I recently purchased a Bontrager R3 700x25 tire, moving up in width from Bontrager R3 700x23. The main reason was that I was looking for more comfort, for my 100kg weight. The 23mm width felt too sensitive to shocks and road vibrations, so much, that I was feeling as if I was
slowing down instead of going faster. The 25mm width seemed logical to compensate this problem.
I have been using the R3 700x23 for about 18 months, with only 1 puncture (rear tire) and that was due to my fault hitting hard inside a road hole. Compared to R2, the R3, feels 'softer', faster, more responsive. I wanted a 25mm wide tire though, to give me some extra comfort.
I normally inflate the front R3 with 105-108psi and the rear R3 with 112-115. Sometimes, I might take 2-3 psi away from both tires to boost comfort, but I can observe a noticable reduction in top speed and acceleration.
On my new R3 700x25 setup, I did this test: Front wheel remained at 700x23, rear R3 wheel now gone from 700x23 to 700x25. Upon inflating both tires at the same pressure (115psi) for testing purposes: To measure tire width in order to double check manufacturers specifications. I noticed something weird, which I didn't see before in any tire: To my surprise my findings were the following:
Front tire width: 23.6mm (instead of 23mm)
Rear tire width: 24.3mm (instead of 25mm)
BIKE SETUP FOR MEASUREMENT: