Hi all,
I have a Surly LHT that I'll be doing a long supported ride on due to my "fast" road bike being lost in shipment. The Surly is kind of heavy/sluggish, and I'm trying to lighten/liven it up a bit. I'm going to ditch the rack and possibly the fenders, depending on the forecast. What I'm wondering is if going to a narrower tire would be likely to make a noticeable difference? I'm currently running 700x32 Pasela Tourguards with a kevlar bead on Mavic A719 rims--if I dropped down to some sort of x28 (the smallest tire that rim will take), do you all think I'd notice any difference? I was thinking maybe a Rolly-Poly from Rivendell...

Thanks,
Daniel

I doubt it. If you're trying to make your LHT faster, you're basically fighting geometry and wheel weight.

I'd just use it and not worry about being slower than usual.

The fastest 700c tires I know of are Grand Bois 30mm x 700c...very comfy and very fast. That will be the fastest, easiest way to make your LHT as fast a machine as it can be.

i had 32s on my rims, but swapped them out for 28s. i noticed a huge difference. still very comfy, but no where near sluggish.

Paselas with the TourGuard belt are infamously sluggish-feeling, although the regular Paselas are reported to be one of the fastest rolling tires (per Jan Heine, Bicycle Quarterly), although the Grand Bois that Vik mentioned are indeed the top dog. The Rolly-Poly's are reported to be pretty sluggish as well so you may want to veer from that direction. I currently am using some Garneau Go!s, which are just Kenda Kwest in a 700 x 28, but do not know if these are still available. They are pretty decent, tho.

If the other folks on this supported ride are using race bikes, and you are looking to make it easier to try to hang with them in 20mph plus pace lines for example, I suggest *temporarily* changing out your OE stem to one that drops the top of your bars down below seat level similar to the level that you found reasonable on your missing, fast road bike. This will reduce frontal aerodynamic drag, which is an increasingly important factor at higher speeds. It will make a notable difference at higher speeds.

If your supported ride is a multi day ride, and you don't have much time to try out the new stem in advance, take along your original one in your luggage in case the new one doesn't work out. If it is just a really long, one day ride, be sure to try it out before the ride. JMO.

i've been riding ritchey speedmax pro's they are 30 or 32c and they are really fast.