I’m very new to biking and just got an old bike I want to put slicker tires that are a bit skinnier will there be any issues getting 32 or 30s?
by ThatGuy0nReddit
I’m very new to biking and just got an old bike I want to put slicker tires that are a bit skinnier will there be any issues getting 32 or 30s?
by ThatGuy0nReddit
13 Comments
Nope.
There shouldn’t be any problem. What’s wrong with 35mm?
In all likelihood you can put any width of tires you want on that rim.
Longer answer:
If you want to get technical you might want to avoid a tire with a width narrower the rim width itself– but I have yet to see a 700c wheel with a rim narrower than maybe 20 mm.
I know that there are 700c wheels that have a wide rim, like 23mm, but even that is smaller than almost any tire you could put on it.
Get faster tires, not narrower tires. You could get 32s or 34s that would be massively faster than what you have.
32 is a great tire size. Lots of options for both fast road tires and more durable commuter tires.
You could probably go down to 23 but skinny isn’t necessarily faster
https://www.renehersecycles.com/12-myths-in-cycling-1-wider-tires-are-slower/
The blogs author is kind of silly with his assumptions at times, but he was right about tires.
The tire’s tread compound and sidewall casing plays a huge role (no pun intended) as well. Even roadie pros are running 28-30mm tires these days
For road a 35mm is likely ideal. Get the fastest tire you can. Look at bicycle rolling resistance.
If the GP5000 comes in 35, that would be what I’d get in a road tire. I run 28mm GP5000 on TPU tubes.
Skinny bad
Not skinny good
Think of your spine. Tires are your suspension
your rim width times 1.4 is the most narrow the rim can handle. at least that’s what i learned back when. the reply by u/_MountainFit above with re: 19mm rim is on the money with 28mm being the smallest recommended. good luck
Your new to riding? Then the tires aren’t making a big difference. Ride those tires until they are bald and then switch when you have more seat time
Depends what your butt can handle… this is why I ride a recumbent trike these days! 🤣
But yeah, as others are saying, its all about optimizing (not minimizing) the contact patch with the ground, and there’s a definite “sweet spot” for that. If you get it right, it balances the right amount of friction for optimum straight line and cornering performance. (Tire pressure matters too.)
To give you a extreme example: what size tires do top-fuel dragsters use? They need that large contact patch and really low tire pressure (like 6-12 psi) to give them enough friction to launch, but they don’t really care about turning performance, so slicks with relatively thin sidewalls are better than treads for them.
Different applications, different sweet spot, but same idea – optimum ≠ minimum. Go too skinny and you’ll just slip all over the road even in good conditions.
There shouldn’t be any issue. See here:
[https://www.continental-tires.com/products/b2c/tire-knowledge/tire-rim-combinations-etrto-standards/](https://www.continental-tires.com/products/b2c/tire-knowledge/tire-rim-combinations-etrto-standards/)
People used to think anything bigger than 23 was “too big”, now they think anything less than 47 is “too small”.
32 is fine. What really matters is how supple the tire is. If it’s too soft they wear out and you get flats. If they’re too hard it’s like riding a box of rocks. I like Continental 4 Season.
Get yourself a pair of gp5000 32mm and you’ll be more than happy