to retest with a range of rene' herse lightweight tires which would have identical high performance construction, then test for tire width on 700x25mm, 650x42mm, and 26"x52mm, this would keep tire radius (handling) constant, and weight close. Then, the variables would be rolling resistance, grip, and drag.

700c X 2.8c

23mm is my daily use tyre while 19mm is my preferred weekend tyre for my ride , both are tubular

Great idea! BUT Descending on each tyre multiple times (the more the better) and comparing the average times would be more accurate & quiet interesting.

Honestly tho.. it's about having the right tire to get ya up all the climbs, while having the skill to descend on those same tires at speed. Is downhill road the next big thing? Haha. Ffs

Yeah, gotta agree.. 26 is a general thick girl, not the anorexic 18 we thought we were gonna be seeing. 26 and 35 are damn near the same hehe. 18, 36, 54.. ? Bout the best ya could do.. lol.

I love the coat

Weight

try it with fatbike xD

40mm is the skinniest tire I'll put on anything. WTB byway 700c.. I had a 26" 1.75 that felt great.

I think 40-42mm is perfect for 700c 47-55 for anything smaller diameter rim

much over 2" feels weird anywhere but off road

These should be by the same tire from the same company.

And run at a few different pressures.

And run multiple times so LEARNING the course is eliminated.

And lean angle changes with tire geometry.

Bad science....Fun riding.

i rode my road bike 2 or 3x last year. my 29er is jsust more fun.

Damn those 50mm tires look like a Dutch style city bike😂

I've never understood why people insisted on such ridiculously skinny tires in the first place. It takes very little gravel before you're in real trouble with stupid skinny tires.

Verx well explained! thx

They will simply go ahead and convince you of "the other thing" every now and then to increase sales.

I’m already using 2.6 inch semi slicks. Such a great tyre!

More rubber on road = more friction = less dying.

My fav so far is 35c, I am also a big Rene Herse fan as high quality casing also makes a huge difference.

The wider the tyres are, the bigger must be the leaningangle at the same speed threw the same corner. It`s caused in the different geometrics. You can look this for example in motobike videos. So it´s not a sign of higher speed if you drive an bigger angle with an wider tyre. Excuse my english, but i think you understand what i want to say.

Wider tyres is more weight?

it is very important to note that of all of this not enough data was collected for conculsive eveidence to be aquired.

should do it again but wear protection gear and see how far you can lean until falling

Nothing here is accurate.
At least do it on closed road, you don't go as fast as you want if you can't be sure there is no car coming the other way.
You can't tell if you corner faster because you've done it 3 times in a row or because you have wider tires. At least go downhill 10 times with each tire, then go again once more.

I've been commuting on a 34mm Vittoria Corsa N.EXT for awhile and been loving the comfort and ability to drop the pressure for more grip if it's a little wet.

I ride a 40mm road tire and I practice at slower speeds at very steep lean angles.

I got studded 50mm on my gravel now when it's snowy and lots of ice. Feels great, even tho they are heavy as F...

noice thanks for testing i go with 35 in 2024

Tell to MTBers, they are going really fat and for me the problem is the weight. It is in the outer side of the wheel and feels really bad. from 560gr in a 2.1" mtb tire to near 1kg of a 3" that is masive diference and for XC-ll mountain the result is very bad in any terrain. Only for e bikes and I don´t like it. I like to feel how I climb my self a hard mountain, it is fun and rewarding to see how you defeat the mountain.

hilariously unscientific

I love my 35mm gp5000 tires. One of the fastest tires out there and also super comfortable and grippy.

Great video. But you guys need to work on your teleporting skills...

That's some serious bro science going on in this video.

Must notice that a gravel bike has a geometry designed to run bigger tires. Using smaller tires can be detrimental to handling characteristics (affecting measures like trail)

Buying up 23mm as fast as I can, been riding 19mm to 23mm since the 1960s with no problem, likewise rim brakes. No intention of changing 8 wheels and 4 frames plus wider mudguards. Tried some 25mm, could feel no différance except rubbing inside the mudguards. Can still mange 50 miles at 15mph at 78. Cyclist have always been suckers for fashion, none of you reading this are going to ride the T de F, stop being conned and save your money !

Just for reminder,coffe is good and not.

Rolling resistance is lower?
No. Go test it - and in an actual controlled sane application. Wider tires in general have roughly the same rolling resistance. Then why do some people falsely claim they would reduce resistance? Cause they test the tires at the same pressure - which is completely bonkers crazy.

And the wider (and larger) tires of course feel more stable - lean-angle has no impact on that, and what you are feeling is the tired being more resistant to change and not having more grip. Larger mass further away from the axis of rotation => higher moment of inertia. Here you could just as well test how fast you can to a slalom and the wider tires would feel way worse for that scenario.

So all the test di was show that riding the same bike down the same route he got more confident. You started with the tires you wanted to fail and then claimed it is the tires fault despite him directly stating that he got no clue on how the tires actually would perform and just not leaning in more or driving faster.
If anything it shows a placebo effect.

Profile and pressure affect grip as much as width and confidence in my experience.

I use now Pirelli diablo supercorsa SP V3
180/55, It feels more confident.

So one comment here, I took a class on motorcycle engineering in university and I didn't look up my old lecture slides, but I am pretty sure that what they told us is that the narrower the tire, or more importantly, the smaller the diameter of the approximated rolling circle, the lower the lean angle. So it's no surprise that he is leaning further, the point is that probably he isn't goingfaster, he is just leaning more.