Are thinner tires better for bikes that are used in the city and gravel roads mostly?
As in skinnier? Or thinner walled/tread.I assume you mean skinnier. It depends really it's all a balance. In the city you can get away with skinnier tires but you need more puncture protection cuz glass and shit. Gravel you can get away with less puncture but need to have more.volume cuz bumpy ride. MTB you need big knobs and big volume cuz off road grip and shit.A skinnier tires isn't necessarily better. But for gravel and city yea you can get away with skinnier tires compared to true off road.Anyways fuck you your question is dumb
For gravel and city I would run 28-38mm tires with a low tread profile or no tread. Could go bigger but I would stay away from lots of tread, since that will slow you down+wear quicker in the city.Bigger tires allow less pressure and tend to be more puncture resistant.
"better" depends on the qualities you're looking for in a ride. For asphalt I'd say 28mm slicks, but there's a reason gravel bikes are all built for ~40mm, and on loose chunky gravel I'm more confident and comfortable on my 4.6".
>>1992231i hate florida because there's all this super fine "sugar sand" that spills out into the road, shoulder and sidewalks and <28s are a deathtrap when you hit that shit while cornering at speed
>>1992231for me it is 32mm
>>1992199Depends on how comfortable you want your ride. Knobbies on the other hand are unnecessary on a bicycle for two reasons. One, a bike is not heavy enough for knobbies to dig into the ground and two, humans can't make wheels spin out. I wish we could. I would do burn it's all the time
>>1992287Burnouts*
>>1992287>humans can't make wheels spin outHumans actually can, it's seems like more balancing technique than powerhttps://youtu.be/IS8MkdXP9O8https://youtu.be/qVk-kZnhAco
>>1992247Yeah, where I live in northern Europe this time of year the bike paths are coated with a loose layer of gravel left over from sanding the paths in the winter. That's definitely sketchy on road-slicks and I prefer my gravel bike until they swept that stuff up probably some time in June. Just serves to illustrate my point that "better" i entirely subjective to local riding conditions and rider strength, skill level, and personal preference.>>1992249That's fine.>>1992287>humans can't make wheels spin outIt's easy on ice. Particularly on icy hills. Knobs don't help. Studs do.
There is no reason to not use as wide a tire as possible wherever you go.A Conti GP5000 25mm has 8W rolling resistance in perfect asphalt, a Continental Contact Urban 40mm has 18W rolling resistance. In less than perfect asphalt, the differences are even lower. Hell, 47mm schwalbe fucking marathons at 5bar pressure have 20W rolling resistance. And then you can take the pressure down to 2bar for maximum comfort, and it will still be at 30W RR. You don't have this flexibility with smaller tires.
>>1992287>One, a bike is not heavy enough for knobbies to dig into the ground and twoyeah those tire tracks in the dirt?fake, a figment of my imaginationTry riding in the mud with slicks and report back on how well they do
>>1992308Well, there's the clearance issue for one. Laid back non-judgmental retro-bro douchebags will be like "noooo you can't just use disc brakes! everything on your bike has to be 60 years old or I'll ask you how many races you won last year" and then act surprised when their 43mm rene hearse organic cotton tires won't fit
>>1992308You don't actually know what you're talking about.
>>1992318And you're going to let people get fooled by me and not grace us with your knowledge, I guess.
>>1992320Yes, because arguing with yet another retard on the internet is a fool's errand.
>>1992323Agreed, you'd just waste those couple minutes per ridden hour that you saved over your tire choice.
>>1992308I agree. I trusted jan heine on this one and he was right.>>1992318he's right. please reread op. if we are talking about asphalt and gravel for city/commuting, you should go with the biggest tire you can get, and I even suggest plan for a frame with adequate 2,1" clearance, or go for the old 27,5" conversion trick. Of course we are talking about tires with beautiful supple profiles, not coarse high profile mtb tyres.
No, skinnier tires are better for one thing and one thing only, and that's rolling resistance at the expense of traction and comfort, hence why everyone obsessed with skinniness is either invested in competition road biking or an autismal minmaxer.I bought a hybrid bike thinking I'd be fine with 40mm in the city, with a lot of people claiming you can comfortably use far less tire still, but the cobbles around here are so bumpy and slippery I'm now planning a new build with 60-65mm semi-slicks. Wider is always better unless you have a literal or metaphorical finish line to reach in the lowest time.
>>1992287unnecessary? What da hell are you on about, go try and ride any MTB with 2 inch slicks and tell me how it goes.
less rolling resistance = better
large tires (2.25" ~ 57mm) are way better than skinnier on rough gravel, it's the difference between walking or floating over it at full speed.
>>1992407>full carbon fatbikewhy?
>>1992407Honestly probably a goofy ass ride I'd love to give er a spinOn the topic of tires, anyone recommend some fast 650b gravel tires in the >= 2.00in range?|
>>1993054race kingsi think rocket rons come in a 650gravelking slicks or rh if you want no knobs (both are 48mm/1.9" though), but rh does make a 2.2" knobby. not too sure about the rr of that one, but i rh tires feel a lot faster than gravelkings on smoother gravel.
