acassis

what are the relative advantages and disadvantages to each? i am on the heavier side (225lbs) and ride on both pavement as light gravel roads. also if my current wheels fit a 23mm tire, would they also fit a 25 also?
thanks
AC

Solid_Spoke

Wider tires provide better traction and cornering. And yes, I think that your rim that can ride a 23 should be able to handle a 25.

JamesRL

I'm about the same weight and my Frankenbike had a 23 rear and 25 front. I just got a flat, and so I switched out the rear to a 25, and feels better. Still not wide enough for gravel, if my experience holds.

The tire will very likely fit on the same rim.

chaadster

You can ride either, though the 25 can be run at slightly lower PSI for adding comfort ober roughnroads without increasing pinch flat susceptibility.

Depending on rim width, you may sacrifice a little of the positive feel of 23s when running 25s, but it also depends on how aggressively you ride.

In all, I'd say the two will perform very similarly all else equal, so it's really just a matter of whether you want the extra, protective and comforting tire volume.

txags92

My experience is that everybody says there is little difference between the 23 and 25 width tires. However, I swapped out 23s for 25s on my bike a couple different times two years ago, and there is definitely a difference in speed. The 25s do everything that is said above...they smooth things out a bit, the lower pressure takes some of the harsh out of the pavement, etc...but they will also slow you down. It may only be 0.5-1 mph, but slower is slower. If you care more about ride quality than speed, try the 25s. If speed is your goal, you will notice a difference.

chaadster

I think that's fair to say, though I'd add the caveat that it depends on road surface. Smooth roads, yeah, but choppy, rough, and gravel roads may actually go down faster.

himespau 

how much clearance do you have now with your brakes? My front brake is very tight with a 23 and I doubt I'd fit a 25. Had I realized that, I probably would have gone another way because it'd just take one small pebble and I'll be doing an endo.

MileHighMark

The wider tires will give you more traction, control, and comfort. I weigh 195#, and don't ride tires less than 25mm wide.

FIVE ONE SIX

honestly, it all depends on how you ride. if you're looking to get as much speed as you can out of your bike, than stick to the 23's. if you looking to get a much comfort as you can out of your bike, than switch to 25's, but expect to use a bit more energy to keep the same pace you kept with the 23's.

just know a few things about good 25's. first being that you're not going to find the same color choices with 25's that you find with 23's, if that matters to you, the only real color choice is going to be black. second is that it's much harder finding a deal on 25's than it is on 23's. i don't know why that's the case, but it is, the cheapest good 25's you'll find will be in the $90 price range for the pair...

and yes, your current wheel should fit a 25, and your tubes will most likely fit 25's also, but just check the size range on the side of the tube to be sure...

me personally, i'm 230#'s and i still use 23's. i've thought about switching to 25's this summer, but to me the $100 that it would cost me just doesn't warrant the change...

rm -rf

Well, that depends on a lot of factors. 25c tires are a little heavier, and a little less aero. But those differences are small enough that it would be really hard to measure any slowdown.

The same high quality tires in 25c can be considerably better than their 23c in rolling resistance.

I posted this in another 25c thread.


I've been running my 25c rear at 100-105, when I used to have my 23c at 110. So I'm effectively running the 25 at a higher equivalent pressure, and they are still very comfortable.

I don't think my 25c GP4000 tires are any slower than the 23c GP4000. And rough pavement would favor the 25c size. I'm at least a mile per hour faster on fresh smooth pavement than on rough chip-and-seal (gravel on tar) roads. So tires that can lessen the bouncing of bike and rider on rough roads would save energy.

gsa103

Wider tires only improves handling if you also have wide rims. On a narrow rim (<18mm), a 25mm front tire tended to squirm at low pressures under hard braking. When I tried 25mm tires on my commuter bike, I found that I needed to run them at exactly the same pressure as a 23mm tire or the handling really suffered. If you're running at the same pressure, there's no benefit to comfort, so there isn't much point. If you run 25mm tires >100 psi its probably not an issue.

On the newer 23mm width rims, I'm sure you wouldn't encounter this problem. So the advantages really depend on exactly what wheels you have.

Niloc

I don't think I'm going very far out on a limb to say you should definitely choose 25 over 23mm tires. At your weight and considering that you ride gravel roads part of the time it seems like a no-brainer. They will be more comfortable and provide you better traction. There is new evidence that they are actually faster than 23mm tires. No-brainer. If your bike cannot fit 25mm tires I think that is unfortunate and short-sighted on the part of the brand to make a frame so tightly constricted. I've actually moved up to 28mm tires for most of my riding and I appreciate the added cushion on mixed urban / suburban roads and do not notice any loss in performance.

knobd

I was thinking about this aspect the other day. With conventional wisdom it makes sense, i.e. the tire pressure buffering the ride is the same so it should feel the same. However, I was wandering if the fact that more air being under you (with the 700 x 25's), even at the same pressure, offered any benefits to the ride quality.

sfrider 

Ride the highest pressure your frame can smooth out. Depends on frame, wheels, tubes, and most of all pavement. I have absolutely no problem with 23s at 100-105 psi on some very rough pavement on my carbon bike, while on my steel bike the same is practically unrideable. I run 25s on the steel bike for this reason. Speed is also a factor; what's really rough at 16-17 can sometimes smooth out at 20-21 on my carbon frame. (The steelie on the other hand just gets progressively worse.)

spectastic

I run 23 front 25 rear, and I'm happy with that decision. I think your weight is distributed somewhere between 70/30 and 60/40 in the rear/front tires, so it makes sense to go 1up on the rear tire and compensate for that difference. the difference in weight is 25 g per tire, which is nowhere near enough to make any noticeable difference imo.

0.5-1 mph is way way exaggerated

revchuck 

Not much evidence to support the idea of 25mm tires being slower, as long as you're comparing the same tires in different sizes. Pro teams have been switching to 25s in the last few years, and they're not going to do anything that'll slow their riders down. I ride 25s on my bikes, and have raced them in races that include a good bit (20+ miles) of gravel with no problems.

etw

According to a number of articles that I have seen, the wider tire has lower rolling resistance

Tech FAQ: Seriously, wider tires have lower rolling resistance than their narrower brethren - VeloNews.com

chaadster

The hitch is that the statement is true only when compared at the same inflation pressure. Start dropping the pressure in the wider tire, and Crr goes up (as the wheel becomes less round).

Lazyass

I went from many years on 23's to 25's and I've never looked back. If all my roads were as smooth as glass then 23's would be fine, but that's not the case by any means. In no, way, shape or form am I any slower.

gsa103

Yes and no. See the above GP4000SII plot. Rolling resistance of 25mm@94 psi is still less than 23mm@116psi. That's a 20 psi drop, and still coming out ahead. Most formula's don't recommend you drop pressure that much when going up in width.

rms13

I can't feel much difference between 23 and 25. I also don't think 25 will improve traction on gravel. If the 23 and 25 are both road tires traction will suck. I have 700x28 thickslicks on my ssfg bike and I have zero confidence riding on gravel or dirt paths.


I also can hardly tell the difference in comfort on rough city roads between my properly inflated 23 at 130 psi and my 28 at 90 psi or my 25 at 110-120