What "Shoes" Does Our Bike Have?
I remember riding 21mm front and back sew-ups (tubular) tires on 700cc wheels with 19" inner wheel width. And I remember pumping these tires up to 140psi. Skinny and high pressure - that's what they told us back then (20 years ago)...Ha!
What are our current tires? Have we looked at them lately? Not just glanced down at them - actually looked at what width is printed on the sidewall, and thought about when we last changed it?
Ten plus years ago the answer for road was 23-25mm. Anything wider was for touring or kids bikes. Gravel was primarily still a niche bike category and mountain bike wheels were narrow enough that a 2.2" tire looked baggy on them.
None of that is true anymore, and the shift tells us something bigger than just "tires got fatter" - the physics finally caught up with the sport.
For decades we assumed narrower meant faster - less rubber touching the road, less rolling resistance. But then testing blew that up. A wider tire at the same pressure makes a shorter, broader contact patch. That patch flexes less with every revolution. Less flex means less energy lost to the casing. Wider isn't just more comfortable - it's actually faster.
Once that clicked, everything else followed: wider rims to properly support the wider tire and maximize aerodynamics, lower pressures because the added volume can carry the load without bottoming out, and suddenly comfort and speed stopped being a trade-off.
For road cycling, the WorldTour peloton has moved from 23-25mm to 28-30mm as the default, with 30-32mm showing up in the cobbled Classics. Even in criteriums, where cornering grip and predictability matter more than pure rolling resistance, 28mm tubeless is now the baseline, not the exception. I run 32mm.
For gravel riding, Unbound Gravel 200 this year was won by Mads Würtz Schmidt on 50mm tires, and that's typical of the field now (45mm-50mm), not an outlier. Some racers are running pressures in the low 20s (psi), a number that would've sounded like a flat tire a decade ago. The sweet spot has settled around 45mm for most conditions, wider for rough or wet years. I run 50mm.
For mountain biking, XC racers at events like Breck Epic have mostly landed on 2.25-2.4" tires on genuinely wide rims (25-35mm internal), prioritizing rolling resistance and weight over sheer volume — while trail and enduro riders have gone the other direction entirely, into 2.6-2.8" plus-size territory for the extra cushion and grip. I run 2.4".
The tube-to-tubeless shift and the hooked-to-hookless shift on wheels are really the same story told twice. With tubes, a puncture meant an immediate stop, and higher pressures were required just to avoid pinch flats, which meant a harsher ride whether we wanted it or not.
Tubeless changed that math entirely (mountain bikers have been doing this for ever): sealant plugs small punctures on the fly, we can run meaningfully lower pressures without pinching, and lower pressure means a bigger, softer contact patch that's actually faster, not slower.
Hookless rims are the natural extension of that same shift. Once tires are tubeless and pressures come down into the 40-70 psi range instead of 90-115, we don't need that mechanical hook locking the bead in place anymore, the tighter tolerance fit between a modern tubeless bead and a straight-wall rim does the job on its own. What we get in return is a lighter rim, a smoother internal profile that's more impact-resistant on rough gravel and rocky trail, and manufacturing that's simpler and often cheaper.
The trade-off, and it's a real one, is that hookless setups come with a hard pressure ceiling and a narrower list of tire-rim pairings we have to respect - no more grabbing whatever tire happens to be in the garage. It's the same lesson as the width conversation: less structure, lower pressure, more volume, and somehow that adds up to faster and more comfortable at the same time.
We don't need to chase every trend the pros ride. But the tire width conversation isn't a trend - it's a correction. For years we optimized for a number (narrow = fast) that wasn't even true. Sometimes the fastest way forward really is wider, softer, and more comfortable.
So take a look at what "shoes" your bike has. Determine if you've got room within the frame to go bigger with the tire and then decide if you should also go wider with new wheels.
For new bikes, they are all built now to be able to take a much bigger and wider setup which is great for all of us!
Gratefully,
Mark Team MPI
