Hello. I’m primarily a roadie, but i’m considering buying a TT / triathlon bike. I source my frames & wheels from OEMs in China.
My question: are modern TT / triathlon frames clearing 28C, or 32C? In the road bike market, any frame that isn’t rated 32C is not future proof. My buddy’s Roval front rim measures 36mm. My rear rim measures 34mm. These mean you can run 28C that measure much more, or a 32C that measures 33mm (in my case).
I have seen a couple of TT frames for sale advertised as 32C, but the vast majority of options advertise 28C.
Is a 28C frame future proof on the TT / triathlon side? In road world, it would be a dead frame.
I would never ride rims narrower than 30mm, because you need at least that for a 28C tyre, and i’m not riding 25C anymore (i’m 80-85kg).
And ofc, Pogi is on 30C tyres on 34+mm Enve rims (that were marketed as gravel originally), so you dont have to be a unit to ride wide tyres & rims.
So, I figured i’d ask you guys what the prevailing themes are in your world, as i wouldnt want to buy a 28C frame for it to be obsolete next year.
23/25 also (Bianchi Aquila, firecrest 808) might go 28 in the back, but due to fork issues in had to resolve 23 is what fits max in the front
Edit: my opinion is that wide tyres for tt is counter productive. If you run long distance tt stuff 28 is plenty wide, even tubeless if that is your thing.
I run tubes, so 23/25 is fine. Tubeless i would run 25/28 but not wider, but i dont like the detached road feel of wider low pressure tyres. I am 86 kg, 196cm tall for reference. 95psi front/back pressure with gp5000. Roads are okay here, so it is okay.
Thanks for the answers, sounds like there’s a consensus around narrow tyres. I’m surprised though. Isn’t there an industry move towards wider tyres in TT world too? It’s really quite all the rage in road cycling world.
Marketing - the industry need to sell you stuff to survive.
As i see it (my opinion):
Bike tyres make sense of your roads are bad. Bikes are much much more compliant with big tyres and lowish pressures than small and high pressures. Especially for normal people, with normal Weight (or a bit too much) or tall people (like myself) weighing a lot more than the Average height person.
Compliance is nice, it makes you want to ride your bike more.
And than there is the technical aspect. If you want to run tubeless, i find the technology demands high volume, low pressure tyres and the technology makes sense some places in the world.
And hookless… (If that is your thing)
Disk brakes just made it possible to go that way.
Do you need it - no.
Would i buy it if i NEEDED a new bike - yes, as i am tall and therefore “heavy” by default.
But always remember - new standards or Standard changes are made so you buy stuff, and marketing is often a big part of a companies budget. Often way higher than r&d. And the bike industry has no requirements to produces data for the claims they make. You just need to say that the new product is faster than the old by 5-10 watts and people will buy it. Not even thinking about that a claim like this is often (if even tested) tested with non standardized protocols and “gains” often fall in the range of measuring error or are compared with 1960’s technology and the list never ends.
