Tires & Tubes Going to Larger width tire

[NewToot]

If I wanted to change the tire size (wider surface area), what must I do? Must i change the entire wheel? Thought maybe I would due to size of the rim? If so/not, what must i do? Please pardon my ignorance! TKS Ray

 

[hsdrggr]

Not usually, if done within reason. I’m running 2.3” wide tires on a 28mm wide rim with no problems. I’m not sure about all tire manufacturers, but Schwalbe lists the compatible rim width ranges for their tires. Running narrow rims with wide tires can affect a couple of things. 1. It causes the crosssection curvature of the tread area to be more extreme which can reduce the amount of tread contacting the roadway especially at higher inflation pressures. Thus reducing traction. 2. Due to the tire mounting width being narrower than specified by the mfg. the tire can flex laterally more than normal, causing an unstable squirmy feeling, and even a loss of traction if cornering hard. If the manufacturer of the tire you want to use doesn’t have a recommended rim width for it I would just look up a similar size tire on Schwalbe’s website and use their recommendations. Schwalbe’s tires in general are fairly robust so I know the rec won’t be exact for some other tires but it will get you in the ball park.

 

[NewToot]

Thanks!!!

 

[dburt]

If the rims are not wide enough to handle a wider tire, you may have to change those out as well. And then you might have some clearance issues with fenders, the front fork, etc.