Time Trial Bike Tire Size

In most cases when talking about the worst rolling tires vs.

Time trial bike tire size. The rider cautiously rode to the start line avoiding any bumps or road grit for the fear that the tires might be punctured. Time trial bikes were fitted with 19mm tires as we thought that they would slice through the air better than a 23mm. By about 2010 rims with a 17mm internal width started to become fairly common which add 1 2 millimeters to the labeled tire width. The michelin power time trial is now the fastest tube type road bike tire on the market.

Time trial tt and triathlon bikes are designed for speed. Yes the differences are appreciable and are measurable. A time trial bike is typically 1 2kg heavier than a road bike. Schwalbe has been able to accommodate different size tires to fit more bike frames.

That s why they have an aero design tt bars aero wheels and a low front end. 26 inch or 650 tubulars are smaller mainly used on time trial or motorpacing track bikes. The best differences in performance can be measured in minutes even for events as short as a 30 40k time trial. If you want to use lighter tires on a heavier bike you now have that option.

This is because the main focus is making a time trial bike more aerodynamic rather than lightweight. Actually neither of these numbers is an exact measurement but this. For example a standard road tire is 700c x 23mm indicating a tire diameter of approximately 700mm and a width of 23mm. There are two common 26 inch sizes corresponding to the 584 mm and 571 mm iso sizes.

Tt frames tend to be heavier because of bigger aerofoils and bigger frames. There are a couple of oddball sizes as well. If static friction is so low that the forces overcome it we start to slide and sliding friction is much less than static friction so your bike will go down rather quickly. With the 100 grams butyl tube we use for our standard test protocol it s just a bit slower than the fastest tubeless tires as expected puncture resistance isn t very high but still acceptable as most similar tires built for speed score the same 8 points in this test.

By my best recollection the standard tire size for road racing time trials and triathlons hovered between 21 and 23mm up through about 2012 give or take. It s more important than ever to get the right size tt bike so that you re in the most aerodynamic riding position. Generally bike tire sizes are indicated with two numbers that correspond roughly to the outside diameter of the tire and the width of the tire.