Balloon bikes and extra-wide comfort tires

A "balloon bike" is our term for an everyday or touring bike fitted with unusually large-volume tires — typically 50-60 mm wide. The idea is simple: a bigger air cushion acts as natural suspension, so you get a noticeably smoother ride without adding complex (and heavier, pricier, more maintenance-hungry) suspension hardware.

How it compares to real suspension: in testing, a wide tire like the Big Apple (60mm wide, run around 30psi) reduced vibration reaching the lower back by roughly 25% compared to a standard-width tire (around 35mm wide) on the same bike. A full-suspension setup does a bit better — around 33% — but at a real cost in weight, price, complexity, and maintenance. For a lot of everyday and touring riding, a balloon-bike setup gets you most of the comfort benefit for a fraction of the tradeoff.

You can still add a suspension fork or seatpost to a balloon-bike setup if you want to — the wide tires and mechanical suspension aren't mutually exclusive, they just address the same problem from different angles.

Rolling resistance isn't the penalty you'd expect. Wide tires have a reputation for rolling slower, but at a given pressure a wide tire actually deforms less than a narrow one to create the same size contact patch, so it holds its round shape better while rolling.

see our article on rolling resistance for the full explanation of why wide tires roll well.

Setting the pressure: Balloon-bike tires can be run anywhere in a fairly wide range depending on your comfort preference, but a good practical target is around 2.0-2.5 bar (roughly 29-36 PSI) — noticeably softer than you'd run a standard 35mm touring tire (which typically wants closer to 4 bar / 60psi to roll comparably well). Use a pressure gauge to dial in what feels best for your weight and the surfaces you ride.

Fitting dimensions. The frame or the fork must offer enough clearance for the tire. Consult our "Tire Sizing & Fit" category for more information.

Updated on: 08/13/2026