Originally Posted by
Redbullet
I never understood casual riders’ obsession for wide tires (except for selected cases of riding on bad roads). I think that, statistically, professionals mostly ride 25 mm tires on normal roads, and they would prefer 23mm if they made shorter rides (as casual riders do). They may go 28+ on special roads, but they always have the entire system (tire / wheel / bike) tuned for aerodynamics and bike weight still remains around the minimum accepted. By contrast, when moving to 28-32mm tires (and sometimes wider rims), casual riders’ bikes are not tuned for aerodynamics and furthermore, the bike weight increases – thus, lower performance.
With regards to claimed better performance of the wide tires, the articles I read always mix performance, rolling resistance and supposed "necessity" of comfortable low tire pressures (like we always ride on bumpy roads). I rode over 40 thousand km with 23mm tires at 90-100 PSI, on average quality roads, and I never experienced problems. Maybe 25 mm would be a better choice if I were a pro, riding each time 2-3 times longer courser than I do. But really, I am just a casual rider and I think that trying to mimic pros’ setups would be incomplete, inadequate and would only harm my performance.
28 mm is now what the pros race and 30-32 mm for Paris Roubaix. The plus point for us casual riders is that they are more comfortable and have more grip. My Canyon Endurace wheel set is optimised around 30 mm tyres and they are both fast and comfortable. My local roads are a mixed bag and I really appreciate the extra tyre volume. I run them at around 4-4.5 bar, as do the pros. It’s all changed over the past few years.
But to turn your question around, why would a casual rider be obsessed with very narrow, high pressure tyres? I could understand pros tolerating them IF they were even slightly faster, but even the pros are moving to wider, lower pressure tyres. I would have thought it would be a no-brainer for the average rider. It was for me anyway.