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Comment by at-fates-hands | Hacker News Reader

I think you're exaggerating a bit.

From 2018:

https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-wider-tires-l...

"It depends on the road surface, but 10 years ago the standard was 23mm tires at 8 or 8.5 bar, or 115, 120 psi," Brown said. "And now it's 25mm for regular road racing and 7 to 7.5 bar for front and rear, so a little less than 100 to 110 max on the bikes."

2mm and 10psi less is not that huge a difference.

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8% width and 13% pressure is significant.

It's pretty big when you take into account whole context. Stuck up "socks size is a rule" UCI, historical norms, technical limitations (25mm is a limit for caliper brakes), tire tech (wider tires used to be heavy)....

My prediction is 27mm being the norm in next 5 years.

Currently I'm riding a decade-old road bike. It was fancy at the time because it fit 25mm tires without issues. People would give me shit for "slow" tires on group rides. But 25mm tyres improved a lot in that time. Now I wish it could take 27mm :(

25mm is not a limit for caliper brakes? No idea why you claim that. One of my bikes has calipers and can fit 33mm tires.

Also 28mm is extremely common; 27mm doesn't exist.

There are definitely calipers that can't take a 28. And the mounting bolt position isn't a precise norm, there are frames that put the brake considerably closer to the rim than others. And not without reason, the effective length of the caliper arms has an obvious influence in brake leverage.

Classic road bike caliper breaks don't >25mm. 33mm would be cantilever CX brakes. Or a weird type of caliper.

Nit-picking, but 27mm is very common as the "actual width" of tyres branded 25mm.

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