Or maybe I should just say "exercise".

I am building up a bike. I have been doing some little triathlons with friends, and I hope to get a little faster. I have been mostly riding two bikes, my 83 ProTour on 1 1/4 tires and my 88 Paramount on 23c tires. Both of these bikes seemed too nice for regular old exercise rides, so I picked up a couple of "beat up" bikes to make trainer. One is a 85 Centurion Ironman, the other is a 87 Schwinn Circuit. I haven't really decided which of these I am going to use, but right now I am leaning toward the Ironman.

Anyway, I am trying to decide what to use for tires. All of my training will be on pavement, but when riding out around the desert highways you can get a fair amount of gravel on the roads. I am planning to use the MA40 wheels I got with the first Circuit I bought.

I want something that rides nice, and reasonably fast, but a little comfort is not a bad thing to have either. And I really would like to avoid flats. I don't see any reason to skimp out on flat protection for this bike. The desert produces a lot of thorns. Fixing flats is a pain.

So I picked up some 25c conti gatorskin wire bead tires. One sale they were a little more than 30 bucks a piece. Seems like a good deal, but I am having second thoughts. Should I have gone with the 28c? Or does it not make that much difference? 28c is still a bunch smaller than 1 1/4, right?

Jared

PS: I could also try out some used 28c Serfas Seca FPS for cheap. Anybody have an opinion on those tires?

Jared,

I have 23 and 28 gators on a couple of bikes. While there is a little difference between those, there will be very little between 25 and 28. That is a good deal on gators. Just go with them.

I run 28c Conti GP 4 Seasons on my commute bike. I was riding home tonight in the rain, and dropped my front wheel into a crack between the bike lane and the road. I knew about the crack, but could not see it with the puddles and the rain obscuring my vision. I was glad to be riding the wider tires, 23c would have scraped my rims, and perhaps even take me down. I say definitely go with the larger size.

Well, you can train with Armadillos, and Specialized once had some other tires with double-thick tread faces. There are also tubes that are double-thick on the outside face.

If you trained with Armadillos, almost anyting else you race on would feel like going downhill.

28's may not fit on the Paramount or Circuit.

Beat up or not, that 87 Circuit is an excellent ride---Columbus tubing, etc. If it fits its worth some TLC.

28's would give you more comfort than the 25s, if you can fit them. But it might not really make much difference, either.

I don't know if you have goathead thorns, but I'd be surprised if any Gatorskin can stand up to them. You'll still need to watch where your wheels are going.

In the winter, I ride with a 28 on the rear at a slightly lower pressure and 25 on the front.
27 1/4 sure is comfortable for the vintage rides.

IMO stick with the 25's since you already have them. I've had good luck with the Conti Gatorskins but I don't live in a thorny area either. You may want to look into some of those chemical flat protection goopy stuff. Apparently that stuff works well for thorns.

I like 27X 1-1/4, and I like 28c. I'm not a fan of smaller than that, because it seems you sacrifice a lot of comfort for a bit of speed. Rolling the bigger shoes doesn't slow me down on club rides - I'm still pulling hard 50 miles later, while those on 23/25c tires are wondering what's going on

I commute on Gatorskin 25's, and in this non-thorny area I've had pretty good luck so far. I also debated between 25 and 28, but in the end I went with the convenience of locally available 25's over ordering 28's. I've ridden 28's in other tires and personally don't feel that those extra 3mm makes that huge of a difference in either comfort or speed. I do deal with a fairly large amount of gravel on my roads as well as a ~100m stretch off road without a problem on these tires.

They're a bit of heavy tires, but that's a worthwhile compromise for the flat protection in my mind. They aren't the most "lively" tires with the best handling in the world, though - of course, if that's not an extremely subjective claim, I don't know what is!

This is Goathead City. I ride primarily on Gators and Vredesteins, both of which are puncture resistant. However, in the spring before they have been crushed by traffic, the Goatheads will take them out. So, my advice is just suck it up and put in puncture resistant tubes or liners. Those are the only methods that have proved successful for me. I'd rather ride than change tires. And I would be very surprised if your average speed decreased by more than .1 - .2 mph.

BTW, here is an excellent discussion about tire width by guys who actually know what they are talking about.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ighlight=tires

This is something I did not know. I may have to try out the 28c Serfas tires I have on the Circuit to see if they fit. Although as I said, right now I leaning toward using the ironman for this purpose.

Jared

Yes I know. This is the third one I have found. The first two were too big and way too big for me, but this one is just right. Problem is, this is really scratched up. I am either going to rattle can it or save my pennies for a powder coat, but that will probably be a while. The ironman has its scratches as well, but the overall paint condition is much better.

I should get some pictures.

Jared

The desert is definitely a prickly place. It is worth it though.

I haven't really considered liners, but that is a good idea. Maybe I should go 25c plus liners, rather than 28c. For my relatively short "training" rides I would probably rather have flat protection than maximum comfort. But as you said up front, there is not likely to be much difference between the two.

Do you have a picture of your bike with 28c gatorskins on it?

Jared