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by arghwhat 772 days ago
Quoting the article posted in another comment (https://www.renehersecycles.com/12-myths-in-cycling-1-wider-...)

> The German magazine TOUR built a sophisticated setup with a motorized dummy rider and found that a 28 mm-wide tire had the same wind resistance as a 25 mm tire when the wind was coming from straight ahead. With a crosswind, the wider tire was very slightly less aerodynamic. Even then, the wider tires required only 5 watt more – on real roads, the reduced suspension losses make up for that.

> To summarize all this research: Narrow tires (<25 mm) are slow. Above 25 mm, the width of your tires are won't change your speed on smooth pavement (at least up to 54 mm wide tires). On rough surfaces, wider tires are faster. That doesn't mean you can just slap any wide tires on your bike and expect it to go fast.
1 comments
ActorNightly 770 days ago
25 and 28 are basically same width. Also wind tunnel testing is not really representative of real world condition given real world turbulence, but I dunno if that would really affect results.

Im just against the general saying that wider tires are faster. This implies that fat bike smooth tires are the fastest, but we know that this is ridiculous. 25 to 35c probably doesn't matter too much aero wise at regular cycling speeds, but going all the way into 40-50c does.

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arghwhat 769 days ago
The issue is that narrow tires have a very, very inefficient suspension behavior, and road surface and rider movement causes it to be constantly exercised. That does not mean that you gain anything from going nuts - there are diminishing returns just like there is for slimming the tire for aerodynamics.

What tire is best depends on the surface, the rider and the speed. On a perfectly paved road at high speed and with a light, stable rider, 25 might be right. On regular roads, 35 might be faster. On a bumpy mess, "smooth fat bike" tires would indeed be faster still - assuming you can stay upright without the tread. There's a reason you don't take a road bike with 25mm tires to do downhill mountain racing.

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