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    This clearance is too small, right?

    My friend bought this bike off craigslist and I have been testing/tuning it. I noticed the clearance between the wheels and calipers was really tight because goose poop gunked up the brakes when I rode through some grass. This is too tight to be considered safe, right? And if so, why did the previous owner have the bike like this? I heard from my friend that the previous owner was one of those pretentious bike enthusiasts, so I imagine he did it for some dumb reason.

    by HifiBoombox

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    17 Comments

    1. schleppy on

      If you don’t ride in the mud it might be ok. I would watch it closely though. Even clean road grime and an expanding tire can rub.

    4. Ok-Psychology-1420 on

      are those calipers old campy athena? man, I thought those things were just the hottest shit back in the day. they looked so much cooler than the chorus or record

    10. Antti5 on

      The problem with the first photograph is that it’s badly off center. The vertical clearance to the caliper may be just fine, because there’s almost no wheel flex in that direction.

      The second photograph has no real issue because it’s a road bike. I’ve ridden with that kind of clearance, and the only thing that can happen is that small rocks that stick to the tire hit the back of the brake and bounce off. Depending on the roads you ride, you may find the sounds annoying.

    13. Goxio on

      LBS here! It is not too tight as you just noticed only when goose poop got on there. If there is no rub it’s not too tight, that is the entire argument through and through. Personal opinion gets filtered in there as you can see from other comments saying it is too tight, which I wouldn’t personally disagree with. To answer most directly about why would a pretentious bike enthusiast put these tires on? My guess is that he had other tires on this bike that he didn’t wanna just give away, even though when you sell a bike you don’t just sell it for more just because it has Gator skins, for example. But still, tires likely too valuable to feel comfortable parting with. Either that or he ran those tires because his use case for this bike wouldn’t result in interference. Happy cycling!

    15. scaredt2ask on

      Do you have clearance where the tubes meet? The chain stays, downtube and seat tube?

      I personally would not run that it’s too tight.

    16. paylmowtin on

      I rode around on a bit of dirt on my 1988 Peugeot Versailles with 35mm Gravelkings sk+ and could hear little pebbles dinging off my brake calipers. I imagine this is somewhat similar to what you’re running without the knobbies. So unless you pick something up and lodges itself in there, which will probably happen depending on where you’re riding, it might be risky, but I made it home ok

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