Originally Posted by
garage sale GT
Is it more comfortable at the same rolling resistance though?
Yes! By simple virtue of greater volume. When going from 35 to 50mm, you
increase AIR volume by 55%, while
decreasing pressure significantly.
When they say wider tires can have less rolling resistance, how wide do they mean? You can't just extrapolate.
What? For this conversation I've been using a very specific example of 559 x 50 vs 559 x 35, including identical brand and model.
On a cruiser, at cruiser speeds, (~15mph) the 50mm Kojak
is no slower than the 35mm Kojak,
feels no slower than the 35mm Kojak, absorbs bumps and vibration
far better than the 35mm Kojak and has
significantly better cornering grip due to larger and more compliant contact patch. Additionally, the ride quality superiority, improved cornering grip, and braking benifits of the 50mm Kojak would increase in superior over the 35mm Kojak as speeds increased.
Try this; Replace the tires on you car with tires that are 30% narrower and have a 30% shorter profile. Then fill them to a pressure (read hardness) 50% higher than the old tires. You now have the same rolling resistance that you did with your old tires, but I'm fairly confident you wont enjoy the other performance 'qualities' of your new tires.