fat tyres.....

[gavroche]

are rubbish on the road.
I have a 21 gears mountain bikes with 50mm ( 2 inches) wide tyres.
Everyone who passes me has much thinner tyres and I just exhaust myself trying to keep up with them.
When stopped at traffic lights for example, I copy the gear they are in, just to be equal but they just leave me for dust.
I suppose the answer is to get a proper racer with thin tyres as I really get fed up with being behind everyone and struggling like hell.
The plus side I suppose, is that it keeps me fit!
Now, must have a word with my wife to see if she will let me invest in another bike!
Where is that bike shop again?

 

[2Loose]

Fat tyres can be pretty fast. A mate with 2+inch Big Apples on his mtb can keep up with me fairly easily on my 23c tyres unless I push it, but then my bike weighs less than his and he has far lower gearing.

Knobbly tyres on the other hand definitely do add rolling resistance.

 

[jig-sore]

rubbish... wide 700c tyres are wider and therefore taller than thinner 700c tyres giving them a larger circumference.

this means they actually travel further per revolution than a thinner tyre, this is why you have to reset your computer when you fit them.

so in the same gear, and same wheel size for the same RPM a fatter tyre will go further and therefore be faster.

i think you will find its the other riders that are faster

 

[chris-s]

Suspension and knobblies will not help.

Chris

 

[Piemaster]

Fat tyres can be pretty fast. A mate with 2+inch Big Apples on his mtb can keep up with me fairly easily on my 23c tyres unless I push it, but then my bike weighs less than his and he has far lower gearing.

Theres away of solving an issue like that. Get yourself a less fit mate

 

[supercooper]

get yourself a road bike and dump the bike that feels like your riding in quicksand

 

[Woz!]

Just bought my wife a Charge Lazy Susan that has the fattest tyres I've ever seen and it's a joy to ride on the road.
They're road tyres, not nobbiles though.

 

[thelawnet]

are rubbish on the road.
I have a 21 gears mountain bikes with 50mm ( 2 inches) wide tyres.

TBH, the problem is not the tyre width but the tread and the general crapness of a bottom-of-the-range 21-gear bike with probably crap suspension too.

You need a new bike without knobbly tyres or any kind of suspension.

I have roughly 2" tyres on a 20kg bike (700x47c) and I can keep up with, not the faster roadies, but certainly most bikes on the road, including some on thin tyres.

Basically the problem is you have a slow crappy bike that's no good as a mountain bike and even worse on the road.

 

[Chris S]

Fat tyres are better at bouncing over potholes though.

 

[al-fresco]

Fat tyres feel nice and secure when you're swooping downhill into tight bends. I still go downhill faster on my MTB than I do on my road bike.

And I need to ride a lot further on my road bike to put in the same amount of exercise that I get from my MTB.

So, not useless but certainly not optimal.