Now boys, play nice.

Interesting discussion. Of course I figured it would be a can of worms. Though it may have been discussed many times before, I wasn't here to read it then.

I did take a few ideas from all this. Some things would seem to be obvious or at least not surprising. Pure rolling resistance may indeed be lower with skinny, high-pressure tires. Tire design matters. Width and pressure affect what the rider feels.

What isn't so obvious is how that feel translates into real-world speed. A rider who constantly slows over rougher pavement or who tires (no pun intended ) from lifting off the saddle or whose hands go numb may be slower at the end of the ride. So the pure physics of lower rolling resistance may be trumped by the aggregate effect of road quality, bike stiffness, ride length, the rider's resilience, etc. I have read various reports of rolling resistance. I've read about the softer or harder feel of tires. Few discussions connect the feel of the tire to end-of-day speed.

I will continue to evaluate the new 25mm's in those terms.