Help me choose some tyres

Equipment
1

Ok, so with the new ‘groad’ incoming, I’ve now sorting out the finer details, in this case the tyres for the road wheels.

The road wheels will be Hunt 44, so 20mm internal.

I’m debating transferring across my existing 25mm Conti GP5K, but on the other hand they are starting to show a bit of wear and I’m thinking this is a good time to join the 28mm crowd.

These tyres will be used on the road setup - obviously - which will be used for largely solo riding and some brisk-ish group rides. I’m a little over 70kg and ~4w/kg, for reference. UK semi-rural roads, so often not brilliant surfaces.

So, a few q’s:

  1. Given I’m not exactly MVDP quick :rofl: it’s probably negligible, but the idea that I’ll be giving up ‘free’ aero gains by running 28s rather than 25s is bothering me. Can we all confirm this is utterly marginal, or has anyone actually noticed it?
  2. I’m tubeless agnostic, leaning towards sceptical, for the road [100% converted for gravel]. Any road consensus here?
  3. Any experience running Rene Herse? I’m very tempted by the Chinooks, but they are not cheap, so I’d want to feel they are worth it.
  4. Another option is the Enve SES 27s. The 27 option might offset my tyre aeronexia, and I can get them at something of a discount.
  5. Other suggestions?

Thanks all

2

1 - notice the difference? Ha no. Not sure how you notice ~2 watt difference. The 28s will be fine
2 - i say clinchers with latex tubes with disc brakes. I just don’t wanna deal with tubeless. But if you already are for gravel, then you might be setup okay already.

3

Cheers!

The gravel setup is a different wheelset so makes no odds either way.

1 bike, 2 wheelsets, 2 cassettes, which Ekar is able to accommodate without changing chain length, which I think is cool.

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4

The RH / Compass tires aren’t a controversial choice around here for our randonneuring club, but Jan and co. are members so that’s hardly surprising. I run them and like them but don’t really have a ton of experience with different tires to be able to point out the finer points.

5

I went with Aeolus Pro 3V 32mm external width rims and even with non-aero 38 mm inflated Pirelli Cinturato Velo tubeless they are fast enough plus I get more speed when hitting some gravel roads.

I’m going to try 32x622 Conti 5000 tubeless next and see how that goes on Wed night worlds before comparing to 26mm tires (28mm inflated) on my Enve 6.2 discs.

Crap roads here and I hate stopping to change a tube. Plus I’m running lower pressure and it’s more comfortable and compliant with road surface - debatably faster than higher pressures but no real back-to-back testing to prove it. Tubeless for the win.

6

Thanks, that’s interesting. Can I ask what casing you’re running and what the puncture protection is like? There’s a lot of internet chatter to the effect that the extralights are beautiful but ridiculously fragile.

7

I’ve been riding 42mm extralights 650b on my commuter since early 2018 and 35mm extralight 700c on my weekend bike since the beginning of 2019. Neither has punctured for me on the mixture of pavement and gravel that we have in the PNW. I don’t think puncturing is the issue with the extralights, just the thin sidewalls. I’m a relatively cautious rider, so I rarely scrape my sidewalls. It’s possible that the thin sidewalls would give a more aggressive rider problems.

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