Racers want fatter tires

[Paul G]

Race mechanic, Rob Geysen, wishes his team's race bikes had clearance for tires wider than 28mm at today's Tour Of Flanders. Will race bikes be designed for fat tires (again) in the future?

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/wider-is-better-at-flanders-43995/

[Mark Reimer]

Last year at Paris Roubaix, Quickstep were running 30mm dugast tubulars. There are occasionally guys who race cross bikes too. A 30mm slick seems like it would be a perfect tire for that race. It's absolute madness to me that some guys run 23/25s!

[Paul G]

Yes, they used a 30mm in the rear, but only a 28mm in front. I wonder if fork clearance prevented the use of a 30mm in front and, had there been sufficient clearance, they would have used a 30mm up front too.

23/25mm is indeed madness as is the lack of clearance on the race bikes that are developed specifically for Tour of Flanders/Paris Roubaix. I also wonder if it would be a detriment to offer "standard reach caliper clearance" on a race bike versus a close clearance bike of a rival in the peloton.

Here's an image of that 30mm rear tire on Niki Terpstra's Specialized Roubaix. Notice the brake pad at the bottom of the caliper slot.

[Jim Bronson]

Wow, that's about a hair's width of clearance between the tire and the brake caliper.  Tight doesn't begin to describe it!

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Keep the metal side up and the rubber side down!

[Brewster Fong]

On Monday, April 6, 2015 at 7:22:55 AM UTC-7, Mark Reimer wrote:

 It's absolute madness to me that some guys run 23/25s!

 

I don't know. Most of the racers ride on tubular tires. If you listen to all the tubular fanatics, nothing rides more smoothly than tubulars and even at 23/25mm width, they're way more comfortable than the average clincher tire. So, would a 700x25 tubular tire at say 80-90 psi be "as comfortable?"  Of course, the 30mm dugast tires that Specialized and others used in PR are tubulars, so they would be even more comfortable! Good Luck!

[Mark Reimer]

Somewhere out there i remember seeing a slow-mo video of tires rolling over the cobbles at Paris Roubaix. There was a lot of 'straight to the rim' impact happening. I think the tubular choice has more to do with avoiding flats and reducing rotational weight than anything. 

I ride FMB cx tubulars, 33mm, and I can definitely say they are like riding on a cloud, but that is significantly more volume!

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[Brewster Fong]

On Monday, April 6, 2015 at 11:02:08 AM UTC-7, Mark Reimer wrote:

Somewhere out there i remember seeing a slow-mo video of tires rolling over the cobbles at Paris Roubaix. There was a lot of 'straight to the rim' impact happening. I think the tubular choice has more to do with avoiding flats and reducing rotational weight than anything. 

I ride FMB cx tubulars, 33mm, and I can definitely say they are like riding on a cloud, but that is significantly more volume!

 

At least for the classics, it appears most teams are now going to 26-28mm wide tires and some want wider like 30mm!  Further, they using bigger gears ranging from 11-27 to 11-32!

 

 http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-of-flanders-tech-wider-tires-bigger-cogs-the-norm

 

Good Luck!

[Garth]

   Stating the obvious , In the commercial world of racing bikes, if you want wider tires they call that a cross bike . Some teams use them too .  And seeing there are only a handful of races for a select set of riders these would be considered there's no reason to make the racing frames take larger tires . 

  For teams that use the stock road bikes , no matter the tires chosen the pressures chosen are all over the place, from as low as the upper 50's PSI to the upper 80's  !!

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/04/bikes-and-tech/what-tires-wheels-and-pressures-were-roubaix-riders-running_212925
http://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/photo-gallery-paris-roubaix-race-tech-part-one.html#FsvcOhcXutEersOF.97
http://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/photo-gallery-paris-roubaix-race-tech-part-two.html#Kcxsx2cTJo7UE7Vt.97

[Garth]

And man, the one way I could ride over that stuff is with a monster 4" tire bike . . . lol . ..  but then I'd be riding so slow I'd just give it up and head to a pub .

[Paul G]

Yeah, I had forgotten how tubulars allow lower pressures than equivalently sized clinchers. That explains, at least partially, why wider tires are not being used in the pro peloton. The extra weight of a fatter tire becomes a hindrance to the multiple accelerations a racer has to make so the lightest tire they can get away with makes sense.

Your 33mm tubulars must be like a Tempurpedic mattress! Don't fall asleep while riding!