What width tyre?
What width tyre?
I'm looking for new tyres for a used pair of road wheels I've just bought. I'd like wider tyres. Is there a way I can tell what sort of size tyre the rims will safely take?
Re: What width tyre?
measure the internal width, consult the information provided by the rim manufacturer.
Note that with wide tyres often the maximum pressure you can run is limited by the rim, not the tyre; the rim can split out.
cheers
Note that with wide tyres often the maximum pressure you can run is limited by the rim, not the tyre; the rim can split out.
cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re: What width tyre?
Unfortunately, I don't know the rim manufacturer.
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kylecycler
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Re: What width tyre?
There's this chart from Sheldon Brown:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html
You'll see the rim widths are interior. Sheldon suggested that the chart erred a bit on the side of caution, and there's also a chart from Schwalbe which reflects that:
I figure Sheldon's version is the optimum range from the point of view of efficiency, whereas Schwalbe's is the limit of safety (maybe...) - the difference between 'should' and 'can'...
From my limited experience, though, the first bike I bought when I went back to cycling had 50 mm tyres on 17 mm rims (IIRC), which you'll see is the limit that Schwalbe's chart suggests, but they were hard to seat and kept trying to come off the rim in use, to the point where one eventually burst just above the bead. They were cheap round black things, but I suspect better quality tyres would have had the same problem - or, as Brucey warned, might have split the rim instead.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html
You'll see the rim widths are interior. Sheldon suggested that the chart erred a bit on the side of caution, and there's also a chart from Schwalbe which reflects that:
I figure Sheldon's version is the optimum range from the point of view of efficiency, whereas Schwalbe's is the limit of safety (maybe...) - the difference between 'should' and 'can'...
From my limited experience, though, the first bike I bought when I went back to cycling had 50 mm tyres on 17 mm rims (IIRC), which you'll see is the limit that Schwalbe's chart suggests, but they were hard to seat and kept trying to come off the rim in use, to the point where one eventually burst just above the bead. They were cheap round black things, but I suspect better quality tyres would have had the same problem - or, as Brucey warned, might have split the rim instead.
Re: What width tyre?
The charts above raise the question "Why so few good 15 and 17 mm rims?" I was lucky enough to find some Sun 16 mm rims a few years back. These will cope comfortably with any tyres I choose to use from 25 mm to 35 mm.