Road bikes unable to accept wide tires

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T4tomo

Legendary Member
I suggest at the brakes unless you undo the caliber quick release.^_^^_^
 

boydj

Legendary Member
Location
Paisley
With the trend of wider-tires being better, why is it that road bike frames were ever designed to not let any tire over 25mm fit? Even 23 in some cases.
I think you are a bit out of date. I have a 2015 Focus Cayo running 28mm tyres and and older Kinesis GF with 28's and mudguards.
 
Stiffness is not determined by length.
If you fix the diameter and wall thickness, as was the case in the olden days of steel tubing*, then stiffness is proportional to length.
Try bending a 6" length of tube then a 6' length.

*when almost all competitors used the same or similar tubesets.
 
I kinda get what you're saying but not entirely. So race bikes don't need greater than 25mm tires...why? I thought the latest buzz was wider tires are faster.
25mm IS the wide size of which they speak. For non-racing use, 28mm has always been a favourite of Audax riders and commuters.
 
Location
Loch side.
If you fix the diameter and wall thickness, as was the case in the olden days of steel tubing*, then stiffness is proportional to length.
Try bending a 6" length of tube then a 6' length.

*when almost all competitors used the same or similar tubesets.
No it is not. Stiffness is indicted by Young's Modulus and there is no length dimension in there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young's_modulus
 
Location
Loch side.
That's the stiffness of the material, but what matters in a frame is the stiffness in bending, and the deflection of a tube varies with the cube of the length IIRC.
The key words are deflection over length, as you point out. But I'm really onto the point about frame stiffness and the nonsense spoken about it. First of all stiffness is moot at the levels we're talking about but I want to see someone say that a frame made for 23mm tyres is stiffer than a frame made for 28mm tyres. We're talking about 1.5mm difference in each of the three dimensions at the points where the tyre could touch the frame. Even if you cube that, you still get....zero-ish.
The real reason in the days of steel was that extra clearance required a dimple in each of the two chainstays and possible in each of the two fork blades. Framebuilders preferred to use straight tubes and save some labour.
Today's mould-formed composite frames? I can't think of a rational reason why they would restrict tyre width that much. I've seen arguments of improved airflow, stiffness (obviously, stiffness is the holy grail of explaining everything) and restrictions for brake caliper opening. None of these make sense. There's even a trend to slam the back wheel right up to the seat tube (and into a niche carved into it) so close that grit scrapes the frame. This I've seen justified as a measure to "improve climbing", I kid you not.
We shouldn't eat the rubbish the industry feeds us. However, once the industry has the upper hand and you have no choice anymore, you will be force fed.
 
There's even a trend to slam the back wheel right up to the seat tube (and into a niche carved into it) so close that grit scrapes the frame. This I've seen justified as a measure to "improve climbing", I kid you not.

I've often wondered about that. Another pet hate of mine are seat tubes ovalised to the point of being a very thin oblong, in the interests of aerodynamics. My neighbour has a TT frame like that and it cracked along the tube from the top down. Hardly surprising with a built in stress point.
 
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