FordTrax

This might seem like a dumb question but I have been looking for an answer for a while on the web using different search parameters and cannot find one. So I decided to ask it here.

I started riding again (I am 53) about 6-7 months ago on a old Trek Hybrid to see if I liked it and if my knee bothered me less from not running. It does and I really like riding almost as much as running. Since then I have purchased a CX which I put 35mm tires on and use as my road bike and a Salsa Casserole which I just got which has 32mm on it. I want to do a road bike build for just road riding - thinking steel like a Mr. Pink or Ritchey Road Logic. Which brings me to the question:

I have an idea in my head that I am "safer" on wider tires on pavement; wider in the sense I keep going to 32-35s. However, I am thinking that 28s might be nice for my true road bike (and the Ritchey Road Logic is only rated to 28mm). I don't intend to use this bike on trail - I have my CX for that mission. If I want to carry a small load I have the Casserole. So this bike will carry me on day ride and only see gravel for sort unplanned stretches - parking lots, road construction, driveway etc. Is there any merit to my idea that staying with 32-35mm vs 28mm for this purpose? Will the 4-7mm difference in width make me less safe if I hit the unexpected patch of gravel/sand/road grit or oil on the 28mm? Or is that just a mis-perception?

bikemig 

There are plenty of people who ride 28c tires on mixed surfaces. A lot has to do with how skilled you are at handling a bike. It's easier handling gravel and the like with a bit wider tire which will be run at lower pressure which is why you feel comfortable on a 32c-35c tire. The Casseroll is a pretty sweet road bike. Why don't you run it with 28c tires and see what you think before investing in a expensive road bike like a Ritchey Road logic.

jon c. 

The smaller tire is more squirrely on sand, but I don't know that it's really significantly less safe. I have 25s on my bike and my wife's Casserole has 32s. It is a very different feel on the sand at the end of our driveway. But that doesn't make me feel that I ought to put wide tires on my Raleigh (which wouldn't take them anyway, so it's an academic consideration.)

jefnvk

I've ridden slick 1-1/8 (28s) on everything from nice pavement to wet clay and hard gravel. I don't like them, cause my 1-1/4 (32s) are far more comfortable, but I've never felt "unsafe"

SkyDog75

A wider tire can be helpful on soft surfaces like deep sand, where a narrow tire might be more likely to sink in and make its own rut. Otherwise, though, I can't think of any significant safety difference between different tire widths. I don't feel any less safe on my road bike with 23 mm tires than I do on my cx/gravel bike or mountain bike with wider tires.

Sy Reene

Aren't wider tires more likely to run over things that can cause flats?

chopsteeks

Growing up, my bike had 28s.....rode all over the place with it. Took my share of spectacular crashes...... Then I bought a comfort bike with 38s....... slow slow slow but I can go thru dirt trails with at a more leisurely relaxed pace.....it swallows those potholes that my 28 will make me stand on the pedals....

Is it safer ? Yes....but like someone mentioned earlier, for better riders or someone used to riding skinier tires....will not matter much.

Now the 23s on my road bike....never went on a dirt trail with it......yet or never.

Hardrock23

There is a gravel section on one of my routes and I don't have any problems going through it on my road bike with 28s, except for when I get into the very large rocks (2+"). I can still make it through but I'd prefer not to lol. Its nothing with the 38s/40s Iv had. When I was going to get my road bike (first time on thinner tires) I kept thinking they might not be as safe, but Ive since changed my mind. I know I have limits when it comes to certain terrain, for myself at least, but I don't see them as being any less safe.

Retro Grouch 

What a great problem to have! I think that the less perfect the road surface that you're riding on the more that you'll appreciate wider tires.

Most of my lifetime riding has been done on 23mm tires. I live only 2 miles from Missouri's crushed limestone surfaced Katy Trail so I've ridden a significant number of miles on it with hard, narrow road tires. Unsafe isn't a word that I'd use, they're just not my first choice for riding the Katy - or anywhere else anymore.

I think that a better question might be: "What do you think that you gain by using skinny tires?" While, as i have previously mentioned that most of my riding has been on 23mm wide tires, I've grown to believe that decision had more to do with fashion than function. There is a weight penalty to using wider tires, but it's minimal. There is an aero penalty to wider tires but, at or below 15 MPH, that's tiny too. The people who talk endlessly about "rolling resistance" mostly don't understand what they're talking about. In most cases, wider tires offer a rolling resistance advantage.

If I were building a bike for myself today to ride totally on rural hard paved roads, I'd use tires in the 28 to 32mm range. 28mm would allow me to use road caliper brakes (my preference) so that's probably what I would pick.

10 Wheels

I crashed on 23's when the front tire hit an old crack.

Yes Wider is Safer

AlmostTrick

I find wider tires to be safer. They are less likely to get caught in a crack or rut in the pavement, and less likely to slide out on a patch of pavement with light gravel. 28-32's for this rider.



Yes, but because they spread the weight over a larger area they are less likely to press that hazard through the tire. So you just roll over it. All my friends on 23's get way more flats than me, I really don't know how/why they put up with it. And when they do get a flat, it's a royal PITA trying to pump them up to the crazy high pressures they require.

wphamilton

The wider tires can handle things like ruts and vertical ridges better IF you have them at lower pressure than the narrower tires. It also helps on loose surfaces I think, oil and wet lines maybe not much.

SquidPuppet

Wider tires have a larger contact patch. A larger contact patch allows the bike to be ridden over debris and road imperfections more easily and with greater stability. A larger contact patch provides more grip for cornering and braking. Of course wider tires are safer. Now, measuring the improvement would sure be a challenge.

Leebo

Wider tires at a somewhat lower psi will be more comfortable and less fatiguing in longer rides. Less tired = safer? Maybe.

berner

I also think wider tires are somewhat safer. In my riding area, roads have plenty of debris, such as stones, sand, sticks, or deceased animals, in Spring after snows melt. Wider tires are more likely to ride safely over that stuff. Further more, roadways seem worst lately than in the past with some very large potholes. Since the New England states are well forested, on sunny days these potholes vanish when traveling from full sun to shade. So in Summer and in dappled sunlight I travel just a bit slower than usual in hopes of seeing potholes or if inadvertently riding into one, of riding out the other side.

70sSanO

I run 25mm on my road bike without issues. But I do have 28mm on an 86 Cannondale road bike (that now has a flat bar). A few years ago I wanted to try a bit of drop bar riding on dirt trails so I put some 28mm Kenda Karvs on it. I rode pretty sedate trails with a little sand and some small rocks. Compared to mountain bike tires the 28mm wanted to sink more into to sand but in harder areas, I had no problems.

As far as safety, it wasn't the tires that concerned me, but the downtube friction shifters that made it a bit sketchy at times. I have since installed a thumb and trigger shifter, added a rack, and it is more of an around town bike.

John

FordTrax

I think generally the opinion was that wider tires may be more "safe" for want of a better word. I think the quote above pretty much describes my riding environment here in Central PA. I especially liked "roads have plenty of debris, such as stones, sand, sticks, or deceased animals." To which I would add miscellaneous pieces of metal in various sizes and shapes and mud from washed out driveways and ditches. I think I will try to find a nice road frame that will handle 32s without fenders. Thank you all for your opinions.

curbowman

The guys of Bicycle Quarterly and Compass Bicycles have done lots of trials about tires, and they found fatter tires are not just more comfortable but faster as well. Citing just one of their articles:
"I [Jan Heine, from Bicycle Quarterly] was amazed to find out that Zipp had been doing similar research to our own. They were trying to optimize tire pressures for the professional racers they sponsored. During their testing on rough surfaces like the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, lowering tire pressure made their racers faster – until their wheels broke. The next step was to go to wider tires, so the wheels could survive… And then they found that even on smooth roads, lower pressures and wider tires were faster. They considered these findings “trade secrets”, and yet the other teams just had to read Bicycle Quarterly to get the same information. And eventually they did…
To me, Joshua’s conclusion really is remarkable: “Buy the most supple and widest tire you can fit in your frame.” His words could just as well have been mine. To have the guy who designed wheels for Zipp say this… It shows that the wide tire revolution has reached cycling’s mainstream."

Read lots more in the following links:

https://janheine.wordpress.com/2016/...re-revolution/
https://janheine.wordpress.com/2016/...tire-pressure/
https://janheine.wordpress.com/2016/...ses-confirmed/
https://janheine.wordpress.com/2016/...ension-losses/

Milton Keynes

I've got 25's on my hybrid but will replace them with 28's whenever it's time to get new tires. The 25's handle marginally well on gravel but I'd like to get tires a little wider so I can ride more gravel roads. I don't know that I want to go all the way up to 32's, but do they make a 700x30?

stevel610 

I always rode wide, like 38-60's and thought skinny tires would be too narrow. Until I got a cheap set of 28's for a flip bike. Wound up keeping it and rode those occasionally for a couple of years. I still ride wider tires mostly, though seem to have settled on 32's as a happy balance for road oriented riding.

Zoroman

Tires are like ties. What is in fashion dictates the trend.