Six Reasons Why The Ideal Commuter Tire Width Is 32mm
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- Опубликовано: 22 мар 2022
- Here's the link to the tire comparison video: • Battle Of The BEST Com...
Ever wondered what the ideal tire width is for your commuter bike? I have. After having used several size tires, my favorite tire width for commuting is 32mm. In this video I'm sharing with you 6 reasons why I think it is the perfect tire width. 
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I recently went from a 42 mm to a 32 mm Continental tires. But this week in my daily commute to work, I took a very nasty fall, by the way it was raining. With the 42 mm I did not had this problem. I love the 32 mm tires because they are faster, but I can say that I am a little scared to ride my bike in the rain again. Thank you for the video!
I'm running 38mm on my hybrid. Works well on the rough gravel roads and trails, and the occasional dirt farm roads that are common in a rural town like the one I'm in without sacrificing efficiency on pavement. It's the sort of niche environment that a hard tail hybrid is well suited for as a commuter.
It makes a lot of sense for rough gravel.
Also have 38mm on my gaint hybrid, enough cushion and perfect size for me!
Tubeless? This is the most important. 28-32mm tubeless is much faster and much more comfortable.
Rocky surface needs wider
I like the speed of 32mm tires but if you live in a crazy city without any bike lanes and loads of potholes,oil spills I found that they were too bumpy on cobblestones and potholes,they wore out quickly after commuting every day and also wheels go out of true and when braking hard or in the rain cornering don’t feel that confident,so for commuting I prefer 40mm,still gets me to work maybe 2 min more.32mm an 28 are great for long distances,they are still closer to a racing tire.For me the best is to have two bikes,one for commuting with 40-42mm and other-racing bike for the weekends for long Rides out in a country side with 28mm-32mm is great.Thanks for the video,it’s an interesting topic.
Thanks for sharing,,, I think that ones best tire make-up depends on alot of other factors in the larger picture...
I started with 32's,,, they were ok for a starting point... I switched too 38's ,,, dropped the air pressure and what a difference with smoothness...
Just testing 45's and 47's with a bit less air pressure and now my cross tour hybird is Rocking,,, I don't see my self running anything less then the 45's...
Pors:
- Better comfort over a broad range of terrain...
- Better comfort on the off road stuff when the gravel ends...
- Way smoother running the bike at farm operations and field work...
- Much smoother on long gravel roads
- And,,, added comfort on the every-day paved trails and roads...
- Zero pinch flats even with less air pressure...
- Very noticeable plush ride and greater comfort level all round...
Con's:
- A bit more energy too keep the heavier tires rollling...
- Bike is not as fast with 32's
- Not as responsive as the thinner/ lighter tires...
- Greater wheel rotating mass...
My final thoughts... what works for my riding style and terrain might be alot different then other folks needs,,, wants,,, and requirements...
90 too 92% rider with 8 too 10% bike,,, rigging,,, set-up and preference (s)...
Our needs and wants are subject too change,,, either We stick with what works or experiment a bit along the way too see if We benifit from our every-day out-ing's...
The only person that knows what works and doesn't is our selves...
I am a regular rider on pavement (just city) and have rolled from 28 to 62.2. Yes; 32 is very smooth, comfortable and safe, as well as having a huge variety of models to choose from. However, based on my experience, my favorite is Schwalbe Big Apple 28x2.35 (ETRTO 60-622). Although it may seem like a clumsy and impractical tire, it is not at all. It is very agile, smooth but above all powerful due to its enormous circumference. Suggested by Cube in its famous Hyde (urban configuration) model, it is perfect for me as well as having great puncture resistance. There are many factors that determine the ideal model for each person, I would go for the widest. Your review is interesting. thanks .....
I bought "Schwalbe Air Less System" tires (700C) many years ago best investmanet ever...never ever have to worry about my tires anymore....
Great video with a plethora of useful information! Thank you and God bless!
it's the sidewall height that matters the most on commuter or street use. since it's based on a ratio of the width, i find 40mm a perfect setup for comfort and safety for stopping and carrying extra weights. I rarely top-off with air for 180lbs weight with 60psi. anything less than 38mm, i had issues with pinch flat, frequent air top-off, and harsh rides on gravel/uneven path that are common on city and rural streets. 38mm-42mm will be best setup base on roads travel IMHO. safety is top priority so being able to stop safely, navigating pot-hold, and riding over the cracks on the road should be consider as 32mm will struggle with even some of the narrow cracks on the road when I had Cannondale Quick. I now have Trek District 4 and can't ask for a better commuter/leisure bike with virtually nothing to maintain and comes with IGH, carbon belt, power hub, lights, fender, rack, and even a bell. and it has 40mm reflective tires and the bike is ready to ride safely right out of the box.
I totally agree with you. I commute 10 to 15km daily on a Hybrid
Comparing a 50mm to 40mm to 32mm where I live in "hilly San Francisco like" conditions in Malaysia where road conditions are not great, I still prefer the 32mm for uphill climbs, faster acceleration, higher speed downhill so i can catapult uphill with much greater ease. I prefer the better athletic performance and agility on the 32mm compared to the slight increase in comfort that the 40mm or 50mm provides. Keep up the great videos.
Cheers, man! I'm glad you enjoy them.
I'm quite happy with my 40mm tyres. And even those are sometimes pretty harsh on the ragged bike lanes over here in Germany. (if there are bike lanes)
I'm broke my second center bearing within 2 years cause I'm often standing in my pedals on those ragged parts.
Sometimes I'm thinking of going for wider tyres, but that'd be a very tight fit with my fenders.
I can see the appeal for narrow tyres on good surface conditions though.
Fair enough. If my roads were worse, I'd probably go wider too...
I have a 13 y/o hybric/commuter style bike with 700C 32 mm tires that I do a 25km daily commute with. I started the commute with a mountain bike with the bald center strip and went from 50mins to 25min with the commuter. The wheels make a big difference. I think the 32 is fine for smooth - slighly rough pavement but does not do gravel or sand at all.
Recently, I replaced the origingal back tire that had a Continental Contact 85 psi tire with a Contact City Ride 80 psi and now ride with 80 psi, front and back. Just those 5 lbs can make a difference in softening the ride. I have experimented with pressures as low as 70 lbs but I keep it at 80 because I get groceries with pannier bags and a backpack.
Yesterday, I did a 8 km grocery run with at least 50 lbs of groceries. I figure that my weight 145 plus bike 30 and 50 lbs of groceries at 225 lbs gave me a footprint of 62.5 psi on the back tire. The loaded ride home was incredibly smooth and I had to intentionally ride slowly because I didn;t want to get a pinch flat on poor pavement.
I've seen several tire pressure calculators that indicate I could reduce the pressure as low as 45 psi and 65 psi loaded. Have you experimented with reduced pressures to improve the ride over poor surfaces?
I don't like letting my tire pressure down too much because the road surface on my commute is pretty rough in some parts. I usually keep it at 80-90% of the recommended maximum.
2.2" Schwalbe Big Apples here, lots of tree roots on the path I use and I was surprised how fast they are. You do you
I have Ampler Stellar city commuter e-Bike with Conti. Top Contact-2 42mm tires and everyday pressure i ride is 5.5-6 bar. They work absolutely amazing.
I am using 26 x 1 3/8 tire on my old bike and it works pretty good.
All good except on widths narrower than 35mm they use a slightly different outer compound than on 35 and above -- it's harder and because of that wet traction can plummet significantly.
So 35 is probably best for places like the PNW where it rains 9 months of the year and you'll be in mixed precipitation on terribly maintained roads with even city roads being gravel for 150' then back to slick city streets.
The traction due to the softer compounds of a 35 is essential in those conditions.
I have 40mm. I'm in Ireland in a rural area so a lot of country side roads and lanes that can be pretty rough and can be quite muddy in winter.
On good roads narrower would be better but I wouldn't go any narrower for the rough surfaces.
Although if I could be persuaded that wider wouldn't make any major difference on the good surfaces I would consider them.
Sounds like you need the 40mm alright.
I’ve kept the stock 35mm on my hybrid for the 3 years I’ve owned the bike, and they do pretty well off road as well as on road. Now, in those years, I’ve noticed that most of my riding is on mediocre pavement, so I do agree that 32mm might be best for my use case.
if not a speed need, 1.5 inches~1.75", 32C~38C are my tire-width range. I will consider small holes/crash/small stones etc.
34mm tubeless on my gravel. Works a charm. Significantly quicker than the previous 40mm Schwalbe Marathon and still great puncture resistance due to tubeless.
for me 26x 1.38 is already perfect for me. good traction and maneuverability.
I also like the maneuverability of 26 inch tires.
My gravel bike had (and I still use those originals, saving some money) 38mm tires when I bought it. Yes it's awesome on gravel, but I discovered its also very good on brik roads and reasonable good on cobble stones. There are some hefty ones for which I think 40mm is better (but untested). It seems it's hard for where I live (in bike paradise the Netherlands) to go above 60% tarmac/asfalt, there's always brick stone, and lots of patchwork (meaning asfalt in the middle was broken and repaired with another layer, smoothing out is never done, so its nice ride then BANG, ride a few meters BANG and then long parts fine and another BANG, vibrations). The brick stone make you vibrate and wider tires absorb a lot of that. The true cobble stones are so terrible, its very hard to walk/ride with any bike/ride with any car on them, to the point I do everything to avoid those pesky roads. Some lighter cobble stones are doable with the 38mm, comfort is often king.
So I'm figuring out using wide road bike tires on the gravel bike and how wide. 32mm? 35mm? 38mm?
What would you choose, if you have lots of difficult roads? Or just wanne try different routes, with some old broken asfalt
Long time commuter here. Yesterday i had a flat which i couldn't repair because...it was tubeless and i could not get the bead to seat with the tiny pump i had. In 35 years I've not had to walk this far, 4 miles, to get my car. Well if my wife was home i would've called but no and a work mate would've gotten me, but i wanted to work this out for myself. Yes i recently built up a different commute bike and decided to make it tubelss because i ride tubeless mountain bikes all the time and it's great. Prior to this day i was always using tubes on the commute because i can fix the flat on the roadside easily. I had hit a large hard edge of a pothole which i usually mever hit and ot seems like the valve stem started losing air judging by the small amount of sealant coming out of the rim hole base amd this caused a slow leak which i didn't feel until i turned right and the tire bead popped off on the rear. Well, i wasn't prepared (my bad) woth a good enough pump (and now im thinking i need to make a bead setting air bottle system). That night i fixed the same tire and did a night ride to get the mileage and test it. It's fine. So the conclusion for now is that these new tubeless valves which i was given, called Fillmore, have a rubber base which needs to be retightened after the first few rides to obtain a secure seat. Probably a good idea on all tubeless valve stems. I think going forward i will continue to use the tubeless tires on this commuter (Maxxis 700x33 Speed Terrane which have been tough and nice) and carry a skinny spare tire and inner tube on the bike so that i can just ditch the dirty tubeless tire (go back and get it later) and keep going. On my other cummiter bikes I'll keep using tubes. Moral of the story as usual is always have a good pump amd tire levers.
After 35 years one sill learns new things. Wow! Thanks for sharing your story!
32mm is not ideal in Philippine road condition. I was using 32mm and got flat most of the time. Now I am using 38mm. It's better. Still fast because I using a slick one.
My preferred is 35… just a bit more comfy. Can still get to 40kph+ on the road bike
40kph+?! You're a beast!
you should try the continental top contact 2
Thank you...l will change to 32 mm as you recommended...from Norway/Cobie
the advantage of slimmer tyres is they are lighter.i prefer wider tyres of 50mm on my hybrid bike as i feel more secure and comfortable ie cushionining.but now i buy a suspension seat post so it might not be as much as a factor.
Thanks for the reminder, I need to add some air to my tires :-)
My pleasure! Haha.
32 mm is really great because of how easy you get stuck in tram rails. Narrow tires make no sense unless you are hunting for a few seconds faster speeds. Get a nice 2 or 2.25 in with a wee bit of profile and you're good to go and much, much safer.
Hasn’t happened to me in 6 years, but I can see how it may become an issue if you have lots of tracks to cross. 2 inch or wider feels too sluggish for me, plus it doesn’t fit my bike. Horses for courses.
@@BikeCommuterHero There are some wider tires with less rolling resistance than slimmer ones. I have everything from 38mm to 70mm in use and the slim ones do not feel particularly faster. Tram tracks are a real issue if you live in a medium or large city though, really.
I have 43c gravelkings fitted currently and they slow on road... like running thru water. Ive swapped them out to specialized roubaix 32c and they much faster with good wet grip. The gravel kings at that width are just too slow on the 75%tarmac im doing
I have lots of rain and bumpy roads. I enjoy the stability of mtb as a commuter with 2 inch tyres. What do you think about 35mm for extra security?
I ride a single speed undampened dual coil suspension MTB with knobby tyres for commute. It works.
I am using 32 and the speed is good but comfort not so much, am thinking of moving up to 38mm because even on roads, you often have potholes, cobblestones, weirdly paved bike lanes, where the stones aren't level but are all aligned which leads to wobbling.
28mmfront/32mm back for me
32 is it. Agreed 👍
I commuted in the rain with 32mm tires today and I was nervous af. They're best in dry weather for fast runs but in wet weather? Nope.
I commute with 32mm in the rain regularly, and I don’t get that feeling. What tires do you have on your bike?
I run ThickSlick 700x28c from a 32 and it was the best thing I ever did to my Sirrus 1.0! It screams and I’ve run over things that I thought for sure was going to pop the tubes, but no way! Killer tires and very happy with them. That was about 700 miles ago and they are still crushing it!!!
Sorry, but the implication that tire width directly influences rolling resistance is false. Different sizes of the same tire model will have the same rolling resistance, given that each one is inflated to an equal stiffness, which will require different air pressures. I find 42-47 mm to be an optimal compromise between comfort, rotational weight and mud suitability, depending if the tire is particularly light or heavy. Also obviosly 28" diameter for an optimal rollover ability.
Pretty sure wider tires at the same pressure have less rolling resistance, however I do agree that 32s are great
I haven't dug into the science of it too much, but I tried 37mm tires at the same pressure on the same bike after 32mm ones, and the difference was very noticeable.
The scientific answer seems to be, if you use the same tire pressure, the wider the tire the faster you go. This sounds contra intuitive, but the real answer should be: yeah but you are doing it wrong. The narrower the tire, the more pressure you should put in. The max pressure for narrower tires goes up and up.
If you use max of recommended pressure for all your comparisons, then the narrower goes faster. But max pressure also makes the ride very uncomfortable (ehm how much?)
On the other hand, each bump will make you shake, so this depends a lot on where you ride. The more bumps, and the more hefty the bumps, the wider you want your tires to be (how wide?). And yes you also want some comfort (ehm how much ?) Then there's different brick roads, different speed bumps, different asfalts.
It's ... complicated, and different for each location.
Optimal is probably to stop at each junction and use another tire set, but not even idiots would do such crazy things.
@@Aragorn.Strider It is this shaking from the bumps that slows you down, it is lost energy. That's the biggest reason a wider tire is faster. Up to a certain point at least. The whole idea that narrower is faster is outdated.
I have a Giant Escape 3 the stock tires are 700x38, can I put a different wide of tire?
There's a certain tolerance for each rim, but there is no exact formula you can follow. I have read people putting 32mm wide tires on their Giant Escape bikes. If you get the tires at your local bike shop, they can install them for you and you can be sure that there are no problems with the size.
What about fatter tires on the rear? I am thinking 32 front and 35 back.
Anyone have experience?
I run 23mm front and 25 mm rear. I would prefer to have matching setting because they will have similar handling characteristics. I know the back will handle the same as the front.
Oops just got 2 marathon plus tyres at 35 mm. However 22 us dollars each on the UK.
They're going to work just great! Enjoy the ride!
That's a great deal and size you have there chap! Hope they are serving you well.
@@paulnam4488 thanks working well.
would 32mm tires work on a tricycle
?
32mm is great too, but for my type of use, 70-30 i prefer 38 cause i have more comfort and confidence on and off road, plus, it's very fast, i don't feel rolling resistance
Panaracer gravelking slick 38c
I am reading more and more that the consensus is that thinner tyres are not faster on normal roads (e.g. with bumps) and only faster in perfect conditions (e.g. indoor tracks).
It is true to a certain degree. In my experience there is a perceived difference once you go beyond 32-35 mm.
@@BikeCommuterHero Testing shows that isn't the case though. For example, Bicycle Rolling Resistance did a test comparing 700c x 32, 37, 40, and 47 mm wide tires. The 32 mm tire was the worst by far due to the stiffer rubber used. The 37 mm tire was the lowest, followed closely by the 40 and then 47.
Now, that was in lab conditions on a smooth roller. Roll down testing on pavement, gravel, and rougher surfaces shows that larger tires running lower pressures perform increasingly better as the riding surface gets rougher. So the 37 mm tire in this case may be best for smooth pavement, but it's very likely as the surface gets rougher, the wider tires may be faster. 40 mm may be faster on rough pavement and smooth gravel, and it's possible even the 47 mm is fastest on cobblestone and very chunky gravel.
And of course, the wider the tire and the lower the pressure, the better flat resistance is, the better the ride, and the better the grip is in adverse conditions. Weight goes up, but most of us spend more time riding at a steady speed than we do accelerating, which is where that rotational weight really matters.
In short, I think there's little to no downside to going wider than 32 mm if your bike can handle it. 35 mm is a great starting point, and I don't think you really compromise performance at all going up to 45 or 47 mm.
In short, everyone rides in different conditions, and you should get tires that work best for the way you ride.
@@MSUTriThank you. That was an insightful comment. I’ve been riding my Bromptons a lot lately, but I will try out different widths and pay attention to this.
This might not work on retro road bikes. The brake caliper frame might butt into it
38mm Mondials for me. I like the slightly wider tyre. I also was led to believe width didn’t affect rolling resistance, in fact you may get better speeds on a wider tyre.
Interesting! I felt that there was a noticeable difference when I switched from the 32mm Schwalbe Marathon to the 37mm Schwalbe GT tires on the same bike.
45mm here on a Norco Indie lol.
Way to go!
buah ha ha ha ha! that image sums it up for cyclists. Great point! Car tire shops recommend this and that and I choose the cheapest one there is (no need for specs). My bikes? I need DATA! Gimme DATA! Price? No problem, I pay!
When I consider the mileage achieved by car tires the value is impressive. From experience I know car and truck tires have huge variations in mileage and performance. The shopping comparison is hilarious, but really the same considerations apply to bike tires and vehicle tires.
32-40 mm tires are better for daily commuting durable and much tougher on bad roads.
Strange you never showed the tire or bike so people can see what your talking regarding size.
for tires make it thicker, you don't speed, you need stability and over 40 millimeter are the best, narrower than that is not good for potholes and all urban jungle in car infested city
The Dutch have been fitting 32-37mm on all city/commuter bikes for eons, you could have just asked us 😉
Also, you guys have no idea how a commuter bike should look, it's way too sportive for long term use and needing bike clothes is just proof you don't really use the bike enough.
I’d agree if all countries were like yours: flat, with good cycling infrastructure and a wide spread cycling culture. I’d hate to do a 12 mile hilly commute on a Dutch bike… and probably most Dutch would too.
@@BikeCommuterHero meh, we have gears as well as hills and probably way more wind/rain/hail/snow to battle against then you ever get. Don't forget we drive year round. Yet we still sit upright in and drive in suit with a rainsuit over it 😉
Don't take me for being too serious tho, I'm mostly just happy this is a subject across the pond finally. Just don't understand why you'd ever lean forward that much on a commute, looking behind you is needlessly harder, as well as wearing normal clothes.
Ps: almost noone does 12 mile commutes here, that would be public transport range for 98% of us.
Nobody cares for Car tyres Yeah 👍🏻😅😂32 iam using too😉