I remember when I bought my Bianchi Mega Pro XL back in 1999, it came with 20mm wide tyres and I never had any problems with handling riding at 120psi. I now have 23mm tyres on it which are the widest i can fit as the frame is very close clearance. Sometimes I think the new trends in equipment are more about the manufacturers selling new stuff to people with more money than sense.
Agreed 25s at 90 psi…perfect for a road bike…any fatter and it’s call a gravel bike…great content Dan, keep up the good work…long live skinny frames, mechanical group sets and rim breaks….there’s room on the road for everyone, Cheers mate!
Nice comments on "vintage" steel road bikes. Yes, their responsive ride and positive road feel makes you want to go faster. Aggressive 74/74 angles. I once put 28mm tires on one of mine. They felt heavy and slow. 25mm tires are perfect aired up to 90 psi. They feel as light as 23s, but are more forgiving. They're also slightly wider than the rims, so don't get pinch flats on the manhole covers.
I'm thinking about 25mm tubs eventually. My stash of 23mm Veloflex Crits is dried up save for one pair on specially reserved wheels. My custom road steel is a bit more relaxed than that 80s/90s criterium geometry, thank gawd. Sadly, I think 28s would be quite a squeeze.
Great video Dan! I prefer 23mm tire on my steel frame bike ,remember using 25mm for training Looking forward to your next video. All the best!. The Bianchi is Beautiful / by the way.
I remember in the late 1990s here in the US when VREDESTEIN were distributed and we could finally ride 23 and 25mm clinchers up to 150 psi! I still have a stash of 23mm Fortezza Senso Xtreme clinchers as they have a high TPI than any major brand!
Very interesting comments re tire width and so on! As for the Bianchi, I recall Pippa York rode Bianchi in her final pro year, and said in Cycle Sport at the time it was one of the few, if only, bikes from her time racing she kept for riding after.
To be honest, I rather like the idea of pleasant riding. But if your dreams and desires are better served by a ‘racier’ ‘let’s get up and give it some welly’ feel, then I’m sure you’ll have a lot more fun on proper skinny tyres. It’s an interesting little trial, I hope we hear from others with experience of both. Thanks for the interesting vid Dan.
Feels faster and more fun! Exactly! It occurred to me one of the many vibration sensing apps for you smart phone, mounted on a quad lock on the bars might give interesting data. However, it's all about that race bike feel! I'm a 25c 85psi kinda guy, at 69kg.
I also have a 95 Bianchi TSX UL. In Celeste, of course. I replaced the fork with one with carbon blades to save a tiny amount of weight. It started out with 8 speed Campy Chorus, but not has Shimano 7700, 9 speed. I would always race on it with Comp 22's.
I have a TSX 92 in celeste. Had it from new and built it with chorus and campag shamal wheels. Have always used continental grand prix series tyres 120psi in 23 or of late 25 as the 23s seem to be small. these days. It's beautifully smooth, like it floats over the tarmac. Would never ride under 120psi, just no need because the frame is that good .
My favorite tires were the Clement Paris-Rubaix tubular silk tires. I had a set mounted on a Colnago Profil CX. I cried like a child when i got a sidewall puncture on it. The best and the smoothest riding tire.
The Veloflex cottons aren't too bad, but to be honest, I've not ridden their ProTour versions. I've no idea how those compare with the Criteriums I've ridden up to now.
I think it has to do with the frame. The carbons are so stiff they try to make the ride less harsh with widder tires that have less air pressure. The solution is not a one varible equation The frame and tire work together. Put wides on our bikes or skinnys on a new carbon bike would be a disaster. I use mostly 23 on my Bianchi EVs but have one with 25. All at 125. I can't feel the difference between a less than 10% width gain.
Yep, modern carbon is designed to work in conjunction with fatter tyres, but I think too much low pressure air can isolate you from the road and lead you to a duller ride, Dan
I'm with you; my usual Vitoria Corsas are 23mm ride great. I have got some wider 25mm Corsa Controls coming though, for potentially damp club rides as I need a bit more puncture protection.
Back in the day we used to use wide tyres for Youth hostel touring with saddle bag for over night stay. A stronger set up for reliable ride and we knew why. Training and getting fit required high pressure tyres or tubulars if affordable. The livelier ride was obviously desirable and more rewarding for the effort. The wider fatter tyre at a lower pressure by comparison was like carrying dead weight with the heavier tyre construction.and consequent unresponsiveness. Today the cyclist using fatter tyres are persuaded they are getting a good ride because comfort is the objective and a comparison is not experienced or thought necessary. Why put a rubbery solution in your tyre and construct heavier equipment to do so enable an inevitable messy puncture repair ? Thankfully TPU inner tubes have brought serious cycling into 21st C. Just a thought !
That argument doesn't phase me, I'm still having a vintage type custom steel bike made for me with rim brakes and 10 speed Campagnolo. I want to bring back the memory of the first road bike I bought back in the 70's. Chris Bishop of Bishop Bikes is the best fabricator that can bring it back. It's suppose to be built in May. I'm excited.
I wound up retaining Peter Mooney a couple of decades back. Bishop looks like a great builder. BTW: what is Campag's 10 speed group these days? When I bought my Mooneys, one could get Chorus and Record in 10 speed, and these days I'm concerned for wear parts.
@@christopheroliver148 Campy Centaur 10 and 11 speed stuff is still available. Modern Bike has some and a few other websites. I had this groupset in my closet for years and since I was a Campy only fanboy for a long time I have spare cassettes and chains, and more. I should be okay for many many years because this isn't my only bike. The way I see it if I keep it pristine it will keep it's value to a collector looking for that vintage style lugged steel bike. I'm 67 yrs old and I don't see the bike getting tons of use, I just wanted it because my first bike was a lugged steel bike I bought in 1978 from a bike shop and I wanted to reminisce.
Agreed. Ferrari's aren't comfortable. On another note, I can't understand why forks became straight and lost the curve, In my mind this is where smoothness started to disappear.
The loss of curve was alledgely following a meeting between Enzo Ferrari and Ernesto Colnago and the dampening effect of steel on impact which lead to the straight fork on Colnagos first, the rest followed - though it makes no real sense to me, Dan
Hi Dan, it was great seeing your enthusiastic response once you finally jumped back on the steel beauty. Seriously, as you know most deep pocketed casual Roadies are swayed by fashion, trends etc. I had a young Rapha clad gent enquire why I was running skinny tyres. I don't actually think he had ever ridden a 23/25s. 🤔 I remarked I do run bigger 33s on my CX bike and 2.4s on my Enduro Bike. 😂
Try 50psi in the 32mm tyres (which is what I run) having changed from 25mm tyres running at 90psi. The ride is far more comfortable on the wider tyres at lower pressure and much better on Gravel that I also ride on. imho. 75 PSI is way too hard on 32mm tyres (and I weigh 80 kg right now) and I can't even detect any loss in speed with the 32mm tyres either. 32mm all the way!!!
Pleasant, soft, easy that’s the aim these days in most things I think and cycling is no different. We were judged by how much we were prepared to suffer in the pursuit of speed and endurance, a crash was ridden off, we shaved our legs so that gravel and hair didn’t get mixed together in a wound not for aerodynamics or whatever reason people give, it was character building. You only donned the Lycra if you were training for or in a race, coffee was drunk at home before you went out and you had a break when you got home again. The bikes aren’t what they used to be because the riders aren’t what they used to be, when I heard o young friend of mine refer to the gearing on my original bike as hero gears like that was a negative thing I was quite amused. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that more people are riding bikes these days the roady culture is a wonderful thing. My almost modern Merida running 28s accelerates like a rocket and climbs like a goat with its 20 speed group and that’s great for me now in my 50s with a broken back and a couple of heart attacks under the belt. It may be just a feeling of nostalgia but up out of the seat crunching those “hero” gears till you got up to pace and flew like the wind and arriving home almost dead from the effort is something that todays younger riders will unfortunately miss out on and that saddens me a bit. I definitely don’t miss the fear we had of getting our front tyre stuck between the gaps in board bridges though, ha that taught a person to hold their line, indeed it did.
@@vintagevelos9517 I would love to participate in that event one day, at present I’m doing the single dad thing and restoring a couple of old farm houses but I’ve got a rare Alex Singer that was made for a customer in Japan back in the 1970s as a pure racing bike rathe than a randonneur that is my geometry that I reckon would be perfect for l’eroica.
I often joke that we shave so our leg hairs wouldn't get gummed up with sew-up glue. Why yes, I'm an old fart who still rides tubs. 😉 Even though I don't hold a license these days, I think that fuzzy legs sticking out of bibs look unkempt.
Wider tires corner faster and provide better braking but are slower with the same power oitput. F1 cars have wide tires for faster cornering and braking with downforce. They just have more HP than in the past. Just look at landspeed record cars. They typically have narrow harder tires for top speed.
I think that, in general, there are too many factors (frame, wheels, materials, etc...) that should be taken into account making a fair direct comparison impossible. In can imagine that older bikes were designed to run better on skinnier tyres, as modern bikes run better on fatter tyres. As far as my experience goes, I switched from a mid 00s aluminium bike mounting 25s to a modern bike carbon frame bike mounting 28s and I definitively ride better with the latter. The ride feels more comfortable and safer on tarmacs in poor conditions. But even in that case, the wheels play a crucial role. I switched the stock alloy wheels with a pair of high quality low profile low weight alloy wheels, and the difference was as between day and night.
I had a Schwinn le tour from 74. It rode well very well on pavement and gravel with the steel rims. It was comfortable and a little slow to get to speed. Once it did get up speed itwas unstoppable. It would go even faster.without having to push it. My issue with the bike was 5 gears wasn't enough for me. I needed at least 7 or 8 gears in the back. In order to do that I would've had to cold set the frame and use a frame alignment tool change to 700 get long reach brakes.. in other words a completely new bike
Must agree the ride on my Open Pro Corsa CX clinchers is really quick and feels it as well. Riding on a Basso Viper they make you want to push on and that's great.
@@vintagevelos9517 I've actually dialed my tire pressure back after reading some of the stuff coming out of Silca. I used to go 110R/100F with 23mm tubs. I weigh somewhat under 65Kg, and now I have both tyres around 10psi less.
I ride my vintage steel bikes restomoded with: 7400, 7700, 7800 and 7900 dura ace 7400 has the shortest lever action, fastest shifting than all the rest. Better and faster than modern 11 speed groups
That would explain it - you really notice the difference when you go straight from one to the other - also, the 9speed "Flight Deck" shifters are also not as good as the 8 speed, Dan
You have to try 10 speed Campy levers with Shimano 8 to 10 speed derailleurs if you want 8 speed, but with the better braking feel than the 8 speed shimano STI levers. Nice and crisp - especially with the front derailleur micro adjustment with Ultrashift levers. @@vintagevelos9517
Yep, my tyre of choice is Veloflex 23/25mm clincher or tubular - having ridden loads of them I know exactly what to expect and how they feel and how far you can push them - also used plenty of Michelin and Conti as Veloflex are getting hard to get hold of - just always be carefull of any older tyre that the rubber has gone hard - you can feel it on your thumb, should feel grippy - no matter how good the tyre brand is if its hardened with age its not worth risking as I really hate falling off mid corner! Dan
@@vintagevelos9517 What's your comparison between the older Criteriums and the current ProTours? My stash of Criteriums is gone, and in fact I have some old Conti Sprinters on the rears of my bikes just down to money tightness at the moment.
Yep, but how long did the peleton resist the change and its not like the have a choice now with modern wheel designed to take wider tubeless tyres - plus they get paid to use them... Dan
@@christopheroliver148 Back in the late 1980s we were using Michelin 19 m tyres not tubs, blown up to about 120 lbs for road and TT racing, maybe the roads were in better condition back then but using those tyres sounds a bit crazy now!
Do you know what - they really are - lots more creaks and knocks, not to mention very loud rear hubs (ah, the joy of a good Dura Ace 8 speed rear hub...) and disk rotors... Dan
Agree. I'm riding Campag Ergo 10 from the early 2000s with a waxed chain, and my bike is very quiet, and modern bikes seem like noise machines. And I positively can't stand loud freehub ratchets. I've no idea why some love 'em.
