phughes

Keep you current tires, but fill them with helium. That will make them lighter overall and will increase your speed. If you need to lighten the bike even more, you can seal a water bottle and fill it with helium as well and put it in a bottle cage. Just remember to attach a tether to the bike while it is parks, so it doesn't float away.

Juan Foote

IMO, the best way to get faster is to ride with, and try to keep up with, people that are faster than you. Pay attention to your diet and hydration (so forth). You should start seeing results pretty quickly, such as within a couple of weeks you should note you are not AS far behind as you were. If you don't see that improvement, it can be an indicator that you are unable due to various factors.
Another aspect that is helpful is to ride as many different route/types as you can, as hard as you can. Riding in a group is typically better for results in my own experience. I don't (didn't) always push hard when I was by myself unless there was some goal, like another rider I wanted to catch or a race against time to a point.

BlazingPedals

Exactly. Is OP trying to go from 12 to 13 mph, or from 19 to 20 mph? IMHO wheels are probably not going to help, but tires *might* a little. It's usually the engine. Changing the other stuff just increases your pleasure from riding and maybe encourages you to train more.

terrymorse 

When considering tires, it's unequivocal. Switching out the OP's Schwalbe Marathon (Crr 0.00638*) tires for a low rolling resistance set like GP5000 (Crr 0.00321*) will make anyone faster (for the same effort).

* - Crr values from bicyclerollingresistance.com

Lombard

No.

The greatest improvement you will get other than riding and training more will be with better tires. Get a pair of Vittoria Rubino Pros.

Eric F 

Whether the improvement is significant, however, is dependent on a multitude of other variables...including how you define "significant".

terrymorse 

A rough guess would be a 20 watt savings. In my book, I would mark that as "holy smokes" significant.

If someone told me I could gain an extra 20 watts by swapping out my tires, my answer would be "Yes, please."

Eric F 

20w would be significant for me, as well. This is one of the factors I'm currently looking at on my gravel bike. I have an event coming up that includes enough pavement that rolling resistance will something to consider while trying to balance that with off-road durability and traction needs. I like the current tires on my bike for rides in my area, but I think they are costing me too much on pavement to be a good choice for the event next month. This week, I'm going to test some different tires that are about 10w more efficient in BRR's testing. Of course, there are a lot of factors that go into IRL efficiency, but rolling resistance is worthwhile to pay attention to.

PeteHski

Best Bike Split is good for showing the potential time gain on a specific road course. I would certainly consider it a significant gain switching from Marathons to any premium road race tyre.

phughes

I begrudgingly have to agree, whilst still running my slower Schwalbes because I prefer their ruggedness on tours.

Eric F 

A heavier tire that doesn't get flats is faster than standing by the road fixing a light tire.

genejockey 

I swapped the $15 Michelin Dynamic Classics on Mrs. Peel, my 1982 Lotus Supreme, for a pair of Vittoria Corsa G2.0's, and I am anxious for better weather to put them to the test. Mrs. Peel has routinely been at least 1.5 mph slower than my fastest bike on my 25 mile "Time Trial" route.

phughes

Amen. I went around 3000 miles on my Continental City Contacts before getting a flat. I am sure the Schwalbes will be as good or better. About 1000 miles so far.

beng1

Riding position is king for gong faster, tires are second, and as long as you have any good quality brand bike in well maintained condition, it will be a waste to swap it or any of it's parts for lighter things as the gains are so small they are hard to measure, only pros need to worry about that sort of thing. So learn how to ride way down on the drops with your butt in the air and get some fast tires listed on the rollingresistance web-page and you will be doing everything you practically can.

shelbyfv

Yep

The Chemist

I switched from 35c Schwalbe Marathons to 28c Continental GP5000s back in November, and my average speed went from around 28-29km/h with the Marathons to 30-32km/h with the GP5000s and no other major changes, so there definitely was a noticeable increase in speed for similar effort.

andydallas

I'm new to cycling so maybe this will sound dumb, but when I added a power meter pedals, it made me realize when I am taking it too easy, it makes it easier to push when its slightly down hill, and I was just plodding along (but the speed looked ok), now I see I am putting out not much power at those times and start pushing it
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Again this might be dumb but for a newby (me) it seems to be a good tool to keep me from not pushimg