azza_333

I've got 3500km (2200mi) to tour on seal roads, I've decided to go with Marathon Supremes Evolution line, Rider+Bike+Gear = 115kg (254lbs). What are everyones thoughts on tire width 28c, 32c, or 37c?

bradtx

My average all-up weight is ~252 lb., so pretty close. 28s work well for my daughter on her CX based bike, but her all-up weight is much less. 32s seem to be pretty good for most everything. I have some 37s on my second touring bike and from some gravel grinding on it are perhaps better for chip seal vibration dampening at the handle bars. FWIW my two touring bikes are identical frame sets.

Difficult to give a blanket statement because in my examples the rims are different widths and are Continental tires which seem to run a bit narrower than other brands.

Brad

andrewclaus

That's a pretty heavy tire. I would minimize tire weight and go with 28 (about 20% lighter, it looks like).

It looks like the smaller tire will support your load, and the smaller tire allows a higher inflation pressure, which I appreciate but many don't.

Wanderer

I would opt for the wider tire. More comfort, more float, and more capacity. Loaded touring, you sure won't notice the miniscule weight difference.

robert schlatte

+1. If you're not plan on off-roading, I would purchase a tire with low rolling resistance as well. Recently I purchased Panaracer Pasela PT 35c- folding variety. They are fairly smooth, fairly high volume tires. They seem light, fast, supple, and really, really comfortable. Best of all they don't break the bank so you can afford an extra one to take with you.

fietsbob

I put plenty of miles on 35-622 tires.. 3rd tire as a spare is always a good Idea. even if its not a folding one.

Doug64

I would recommend a 32 mm tire that is a compromise between weight and durability. I have used 32 mm Schawlbe Marathons and 32 mm Continental Gatorskins. My preference is the Continental tire. IMO with the weight you will have, the 32 mm would be preferable. I've never had a reason to go wider than that.

My wife and I crossed the U.S. on 28 mm Gatorskins, and were pleased with their performance, but the 32 mm tire is a little bit more comfortable.

She is getting ready to tackle a 5-mile downhill through a construction zone on 28 mm Gatorskins.


On a 3 month European tour part of our route took us over 400 miles of dirt and unsurfaced roads and trails. We also encountered about 500 miles of cobbles and sette stone roads and trails. We were using just the plain old 32 mm Schwalbe Marathons, and had only 4 flat tires for the whole trip. Changing out a tube is not a big deal, and I'd rather have a little lighter and livelier tire than worry about them being bomb proof.
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I'd rather carry a light weight folding spare tire than run super heavy tires, no matter how tough they are. The total weight is about the same.
Twenty-eight mm on the left, 32 mm on the right

seat_boy

I can't see any reason to ride a narrowish tire. 35mm+ is fine for road riding, more if touring loaded.

martianone

have run both 28 and 32 mm regular schwalbe marathons, 32 mm provided much better wear and felt better. Wider even felt nicer, but seemed slightly more sluggish.

noglider 

You can run any tire you choose. But the wider it is, the happier you will be. I rode for three months through Europe on tubular tires, about 25mm or less. It was rough. I don't recommend it, but I did survive. I recommend going with the widest tire your bike can accept. You may not need to use as much pressure as you think. Experiment to find your ideal pressure. Excessive pressure can lead to extra fatigue in the rider. The wider the tire, the less pressure you need.

djb

azza, I have done nearly all my touring on 28 slicks, but also ride 37s regularly on another bike. My touring weight of me 140 tops, bike 30 and stuff around 40 comes to 210lbs. On good roads, 28s are fine, good roads meaning not bumpy, cracks and all that. With rougher roads, I would have liked 32s just as noglider says, you can run lower pressures and it makes a real difference in comfort from 110 to 100 or 90 or whatever.

I really do think that 32s are a good compromise, but it really comes down to how the "sealed roads" are, and you probably dont really know the condition of them unless you have ridden on them, so 32s seem to me to be a good starting point.
On the bike that I ride with 37s or 38s, I ride this bike more in the start and end of the season, ie much darker riding, more potholes (especially in the start of the season--this is a climate with -30c to +30c so road conditions are iffy due to freeze/thaw) so the 38s are nice not to have to be so concentrated on the road surface compared to the 28s, and are a fair amount more comfortable due to the lower pressures (again, nice when I start riding in the spring with my body not used to real bike riding).

If you think that the road conditions are good, I'd go with the 32s vs 37s, they may feel a bit faster or easier to pedal along with---caveat--depends very much on the specific tire you choose! Some tires are much lighter and more flexible than others, so have a very diff feel when riding compared to other tires of the same size.
If you think the pavement will be rough a lot, 37s will be nice for the comfort and not beating you up as much. I have tried 50s just to see how they are compared to smaller tires, and if I were to ride on really rough stuff, wider certainly is a bit cushier that could outweigh a slightly slower ride--Im talking 50s here vs 37/38s.

Given that you are a much chunkier guy than I am, I wouldnt go 28s just from the comfort aspect. In the end, its up to you to try diff width tires and see what you prefer, as you arent going for a while on this trip, perhaps trying out diff tires isnt a bad idea, and in any case, its always good to start a long trip like what you want to do, with new tires, so trying diff ones in the meantime isnt out of the question, and you can start the trip with new ones of the type/width you prefer.

azza_333

Thanks for the advice as always djb, and thanks to everyone else as well

I will go with Marathon Supreme 32c tyres Evolution line. Would I have any issues with using ultra light tubes with the tyres, to keep the weight down?

wheelinthai

My preference is Panaracer T-Serve PT

zandoval 

32 at >250#

noglider 

Low tire weight is not as important as you seem think it is when you are doing loaded touring. Please learn from my mistake and don't use light tubes.

djb

Your welcome, I have used lighter tubes before with no problems, but the reality of all the diff factors that can make a difference-- rider weight, pressures used that work well for your weight, which specific "lightweight tubes", road conditions-- comes back to riding before your trip with your given combination of factors to see how it works.

staehpj1

FWIW, I have had good luck using light tubes sized on the small side. They are lighter and make the tires easier to mount. The spares are also less bulky. If you carry two spares that is 4 tubes in total. Since it is 4 of them the weight difference adds up enough to make a difference IMO. The lighter thinner tube means a slightly better ride in part due to having the effect of making the sidewall a bit more flexible. You do have to top them off a bit more often though.

It is best to make the decision based on what works for you for the type of touring you do, but for me I'll stick with thin slightly undersized tubes. They have served me well on quite a few long tours in a wide variety of conditions including a lot of miles in goat head thorn country.

Rowan

I just use 23C tubes for tyres up to 32C width. Smaller weight and volume (and often cheaper in bulk from somewhere such as Torpedo7), and despite people's unfounded fears, I haven't had any issues in around 10 years of randonnee and touring and commuting riding using the smaller tubes.

The real issue for touring is to ensure that the tyres are pumped up to a decent psi. Under-inflated tyres cause pinch flats and we had a couple of those in Japan because of the high lip on driveway crossings. The reason was that I deviated away from my usual tyre pumps to another brand, and those pumps would not get to a decent pressure at all; they were a curse throughout the trip.

Anyway, my advice would be to get expert in feeling your tyre pressure (most people think their tyres are pumped up enough when they use their fingers to test, but in fact the tyres are at half pressure), or invest in a Zefal tyre pressure gauge, or invest in a Topeak pump with the gauge included.

Oh, and look at the highest pressure spec on the sidewall of the tyre. and if you go to a wider tyre as per the other thread, readjust your bike computer to the appropriate circumference setting.

azza_333

I already have a Topeak Turbo Morph G pump that I intend to take on the trip, and I intend to max out the pressure written on the side wall. I wont need to worry about the adjusting the cycling computer as im not taking one, instead I have ordered a Garmin Edge Touring Plus GPS.

LeeG

32-35mm

there is absolutely no benefit to a narrow tire for touring at that weight. When I did light touring as a light rider my total weight bike/rider/gear was 190lbs on 28mm tires. That felt fine but when I upped the weight I put a 32mm tire on the rear which I appreciated riding on dirt gravely roads. Riding comfort will be significantly better with 32-35mm tires at that weight. Tire type can make as much of a difference as size.

gregjones

Well, you've probably settled the best ride question.

azza_333

Not quite sure what that means?

MassiveD

I normally toured on heavily inflated tires. At least the low end of recommended inflation, not normally more than 90. More recent info indicates this is wrong. It also indicates that narrow bike tires are wrong for heavy rider/bike/gear combinations. One question one might want to ask is why one feels like one wants to use them. I think it is an inbred feeling that they are beneficial, and more cyclisty.

The info indicates that to reduce loss you need to run 20 mm tires at as high as 150, while 37s would run at 50 pounds. Those are correct inflations at 200 pounds. Very hard tires vibrate body tissue severely which is wasted energy. Traditional tests are done on rollers and show larger tires are inefficient because of greater losses in the softer tires, from bending them. But when hard tires vibrate there is a directly similar loss through deformation of body tissue. So hardening tires is offset by moving tissue. And to boot you are taking a kicking and will be in pain, which doesn't help.

Comfort wise, packs on a bike often absorb the vibe. This reduces the pain, but obviously there is still an energy loss.

azza_333

I have only ever ridden on 26 X 1.75(unloaded) and 622 X 35 before(unloaded). Is it a noticeable comfort gap between 32 and 35?

djb

the key issue here is that the wider the tire, the lower the pressures can be--which can be a major factor in comfort for the rider. Tire construction can be a factor too--two tires the same size can feel very diff, if one is super stiff, stiff thick sidewalls of the tire etc it will have a stiffer ride at the same pressure as another tire that is more supple (on that note, the Schwalbe supremes are a more supple tire)

but back to pressures, because I commute a lot and do the same route over and over, and because Im a bike nerd and find things to amuse myself, I will try diff pressures to see how the bike feels. Going over the same route that is 11-13km long means I have time to feel the diff. You'd be surprised how a tire you put at lets say 110psi will feel quite a bit more comfortable at 100, or 100vs90 or whatever (this example is my 28 slicks)
Same with my 1.5 inch tires, go from 65 to 55, or 60 to 50 (or whatever pressure) and you really feel an improvement in comfort.

so basically, a wider tire allows you to run lower pressures than thinner tires, and so the diff between a 32mm and 35mm may be slight, but it will be there.

*also, wider tires at lower pressures than narrower tires will be a bit easier on your spokes/wheels.