Thanks for tuning in
today we're going to look at how wide of
a tire we can fit on the Decathlon
Triban
road bike.
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One of the most common questions we
receive since published in our Decathlon
RC520 review is how wide of a tire does
the bike fit.
The Decathlon website says 700x36 but
a lot of people have claimed to go wider
so today we're going to try to answer
that question thanks to the help of
Hutchinson tires who provided a few
variations here.
On the far left we have the Sector 28
tires. They retail for $79.99
available in a few sizes this is 700 by
28 it's also available in 700 by 32.
We've already done a separate review on
this, it's a lot smoother and grippier
than the stock tires
and with the 127 tpi casing that all the
Hutchinson have
and tubeless ready it's a great upgrade
from stock tires.
Next up we have the Override tires
retails for $59.99
for the two size variations. We have the 700
by 35
as well as the 700x38. For the 35 it's
a semi-slick profile
where the center you can see it's a
little smoother and then grippier on the
shoulders.
With the 38 it's a little more
aggressive in the center
this is designed for mixed usage so road
and gravel.
They all have the hard casing as well to
prevent punctures on
gravel roads. Finally we have the
Touareg, the newest tire
this is $64.99 it's 700x40 is the
narrowest variation available.
You can see putting the 735
by and then the 740 side by side it's
really
pretty impressive how wide this tire is.
A lot more grip and better suited for
off-road or rough road riding. Now let's
take a moment to look at the weight of
the tires. The stock tires
are pretty hefty at 365 grams each.
Let's start with the sector 28 which
is something we've actually already
reviewed before
this comes in at 294 so already lighter
than the same sized
Triban tires. Next we'll try the
700x35 override tires,
348 so still lighter than the 700x28
which is really impressive.
As you go to the 700x38 variations a
little bit wider
that's 438 so now we're
heavier than stock but wider and
grippier.
Then the touareg, the big 700x40
tires that comes in at 502 grams.
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Let's take a moment to look at the Triban
ProtectLight tires that come with
the Triban.
Now these are pretty decent tires but
they're quite stiff and they're more
economical so they're designed for
puncture resistant instead of
performance.
So if you're looking to do a tire
upgrade you want to look at a couple
restricted points
the seat stays which you can see above
are quite open because you have disc
brakes, you don't have the restriction of
rim brakes
that would restrict the width of the
tire. Then you have the seat stays
beneath
and that's a little bit more restrictive
so that's the place to look out for.
So here we have the 700x35 override tire
installed on the front wheel and you can
see
it's way more aggressive than the stock
ProtectLight on the rear.
Here's the shot with both of the tires
updated and you can see a lot more bulky
with a more aggressive tread that gives
it a more gravel appearance. Now let's
take a look at the tires installed
as you can see plenty of clearance at
the seat stays and chain stays with the
tire rolling freely
and especially in the front plenty of
room the fork there's a lot of space
there. Again
with the disc brakes installed. So now
let's go up to the 700x38
tan wall tires and you can see they look
really cool the tan really
has a nice contrast with the blue frame
and as you can see far more aggressive.
So now let's run through the clearance
as you can see the seat stays plenty of
space here rolls nice and free.
If we go to the front fork same thing
you can almost stick a finger on both
sides
so definitely not an issue. The main
issue will be the seat the chain stays
and you can see here plenty of space
still
even with the little wobble and the rear
tire.
Now every tire is not equivalent so your
700x38 won't fit as well as this
as you can see with our caliper it
measured about 700x37
so a little bit narrow with this wheel
tire combo so. Now let's put on the big
boys the 700x40 Touareg
tires as you can see here they look
great really give it a almost fat bike
appearance. Now let's run through the
potential clearance spots you can see
the
seat stays are fine plenty of space and
even with the wider tires lower tire
pressure.
They don't quite bulge out enough to rub.
Next if we look at the front fork plenty
of space again and you can see the tread
on the Touareg are really aggressive.
There's no semi-slick portion it's
all knobby
so really designed for off-road. Then
probably the biggest issue is the
chain stays but you can see here again
rolls freely
and my tire actually has a slight wobble
as you can see when i rotate it
even with that it still has about a
millimeter or two on each side.
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Now let's get the tires on the road and
see how they affect the performance of
the bike.
Here we have the 700 by 38 override
tires
and off road they're great the grippy
knobby
side profiles really provide a lot of
traction while the semi slick
center gives you a little bit more
performance on the road.
So off the road really felt a lot more
planted especially compared to the stock
tires which would slide around
these feel a lot more secure alloying you
take the corners faster.
Now you're not always going to be
off-road so we also took him on road to
see how that would feel.
Now the lower pressure is a lot more
comfortable but there is
more rolling resistance so unlike a
higher pressure
tire these actually feel a little more
squishy
as they absorb a lot of the bumps but
also slow you down a bit as they feel a
little bit more sluggish due to the
weight.
Now we were really impressed the Touareg
700x40 tires even fit
and these really epitomize why you want
to go wide as they run
quite low pressures and with the larger
contact area.
If you really plan to ride your Triban
off-road that's a great option
we found it to be a lot more confidence
inspiring as the
knobby tread made really easy work of
even loose gravel or dirt
they're also lower pressure which means
it's a lot more comfortable as you
simply glide over bumps.
If you're used to high pressure road
tires these are quite a treat as
it almost acts as a secondary suspension.
Now one downside of going this wide is
that
wider is not always faster and with the
700 by 40 tread it feels quite
mushy especially on lower tire pressures.
If you
plan to spend more time on the road
you're going to want to run these at
higher pressure
which is kind of a downside for off-road
so you need to really pick the pressure
depend on the terrain.
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Overall we found that all the
tires actually fit which was really
impressive going from 700x28
the 700x35 had no problem. That's
consistent with the
fact that Decathlon claims 700x36
and that's what comes with the
gravel variation. Now the 700 by 38 also
fit pretty well
we had enough space on the chainstays
and seat stays.
Most surprisingly of all the 700 by
40 fit!
Now the disclaimer here is not every
tire is the same so you can see the
second column here,
the claimed width and the measured width
are different depending on the wheel and
tire combination.
We found consistently with the
hutchinson tires
everything was about a millimeter less
so the 700x40 was about 700x39.
We found that the 38s were 37 and then
the 35 was more of a 34.
So it really depends on which tire you
use but at least with the stock rims
you can definitely go wider just note
that the
what you gain in the off-road
performance is adversely affecting what
happens on road so
pick the tire depending on the terrain and
then adjust the tire pressure too so you
can run
a more aggressive off-road tire with
higher pressure
to gain back some of the rolling
resistance.
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You can see more content from us on our
website at thesweetcyclists.com.
This is the sweet cyclist reminding you
to enjoy the ride!
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