Are Tufo S3s really this bad?

[cheapvega]

I had Tufo S3 tubulars on 38mm wheels (all 25mm width) for my build as it was all light and cheap. On my benchmark punchy 14 mile ride my all out best time was about 50 minutes. That was at peak fitness. Today I did my first ride on 28mm GP5Ks with 60mm ELITEWHEELS clinchers. Similar temp, winds, avg HR & normalized power. I smashed it in 47:48. The whole ride I was saying "I can't believe this"... "are you kidding me" etc. Avg speed was only .7 higher, but I swear there were several places where I was 2-4 MPH faster.

I'm sure the deeper wheels helped, but I feel like the tires did the heavy lifting. Is there really that big of a gap from the Tufos to the GP5Ks? The speed was incredible.

[spokenwords]

yes, Tufo's are pretty bad. Like riding garden hoses.

[Mocs123]

I'm not sure about the Tufo's but going from a slow tire to a fast tire like GP5K's could mean 20 watts of rolling resistance and that is huge. IMO - Going for minimal rolling resistance is always faster than going lightweight when it comes to tires.

[tiz92]

you can save also 15-20w from the badest rolling resistance to the fastest. I dont know about the tufos but if you are similar in fitness and doesnt lack in 50w then it is very possible. There are lot of optimisations (and also relatively cheap) you can do to safe watts on the bike.

[milanv]

I had Tufo S3 tubulars on 38mm wheels (all 25mm width) for my build as it was all light and cheap. On my benchmark punchy 14 mile ride my all out best time was about 50 minutes. That was at peak fitness. Today I did my first ride on 28mm GP5Ks with 60mm ELITEWHEELS clinchers. Similar temp, winds, avg HR & normalized power. I smashed it in 47:48. The whole ride I was saying "I can't believe this"... "are you kidding me" etc. Avg speed was only .7 higher, but I swear there were several places where I was 2-4 MPH faster.

I'm sure the deeper wheels helped, but I feel like the tires did the heavy lifting. Is there really that big of a gap from the Tufos to the GP5Ks? The speed was incredible.

First of all, deeper wheels helped you in rolling parts, the main difference.

[cheapvega]

I am continually blown away by this new setup. Yesterday I did hill sprints. 1.8 mile loop with 200ft of climbing on the up leg. On the old setup a good lap was something in the high 6 minute range. New setup, similar average power, I cracked into the 5s no problem. Average speed over the workout jumped from 16 MPH to 18 MPH. I just couldn't believe it.