Bill Neither. I'm just way more fit than those guys. I'm also bolt upright while they're relatively tucked, bless their pelvic floors. I am confident I'd be faster on my Dutch bike with 28s, but think the 35mm tires fill the bike better, cost less, and I get lonely off the front. So it's a cost/ visual/ performance / comfort trade - pick any three?
The 2.6" to 28mm comparison was an extreme, to the 'bigger tires aren't slower' axiom, also an extreme. I do personally sense a 28mm GP5000 is faster than the 35mm, or even a 32mm, as does my wife (still fast), and personally most sense the difference on a climb. (Friends who've climbed both Gibraltar and Diablo - many times - tell me they're similar efforts - you owe it to yourself to ride Gibraltar sometime!) I like the "ride the widest ... that you want to ride, and don't worry about losing speed to the next size skinnier", for me, but the Cat 1s I've ridden with take to differ, and I sure can't keep up with them (on the flats) anymore, and my medical friends tell me folks my age shouldn't be riding with them on the climbs any more either! They have their modern 32+mm tire bikes, but prefer their go-fasts with the 25mm Contis. YMMV. Maybe my take is, "be wary buying a bike that needs an embiggened tire to visually fill it out, as the a too big tire might dampen (pun) the experience"? As to the original poster, I was surprised how much I liked how the deep rims and narrower tires looked on the Platypus! Made me wish I'd kept mine! Cheers, - Chris On Wednesday, March 4, 2026 at 10:40:29 AM UTC-8 Bill Lindsay wrote: > Chris > > You claim you run 35mm Continental tires and you keep up with others > running 28mm Continental tires. Then you say it's silly to claim bigger > tires are not slower. So which is it? Are your 35mm tires a lot slower > than other guys' 28mm tires, and you are just a much stronger rider? -OR- > are 35mm tires and 28mm tires actually pretty close in speed, provided they > are similarly constructed? My vote would be the latter. > > I think that the claims around bigger tires not being slower boils down to > tires of similar construction and tread, and comes down to "ride the widest > that your bike will take and that you want to ride, and don't worry about > losing speed to the next size skinnier". Nobody says 2.6" knobbies are > just as fast as 35mm slicks on smooth pavement. Not a single person > > Bill Lindsay > El Cerrito, CA > > > On Wednesday, March 4, 2026 at 9:18:16 AM UTC-8 Chris Halasz wrote: > >> For others reading, 100% agree with Nick - Conti GP Urban 700 x 35, and >> with TPU tubes. I sold one set when I sold a bike, and am on them again >> with another. >> >> I run them on my upright bike, and hang with the other folks born in the >> 50s and on their 28mm GP5000 equipped carbon fiber road bikes. >> >> As for bigger tires not being slower, well, that's just silly as a >> general rule. Take a ride up the deliciously smooth HC Gibraltar Road >> <https://mycols.app/en/climb/gibraltar-road-santa-barbara> here in >> California, first with 2.6 knobbies, then with the Conti GPs (and lighter >> wheels!). I like to climb, but in my seventh decade, extended zone four and >> five rides are no longer recommended! >> >> The physics of tires and road surface is a matter of impedance matching: >> A 28mm Conti GP won't be as generally efficient over ruts, roots, and rocks >> as will a nice 2.6 knobby, and conversely (see above), and likewise gravel >> riding is great on a 38-42mm tire, but with our smooth roads (the Montecito >> residents just will not stand for chipseal) 35mm is my max! >> >> - Chris >> >> On Friday, February 13, 2026 at 1:17:57 PM UTC-8 Nick Payne wrote: >> >>> For 700x35 tyres I've switched from Bon Jon Pass to Conti GP Urban, as >>> to me they feel the same to ride, and in this country the Contis are about >>> half the price. >>> >>> Nick Payne >>> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/bec6b258-971a-496c-8e50-c4a604e5972dn%40googlegroups.com.
