Both of my favorite road bikes are now converted to 650B and bigger softer tires and I love it. The superlight would only fit 32's but my Lemond BA now has 38's.

There are a couple of spots on my 30 mile workout ride that have some pretty harsh expansion joints that usually jar me a bit. The BA with 38's make those feel buttery smooth. Very nice. I'm hooked.

photos?

Here also is some big wide tires on my Salsa beargrease XX1

I put 28 tires on my new build, anticipating the greater comfort. But, I have to say that I'm disappointed. When I switched from 23s to 25s on my other bikes, the increase in comfort was astounding! "Whoa! I'll never use 23s again. And, 'they' say that there is no increase in rolling resistance between 23s and 25s." So, on the new bike, since there is room, I went with 28s, expecting another incremental increase in isolation from expansion joints in the roads.

After getting two flats in two weeks, one of which resulted in having to make the "call of shame" because a tire iron broke and I couldn't remove the tire, I'm dumping the nearly new 28s and putting on a set of 25s, (Continental Gatorskins). I've had good luck with Gatorskins. Not the most lightweight, but plenty tough. Carrying an extra 25 pounds around the middle, I'm not too concerned about saving a half a pound by running lighter, and more fragile, tires.

What PSI are you running? What did you put in your 32s?

I favor wider tires as well with the three bikes I have using 700 x 35; 650b x 38; 650b x 42 on a '83 Raleigh Gran Tour, '81 Fuji S12S and a Rawland Stag respectively.

I find my current 28mm tires provide more comfort than my former 25mm's, but no less comfort than 32mm's that I tried out. Gotta think that all else equal, greater width will mean greater comfort, but not all else is equal, and other factors are affecting the comfort you and I feel besides just width of the tire.

There's a difference between comfortable and cushy.
At least no one has yet to claim their 38s offer the same rolling resistance as a 25mm.
Not putting down cushy, but let's call a spade a spade.

.... made my old rain bike feel like a young whippet.
The handling is faster and more precise, the bike responds more nimbly, the wheels spin up more quickly. And since I don't sit on the saddle for much of the ride it's just as comfortable and I feel more energized at the end of the ride.



edit = just sayin

DBG; I am running Panasonic Pasella tires on my daily rider/tourer - 700C x 43 rear and 700C x 35 front. I vary the pressure a bit depending on if I have the panniers on it and how heavy I am carrying. Very sweet ride...very close to or equal to other bikes I have with 650B's I have and without the limited supply issues, higher cost, etc.
/k

I'm very pleased with two moderately wide tires that provide a super smooth ride and minimal rolling resistance. Both tires are light weight with a supple, high-tpi construction.

Challenge Parigi-Roubaix: these are about 29mm wide, 290 tpi and 285 grams each

Vittoria Voyager Hyper: the 700x32 is about 33mm wide, 120 tpi and 350 grams each

I've been riding my hard tail with semi-slicks, which are a couple of inches wide. It weighs a lot more than my road bikes, but I'm not trying to keep up with anyone, so no worries. And those tires soak up everything on the crap roads around here.

Tire size and construction vary greatly. You really have to read up on frame compliance, wheel compliance, tire and inner tube compliance to get started. Then, you've got to ride various systems to make valid comparisons. Although my mtn bike slicks pumped to 65 psi are safe on road irregularities, they're really not all that comfortable. If I want comfort, I ride my Parlee, with Reynolds composite aero wheels, Michelin Pro3 tires and latex tubes pumped to 110 psi - that's comfort. Well, in a warp speed, road bikey way.

On the other hand, my Scott Addict with Mavic Ksyrium SL wheels and 28mm Continentals is never going to be comfortable due to the stiffness of the frame and the wheels.

I recently switched my 23mm Fortezzas back to 25mm Conti 4000's for a metric century on crap roads (lots of loose gravel, pot-holes, chip-and-seal), and was extremely glad I did. I would likely have gone down on the section of recently chip-and-sealed county roads if I had the narrower tires.
i had one ride with the Continentals on normal roads after the metric, and could not get them off soon enough... I just feel like I am trying to drive a tank on a stock car track when I get out with the guys on a team ride. For me, comfort is just not the highest priority when trying to finish a ride at a decent average speed

You have to realise that when you move from a 23@120PSI, to a 25@110PSI, that a 28 can be run at 95PSI and that is where the comfort comes in, running a little lower pressure that allows for more shock absorbing by the tires. The flats are not the fault of the tire size, but probably just running a weaker tire. Gatorskins are available in 28s as well.

Not only do bigger wider tire ride more smoothly, they prevent snake bite flats, and deflate more slowly.

I've been running the 28s at 110. Before I swap them out, I'll take your advice and go a little lower for a few rides. I can use the Gatorskins somewhere...eventually.

The first flat was my own fault. I was being a 'good citizen' and instead of running the red light, (out in the desert away from any traffic to speak of), I had to "waddle" over to push the pedestrian crosswalk button. Picked up a sticker in the brush around the light pole with the button.

Second flat I picked up in an intersection in the middle of the boonies, (again, in the desert away from anything). It was a wire. Just a single strand from braided wire. The LBS shop guy said I picked up a steel belt thread from a car tire. (Note to self . . . put some small tweezers in my seat bag with the spare tube and tire irons.)

Stuff like this happens. I've been pretty lucky until this past few weeks. The Gatorskins are supposed to have a kevlar belt on the tread that helps guard against stuff like this. The 28s are Bontrager Hard Case tires. I've had good luck with Hard Case 25s. They are pretty tough.

My 32's are Grand Bois and carry ~65PSI and the 38's are Soma (panaracer, and very similar to the Grand Bois) with similar pressure.

Rolling resistance feels higher but my speeds and times don't show any drop on my workout rides yet. In fact my first loop on the new 38's was a new best. I'm sure there's still some difference but I bet the softness makes them feel slower than they actually are.

Jan Heine at Bicycle Quarterly had a bunch of posts on his blog about the research they have done. They insist that wider is faster within certain ranges. It also goes along with their theory that the pressure has to be appropriate to allow 15% compression of the tire to absorb shock rather than bounce off. It makes sense, I don't dwell on speed but I can run with a 16-18mph paceline as easily with my Sam Hillborne on 32's as my old TREK roadie on 25's. I know my Hunq is faster on 50mm Big Ben tires than it was with 40 mm Dureme, but that is probably the result of a better tred design.

Marc

I have read lots of test results arguing that wider tires do as well on rolling resistance. Here Bike radar says wider is lower.

Sometimes no matter what you do you get a flat, I saw one of those big lawnmowers the city uses for parks, tires with a tread thicker then most bicycle tires, and it had a flat...

I was thinking about starting a thread on why wider is better. I've been running 28c tires on my racing bikes for a long time for training purposes. But lately I've been riding two bikes with fatter tires. One is my Soma double cross which has 700 x 32c tires. I love the way the bike handles on different surfaces.

But then I decided to build up a 1993 Bridgestone XO-2 this summer with some pretty nice 26 x 1.5 avocet cross tires. I wanted a gravel bike and I decided that this was a good platform for a gravel grinder. The Avocets are old tires (I think they date from the late 90s) but they have been aging nicely in a dry environment.

I can't believe how comfy this bike is and how great it rides. The combo of road geometry and 26 inch mtb wheels is pretty sweet. Plus these are really great (old) tires. I've been riding this as my primary road bike lately.

For my use, nothing beats a good quality, reasonably light, reasonably wide tire. I run 42 or 1.75 on my Safari, my old mountain bike and my winter bike. It's not just comfort: it's the ability to handle the unexpected road "imperfections" and variation in load, as I will load the rear racks down pretty good with shopping or stuff from time to time. I do like a lighter tire with a minimal city tread though. A couple of years back when I retired my old RidgeRunner mountain bike from winter duty I slapped on a set of light Kevlar bead 1.75 tires on it and I couldn't believe the subjective transformation. The older tires I removed weren't that much wider, but they were heavier and treaded aggressively. Felt like a new bike and of the ride was actually more comfortable: similar air volume, but the "suppleness" and less tread whine paid dividends.

Wider is not better for me. I've tried wider and heavier with the nod going to skinnier, high psi, folding bead, lighter racing style of tire. Yes, when I went in that directions I could feel the difference in a positive (for me) way in terms of quicker acceleration and speed. It's all subjective until you add that half pound per tire and tube combo.

Perfect on those oh so buttery smooth freshly paved roads in Northern Michigan, maybe.... Around here, they fix a few million potholes every year, and what isn't potholes is often cracked, plus there are utility cuts that were improperly repaired, dirt, gravel, sticks, and all kinds of other nonsense, mean that a 23mm tire at high PSI will shake your teeth out.

This.

When riding on narrow, high pressure tires, there is a definite high-frequency vibration, or buzz, as the tires bounce along the road imperfections. Wider, more supple tires don't bounce, they roll, and they do it with less resistance. However, the missing buzz makes them "feel" slower.