How to find a good tire, rim width.

cluny6

New Member
Region
USA
I see everyone saying how great having 26-inch x 4 tires are and I am just not getting the performance everyone else is. Im going to start with tire width, how narrow or what range do I have to work with on a 26inch, 60mm rim wheel? Most common size for this rim width? Said wheel has a "100-559" tire on at the moment. Thanks
 
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I tried the 4" and am not a fan here either. I'm assuming you want to go with a narrower tire?

The way I'm reading this chart, it looks like your 60mm rims should work with 2.4-2.8" tires, assuming you could find something you like in that size range.
https://www.wtb.com/pages/tire-rim-fit-chart

I ended up converting my bike to 27.5" rims and 2.8" tires. Love it for my riding style.
 
1 have 150mm and 197mm respectively, my choices are limited. I'm getting a descent 27.5 plus setup soon.
 
I tried the 4" and am not a fan here either. I'm assuming you want to go with a narrower tire?

The way I'm reading this chart, it looks like your 60mm rims should work with 2.4-2.8" tires, assuming you could find something you like in that size range.
https://www.wtb.com/pages/tire-rim-fit-chart

I ended up converting my bike to 27.5" rims and 2.8" tires. Love it for my riding style.
Looked at it, I think you got the axis mixed. Y is tire width in in and mm and x receded rim width.
 
Looked at it, I think you got the axis mixed. Y is tire width in in and mm and x receded rim width.
My bad. Not enough coffee I guess. At least you have the chart....
 
I have spent days trying to find a compatible tire to the rims I have and nothing. The bike came with fat 26 and I wanted a more trail-oriented performance bike. The company had "27.5x3.00" wheels also and I bought them. Didn't do my homework, that's on me. I get a 27.5 wheel with CTS 3 inch tires. If you look at the tires, it looked like porcupine with all the knobs sticking upwards. Ate it on a switchback and some other things. I started investigating and that's when I noticed that the rim has an IW of 60mm, way to
I tried the 4" and am not a fan here either. I'm assuming you want to go with a narrower tire?

The way I'm reading this chart, it looks like your 60mm rims should work with 2.4-2.8" tires, assuming you could find something you like in that size range.
https://www.wtb.com/pages/tire-rim-fit-chart

I ended up converting my bike to 27.5" rims and 2.8" tires. Love it for my riding style.
That's my goal, the hub spacing is messing everything up.
o big for a 27.5x3 tire. Minimum width for those rims is 3.8 inches, meaning I was sold another fat wheelset. Anyway, found Minino FDR and FBF which has some thread. I'm really thinking about a frame swap. Ali has the same frame both in Al and CF.
 
So you don't feel bad, I spent weeks sourcing my rims. Bike has an Ultra motor, so I knew I wanted heavy duty, but when looking for 36 hole rims you're really pretty limited as far as availability.
 
Nothing! You pretty much need to go to Ali and they do have some but selection normally consists either a or b. I need to decide now, do I try try to get wheels or I start my first build. Same frame in normal spacing is $700. I then can do a transplant
 
So, on your rims, is 60mm the inner width or the outer width? Rim marketing usually advertises outer width but the much-narrower inner width is what matters when sizing rims and tires. For examply my MTX39 rims on my Envoy advertise... 39mm width. But the inner width for tire sizing is 30mm.

The WTB gauge chart is a decent reference. I've used it before myself, but the gold standard of matching rim and tire width is the DT Swiss chart. The WTB chart is a bit skewed because they sell tires and as a result the chart has boundaries that ignores the bigger stuff they don't sell - like what @cluny6 is asking about.


The DT Swiss chart can be faulted a bit because of its corporate origin... expect them to err waaaay over on the side of conservatism. You can fudge their boundaries by quite a bit, but still this chart gives you a really good idea of where the guardrails are. You can also see DT's own marketing prejudice showing as they stop rim width dead at about 70mm but go all the way up to 5" tires.

Ignoring the charts, if you have 60mm rims you can go all the way down to a 2.5" tire, although that is well below what any chart is going to recommend. Lots of people have done that with fat bikes who, for example, are looking for a shorter bike to fit riders of smaller stature (i.e. their wives). I did it once years ago looking for faster rolling wheels and I got that, at the expense of ride comfort. The ride on a 28 mph bike going over potholes was so rough I feared for the frame in the long term... and my spine. That bike had 80mm rims (75 internal) so a 2.5 was a big misfit. I would have never done it except I had seen so many others do it I knew it was safe. You need an oversized tube (undersized for an 80mm rim) to spread the tire and let the bead seat, which it will do happily and without future failure.

IMG_20190907_175309.jpg

So... in this pic these tires are actually 2.35" on 80mm rims. So you see why I say 2.5" on 60mm is perfectly do-able. I believe I was using 3.5" tubes inside yes I really had a sidewall.

On a 60mm rim, riding on the street, a Vee Speedster in 2.8" should be livable and 3.5" will be perfect. But thats a street tire and you want something trailworthy. A knobby in 3.5" should be ideal. So just look for 26" XC tires in 'plus' sizes. Should not be too difficult.
 
hmm maybe it is difficult. off road 26" plus sizes are rare it turns out. Tons of street treads. I was going to put 26x2.8 WTB Rangers on my Envoy when the Speedsters wore out (2 years and they are still fine). These guys sell them still. I'd call and check stock first.

 
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