Tire weight and speed.
Would 200 grams per tire make a noticable difference?

What about if the lighter tire was a 280 gram, 31mm folding cross tire and the heavy tire was a 480 gram 28mm wire bead touring tire?

The bike seems to fly with the cross tires. Seems slower and heavy with the touring tires.

I'm thinking of just leaving the cross tires on.

Should I? Or is it all in my imagination but then when I rode the bike on the street with the cross tires, I wasn't expecting to be able to go fast easily.

Also, would 380 gram Specialized Borough cross tires with smooth tread be faster than the Panaracer knobbies?

The weight won't make a difference. Rolling resistance goes down (in general) the thinner the tire and the higher the pressure. A 35mm tire at 50 psi is going to have appreciably more rolling resistance than a 21 mm tire at 110 psi. In your case, the tires are pretty close to the same width, so there shouldn't be ann appreciable difference t the same pressure, although the difference could be the cross tire is just a better quality design than the touring tire.

The Cross tire is a panaracer crossblaster, the touring is a Vittoria Randonneur.

I was just taken aback that the lower pressure, knobby Panaracer cross tire felt so much faster than the higher pressure, smooth Vittoria.

It's just now I'm trying to decide if I should leave on the Panaracers, and/or ask Santa for a pair of Specialized Borough CX's. The latter are smooth in the center, knobby on the edges, and weigh about 380 grams. They go to 100 PSI.

The Panaracers are folding. In addition to being lighter, does that make any difference? I'm sort of sold on folding tires now.

The reduced weight will improve acceleration in theory but it will not be enough for you to notice. However it reduces the gyroscopic forces so the increase in manoeuvrability will be very noticable.

Rolling resistance links that I like:

https://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/i...64TireTest.pdf
https://www.zipp.com/support/askjosh/tires.php#
https://schwalbetires.com/tech_info/r...sistance#which

(wider tires, lower pressure, less rolling resistance).

I would like to try some 200g tires against my 400g marathons but I worry about trading 2 min a day gained in commute speed vs 30 min a week lost in flat-fixing.

The Specialized Borough CX's came stock on my Tricross and the experience I had with them was less than desirable. They flat a lot and pick up every shard of glass in the road. I spent lots of time picking it out and was amazed at just how easily they cut. After a couple of months I finally lost a big chunk of rubber out of my rear tire and replaced it with a Marathon Supreme. Not one flat in the last 6 months. If I had to pay money for them I would classify it as a wasted. For the money your going to spend, there are much better tire choices than the Specialized Borough CX's.

I definitely noticed the difference between a 300 gram and 450 gram tire, it just felt slower. Is it actually any slower? Yea, not much though. Enough to worry about? Individual preferences differ.
Sort out what your priorities are, and go from there.
If you're riding on the street, avoid tires with much tread pattern if only from a safety standpoint, reduced rolling resistance is also a bonus.

IMO the rando is a great tire if you value flat protection and don't want a huge anchor of a tire like the Marathon Plus.
The Rando and Rando Pro are a lighter, better specced (higher TPI, thinner rubber belt) version of a Marathon Plus. Although it has less flat protection, for me, it's a good trade off, but it's still a heavy tire. The Hyper is very similar to a Marathon Supreme, it has better specs, so one would assume its performance is better. Neither the Hyper or Supreme are a performance tire, why the supreme is so expensive is simply explained by brand name and marketing.

Gave away my Marathons for a set of semi-slick CX tires exactly a year ago (when I stopped pulling the baby trailer for 1/2 of the commute).

Maybe 230gram-ish. Big improvement in cornering (they are pretty close to slicks).

Feel faster (and not just from the lack of trailer).

No flats yet (just cursed myself).

I had absolutely horrible flat experience with the Burroughs....... Never again.

I sure love my Schwalbe Marathon Supremes.

Fail.

330 grams.

does it make a noticeable difference? maybe
does it matter? probably not

I felt a huge difference going from a 400g 700x28 to a 580g 700x28. The additional effort to accelerate them up to speed reduced my overall speed as I was using more energy getting going so I had less left to maintain speed...plus it was mentally draining compared to the lighter tires.

I think we found your problem.

I just got rid of a couple pairs of Vittoria Rando series tires. They're heavy, low pressure, and ride like someone wrapped garden hose around your rims. If you need a wire-bead 28mm tire with good puncture resistance and a quick roll, go for the Conti Gatorskin. 116psi max, ~380-ish grams (IIRC).

If my bike is not heavily loaded, I definitely feel a difference in tire weight!

I happen to love my Panaracer Pasela tires, the non-tourguard version. They make my bike feel so lively. And they're inexpensive!

Going from a 330g Vittoria Zaffiro to a 230g Hutchinson Reflex I can feel the difference at the very beginning of acceleration from 0 to 15mph, then I cannot feel it. Also I can DEFINITELY feel the difference when I have to lift my bike upstairs to the 3rd floor every day..

I put the crossblasters back on. Monday or Tuesday I'll try them on my 14 mile commute and see how it feels. I'm actually thinking of just running the crossblasters, putting Mr. Tuffy's in them. With the Tuffy's, they'd still be almost 50g lighter than the Specialized Boroughs.

Isn't there an Armadillo version of the Borough?

And then, what to do with the Vittorias. They're almost brand new. I like them, they seem real solid, and actually performed very well in the rain. They ride very plush, and grip well. Maybe I'll put them on my fixed gear.

I’ve been running those on my former commuter, before I went to skinny slicks, and I love them. Definitely a great mid-size tire for the money.

I picked up a foldable 700x23 Gatorskin yesterday, and it weighs 215g. (Of course, for $50 it bloody well oughta have negative weight!)

+1 on the Vittoria Randonneurs. They came stock on my Cannondale. I've ridden them for two years, not one flat tire. They seem fine wnen riding in rain, however I am concerned about using them for wintry snowy/slushy conditions.

A vote for panaracer T serv, lighter and reasonable cost. I run 32c front 28c rear, good combo of stabilty and speed

+1 on the Panaracer Pasela tires, with 26" rims I have fewer choices for skinny tires.

+1. Rolling resistance was not bad, ride and grip were also nice, but puncture/cut protection was beyond dismal. Effin' glass magnet!! One thing they had going for - I could mount them with my bare hands, no levers required. I replaced them with Conti 4seasons 700X28 and had only one flat in 400 mi. Considering pretty gritty 'hood I skirt on my commute with lots of glass and assorted k-rap on the pavement - it is an achievement.

Ride safe and have fun!

SF

Armadillos are infamous for having no wet grip.

SF

Tire weight will make a difference at slower speed and can actually hamper you at higher speed due to the flywheel affect. For commuting, I'd want something that gave me a little bit of both and provided flat protection. I've had several Specialized Boroughs and they suck. Guess they'd work good on gravel trails, but I can't see any other use for them. They are slow and have poor flat protection. However, the Armadillo version of the Borough's are actually excellent. I find them a little faster and have great flat protection. They are actually pretty comfortable also. Nothing like a good road tire, but for a variety of mixed terrain, they work pretty well.

Is this the Commuting forum? :::looking around::: I deal in measures of pounds. Grams do not concern me, nor should they you. This is a commute, not a race. I would go with whichever tire is most durable, weight be damned.

P.S. Sorry, didn't mean to sound gruff, I'm just used to the gram convo happening in the Road forum :-)