Originally Posted by
Rides4Beer
I'm still fairly new to cycling, but I'm finding that bigger tires are in fact faster for me. I'm 185lbs, and on average to crappy roads, comfort = speed. I can def go faster if the tires are soaking up the road instead of bouncing me all over the place.
This is where I'm at, too. About the same size, about the same ****ty roads.
For me, it's not so much tire size that I'm after as it's a tire pressure target and the tire width is what gets me there. I can run my 30mm tires at 65-70psi - soaks up road imperfections and I feel *so* much better at the end of long rides.
At the same time, if I were light enough to run 25s in that region, without a greatly increased risk of bottoming out/pinch-flatting, I'd totally do it and not think twice. Along those lines, there's a lighter guy in my club (prolly sub-150) that's running 32s at 50psi or under. I think it's kinda silly. I can't imagine that much of a comfort gain at that weight and I don't think that I'd want the extra mass (rotating, even!) and frontal area for those (questionable) comfort gains.