Own a road bike? Still couldn’t find the perfect tire size for your road bike?
What is a TPI in a tire? Shall I buy Tubeless or Clincher or other?
Tires are the most important part of your ride experience. A good tire can offer you higher puncture protection, comfort, speed, and durability. However, we always find plenty of information which makes it complex to make the perfect decision for your cycle.
Here is some information that may help you to decide, how to choose the best tire for your road bike.
Let’s first understand the Road Bike Tyres.
Road bike, being one of the fastest and most popular forms of the cycle is owned by many riders like you and me. Though Road bikes offer various advantages over the MTB, Hybrid, and Gravel Bikes however there are few sacrifices as well.
The international tire is designed to be of the same size which is generally 700x23C, 700x25C, or 700x28C. Whereas the first part is the diameter of the rim and the latter part is the thickness of the tire. These measurements are in Millimeters however the actual size for a 700C tire is 622 mm as per ETRTO (European Tire and Rim Technical Organization – or ISO) European standard.
You may find some road tires of 650C size which has slightly smaller dia. Also, you might find some tires offer these measurements in Inches, a traditional way for the tire sizes (especially in MTB & other cycle formats).
In this discussion, we will talk about 700C tires and the rest of the information applies to all other tire sizes.
Before buying new tire sets, you should understand two important factors about the tires.
1-Comfort
2-Speed
Comfort- The tires offer a different set of comports as per their thickness. A 28C tire will be more comfortable on an uneven road surface than a 23C tire, which implies that you could choose if comfort is more important to you. Please also be careful that the comfort also takes away some speed from your cadence due to higher rolling resistance.
Speed- Since we talked about the rolling resistance, a thinner tire (say 23C) will be more efficient on roads. However the professional Cyclists claim that Comfort do matters when it comes to real life challenges on a uneven road surface.
So is 25C is the best option?
It’s a balance between both speed and comfort. You can decide whichever tire size helps you as per your requirements.
Which tire size do professional Cyclists use?
In various interview and studies, we had found that 23/25C have become the most common tire size for professionals. Since no road is perfect, the comfort factor also matters for professional riders.
What about 32C tire size?
Generally, 32C and 35C tire sizes come in the category of Hybrid tires however if we apply the above logic for these tire sizes, 32C will not offer a great speed compared to thinner tires.
Shall I buy a high-pressure tire or a low-pressure tire?
Another important factor that we generally don’t ask for is tire pressure. Every tire is marked with the range of pressure it can hold in terms of Bar or PSI (Pressure per Inch). In a road bike, the pressure may go from 90 PSI to 130 PSI, depending on the tire capacity. Low-pressure tires are also well built however the high-pressure tires are considered to have low resistance, tire bounce, and efficiency.
What is TPI in a tire?
TPI is called the Threads Per Inch. Most of the tires come in 60 TPI casing however the racing tires are range from 120-180 TPI casing.
TPI stands for threads per inch. It defines the number of threads used in one inch of the tire casing. Lower TPI makes tire stronger and durable but the higher TPI will make it lighter which is a key to road racing.
Tubeless or Tubular or Clincher?
Deciding the tire does not stop only on the size but some more factors can affect your decision.
Clincher tires- Easy to mount, replace the tube, and fix a puncture on the way.
Tubeless- As the name says without tube, slightly better puncture resistance. Miner punctures are repaired by the sealant. The tire mounting is a tedious task and advisable to do at a workshop only.
Tubular- A hollow, cylindrical tire gets pasted on the rim, which makes it most difficult to remove on the way. It’s the least popular format of the tire but still used for riders. The overall experience of the tire may give an advantage over the other two offering a slightly low weight ratio.
Airless Tyres- For those who are afraid of punctures and want to go for long rides, can consider this form of tires. Airless tires are a new breed of tires that are completely puncture-protected. These tires are made with lightweight foam with a rubber exterior. These tires won’t ever go flat unless reaches their life span which is generally 5000-8000 Kms.
We hope this information is helpful for you to make the right decision. If you find the article helpful, pls do share it with your friends.
Your comments and feedback will be highly appreciated.
Cheers!
