Basically l've got an old holdsworth road bike, I'm also a delivery cyclist and cover a lot of miles with a heavy box on the back. Basically I was wondering if there were larger tyres I could put on my rims so that I have a little more clearance on the road to better take curbs and such. Is there a tyre that would help me out that would fit on my rims or do l have to buy new ones? I'll include a photo of the rims, thanks
by Affectionate_Tax9309
3 Comments
You have a lot of options based on the rim but it’s going to depend on what fits in your frame and fork.
622 rims are the same size for 700c road/gravel tires, 29er MTB tires, and the more rare 28″ tires.
You can go plenty big on that rim, it’s a case of whether the tyre will fit the frame or not. You’ll need to measure how much space you currently have between your chain stays, seat stays and fork.
The numbers on the right are what you’ll need for finding a tyre, the most important one being 622 which is the rim diameter, and any tyre you buy will need to match that. This size is also known as 700c.
Can’t tell from the photo. If you post the make, model and year someone might be able to find documentation from the manufacturer, but they might not.
You can start by measuring. The tool to use would ideally be callipers, but you can get away with a ruler for the rim and a set of metric hex keys for the gaps.
You’d need to know:
1. The inner width of the wheel rim (measure this before you put the tyres back on).
1. The size tyre you have now.
2. The smallest gap to the frame or fork with those tyres on, whether that’s at the crux or the side (measure this with the tyre inflated to a sensible pressure).
Then do some maths – for most bikes, the minimum gap should be 6 mm, but for racing type bikes it can be only 4 mm.
So, if you have a racing bike and your current gap from tyre to fork is 7 mm, you can add 3 mm to your current tyre size, and if the gap is 8 mm you can add 4 mm etc.