will dehne

I am searching for information on rolling resistance of tires.

The reason for this search is planing a 3,000 mile cross country trip again. That is a fully supported tour at 120 miles / day.

I have done this twice before and learned that tire choice is one important factor. The roads are terrible in places such as split seal and sides of expressways.

My first tour was with 28 mm Conti tires. The second with 23 mm Bontrager and Conti. Each had its problems.

I like to go bigger but have no data to compare rolling resistance. I could buy tires and try them out. Is there a short cut?

BTW, my bike is a Cyclocross CF and can accept any tire. The speeds we are talking about are 100 miles in 5 to 6 hours (flat).

unterhausen

your best bet is to find the Bicycle Quarterly issue where they compared rolling resistance of tires. According to their tests, bigger is better (mostly)

StephenH

I would think flat resistance would be about equally important.

Commodus

Well I suppose it depends on the problems you had previously, but in my (very) humble opinion, I think you would be better served with 28s. I know that is what I would choose...maybe even 32s.

unterhausen

If by fully supported tour you mean that all you carry on your bike is food and spare tubes, I would probably go with 25mm. I am considering going with larger tires because I like to ride at night, during the day I find 25mm to be plenty wide.

Bacciagalupe

Here's one chart https://www.analyticcycling.com/Force...esistance.html

Here's another one https://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hadland/rolrec10a.pdf

The second chart focuses mostly on 406 tires. What you may notice is that most of those tires only lose a minute or less over 10 miles vs the the reference tire (the Vredstein Fortezza at the bottom).

I also happen to concur that in a non-racing context, a flat-resistant tire is likely to save you more time than a theoretically faster tire.

If possible, I'd try to figure out what the RAAM folks tend to use and go with that. If it doesn't work out, just try another tire.

Oh yeah, just remember that your bike's rims will only (officially) take a limited range of tire widths. E.g. the smallest tire my cross rims can take is 28c.

will dehne

I did some more checking and it was said that 32 mm top quality (and price) tires would be a good thing. The inflation pressure could be optimized. High pressure for smooth roads and lower pressure for rough pavement.

will dehne

Yes. Very!
Some guys had up to 20 flats for a 25 day tour. There were some with 4 flats / day.
I am told that 32 mm Schwalbe Marathon Supreme or Dureme would be a good thing for this tour.
Any opinion on that?

will dehne

I had 25 mm tires on my Trek Madone. I could not lower the pressure for fear of more flats on very bad pavement and the high pressure beat me to the point of fatigue.

will dehne

Interesting information. I did not have that information and others said it does not exist.
My Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels have accepted 23 to 35 mm tires.
I am thinking to use Schwalbe Marathon Supreme or Dureme 32 mm and vary tire pressure to fit road conditions.
Any opinion on that?

brian416

When I crossed last year (115miles a day for 30 days), I used 25c Gatorskins. They ride well enough and have good flat resistance. Unless you're riding dirt roads, getting flats really comes down to avoiding riding in crappy shoulders and luck. I had 6 flats during the trip but someone else who was using Conti GP4000s only had 2 flats for the entire trip.

If it were me, I would probably run 28c Gatorskins, that way you can run slightly lower pressure to get a better ride on the nasty tar and chip roads out west.

will dehne

Hey Brian,
You are one of the few who did this trip. Thanks for the information.
I just bought a fancy Cyclocross CF bike. It rides similar to a nice CF road bike but does accept bigger tires.
I am told that fatter tires offer advantages on bumpy roads and allow changing tire pressure to optimize speed and comfort.
I am sort of leaning toward Schwalbe marathon Dureme or Supreme 32 mm. I will do a lot of testing before I will commit to that choice.
BTW, what tour operator did you go with?

brian416

I did it with PacTour

will dehne

Thanks.
I did it twice with ABB.
How did PAC handle breakfast and dinner? Not an idle question. I am planning another tour at age 70.

FrenchFit 

I went for 32mm SMSupremes for my fast Rando after good experience with bigger SMSs on my 26inch tourer. The price is the big negative, but I like the way they ride and they]re just so solid after 10 hours and I'm getting sloppy.

Richard Cranium

It doesn't exist - it is dynamic - it is a function of load and tire/tube combination and pressure.

In general overall wheel/tube/tire weight is your only guide. Determining rolling resistance for individual loads is a crap shoot.

Six jours

Bicycle quarterly rated the 24mm Deda Tre Giro D'Italia (or something like that, anyway) as the fastest tire available. That tire is no longer available with that name, but apparently the identical tire is now marketed under the Challenge brand as the "Triathlon". Bicycle Quarterly rated its flat resistance as poor.

There is a 28mm version of similar construction, made by the same company, called the "Parigi-Roubaix". I recently began using them and have been impressed so far. They do roll extremely well, and I have not yet flatted, though I have less than a thousand miles on them so far. My only concern is longevity: the rear tire is already starting to square off a bit. It won't surprise me if I have to replace it at 3,000 miles.

Bicycle Quarterly also recommended the Grand Bois "Cypres" 30mm tire. These tires did roll very well for me, but flat resistance was awful, and I don't use them anymore because of that.

HTH!

brian416

I won't ever tour with another company than PacTour, they're that good. We would have breakfast in the motel parking lot, there was always a big selection of food to choose from, and then there's stops every 30 miles or so with every thing you can think of from junk food to fruit. They also do lunch on the road and we would have something different to eat each day. We were on our own for dinner, I think it was so people can eat when they finish and have a choice of what restraunt to go to. Basically the only thing you have to do is get on your bike and they take care of the rest.

Under the past events on their website, theres links to blogs from alot of the events, and I have a link to my in my profile that would give you an idea of what doing one of their rides is like.

BengeBoy 

Hi Will,

You asked about Marathon Supreme 32's. That's what I use on my commuting bike, which I also use for long-ish rides in the winter when it's raining or the roads are littered with debris. I got the Marathon Supremes because they are big enough to handle tough urban pavement, tougher than "racing" tires, but much lighter than some of the really thick and heavy "touring" tires that Schwalbe also makes.

So far, with about 2,000 commuting miles on them, I have 2 flats -- in both cases from little bits of wire that worked into the tires. Both times they were very slow leaks, found when I went out in the morning to get on my bike.

I also have some 28c Continental 4-seasons that I like a lot; they're livelier than Gatorskins but still reasonably tough.

Like some of the other posters, I'd recommend you hunt down the back issues of Bicycle Quarterly where they test tire widths. BQ tends to like wider tires, but they have recommended some narrow tires in the past, too.

One of BQ's past tire tests is available free on their website, here:

https://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/i...64TireTest.pdf

chasm54

I run 32mm Schwalbe Marathon Plus on my touring bike. They are unequivocally the best touring tyre I have ever owned. They roll well and are virtually indestructible - in over 4000 miles I have never punctured. I am told they are tougher than the Supreme, having the heavier weight "smartguard" protection layer.

Carbonfiberboy 

Have tried a number of tires on our tandem, so a lot more loading and faster riding than a touring bike. So far, we like the Conti 4000 in 25c (the Black Chili version) and the Schwalbe Durano, also 25c. They are fairly fast, ride and corner well, are folders and fairly light, and don't flat much if at all. I don't think 1 lb. tires would be that much fun for fast touring. We notice that we coast a lot faster than tandems running heavy tires.

canopus 

Panaracer has a RiBMo tire out that I am thinking about trying. 25, 28 and 32 sizes that don't, supposedly, weigh much more than the Pasela's. I love my 700x32 michelin city's but they are a bit heavy at 560+g. The Conti 700x28 tourings I have are even heavier.

will dehne

Sorry guys. I have been busy biking hard. I have a standard trail which is a mixture of limestone (25%) bumpy pavement and pretty good pavement for 50 miles round trip. I use that to get my act together. I have this Cyclocross bike with Conti City tires and do 17.2 MPH average for the round trip. I like to get this up to 18 MPH and have just ordered Schwalbe Marathon Dureme. Boy they were hard to get. Out of stock but did order today.
I will report back if these tires show a noticeable improvement over the Conti tires. The Schwalbe are expensive enough.
The goal is to do a 100 miles / day on limestone in well under 6 hours and go from there.
Next stage is a cross America Fast ride at 120 miles per day. I will look hard at PAC as Brian is describing.
My main meal is Breakfast. If the tour operator is not doing a good job on that I will not be happy.
I would appreciate any pointers as to a good diet to follow for 25 days at 120 miles / day. That has been my weak spot.
I think I have a terrific bike with Stevens Cyclocross and will try different tires (money no object on that).
I am attaching a picture from the last CC tour I attended. I am the guy standing and not all bikers in the picture made it home safely.

Trouble

All of you that are using 28 and 32 tires; Do you use them on the same wheel and if so, what size rim (profile width) (or make/model) are they?

I want to get a "sport/touring" bike built and would like to run the 28's with fenders and maybe 32's on real crappy roads.

My current set of wheels are the Swiss DT 1.1(415) with 240 hubs and they are listed with a 19.4mm profile width. I ride 28 Gatorskins.
What do you guys think; too narrow for the 32 or fine for running 32's?

will dehne

I am using Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels with 23 mm Bontrager and Conti slicks as well as 35 mm Schwalbe Marathon Dureme.
Sorry, I can not comment on your Swiss wheels.