Swopping MTB tyres for narrow road tyres

[Paul Narramore]

Sorry if this subject has been covered before, this is my first post, and I did try the Search facility.

My daughter's just bought a Raleigh Siren MTB from eBay which is fitted with Raider 54x559 (26x1.95) MTB tyres. Chunky great things. As she will almost never ride off road, I intend to swop the tyres for road tyres.

Now a few weeks ago I did the same to my wife's Marin MTB and fitted Schwalbe City Jet 40x559 (26x1.50) and these seem fine, and easier for her on the road.

My question - Can I fit even thinner (narrower tyres) to my daughter's bike? The rims are marked Rigida AS26FL 20x559. Halfrauds suggest that would be going too far.

Thank you.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

yes, but why would do you want thinner tyres? i'm assuming it's for a faster rolling speed. i did at one time have 1.25 slicks on my mtb. whilst it was much much faster, i did suffer pinch flats more often. if i was to do that again i would choose a tyre with a much higher max psi. mine are 80 psi max. some tyres are now 125psi with a larger air volume. try here for a better explanation.

edit: check to see what the maximum pressure for your daughters rims as well. some rims are surprisingly low. hope this helps.

www.sheldonbrown.com

 

[numbnuts]

I put 26x1.00 on my MTB it was very fast, but I had loads of punctures as I was riding on country's road so went back to 26x1.5, I think on clean roads maybe OK

 

[GrasB]

MTB rims come in various widths, if you go to small a circumference tyre for the rim you'll have problems with pinching punctures as the tyre doesn't have enough room to flex before hitting the rim. For road/hard trail riding I have 22mm rims (that's the measurement between the inside of the rim sidewalls) which have a recommended range of 26x1.25 to 26x2.25 tyres, but the off-road rims are 34mm & aren't recommended for tyres snaller than 26x2.1

 

[Davidc]

I've got 26 x 1.5s on my mtb (Kenda Kwest). They've now done over 1000 miles and (tempts fate and has difficulty typing with crossed fingers while in contact with large mass of wood) none of thos p* things yet.

I did put some 1.25s (borrowed) on for a while, and wrote off 3 inner tubes in 2 weeks with pinch punctures.

I was then told by he who owns the 1.25s that the reason they weren't in use was the number of pinch punctures they'd caused!

I suspect that to use the narrower tyres you'd need to use narrower rims than the ones designed for big fat knobblies.

I think most of the inprovement in speed/ reduction in effort comes from getting rid of the knobbles, and would need convincing that going from 1.5 to 1.25 produces a huge benefit.

 

[Paul Narramore]

Thank you for that; I'll stick with the 26x1.50 I fitted before.

As for the size of the rim, I can only repeat what I quoted before ie Rigida AS26FL, 20x559, which is what is stamped on the rim.

I'm fitting the narrower tyres because the big fat chunky ones are heavy, unnecessary on tarmac and cause a lot of rolling resistance, as my wife has since appreciated.

Shame Halfrauds at Aylesford are out of the Schwalbe City Jets for the SECOND TIME in a fortnight, and I've got to turn around and go to their Chatham again :-(

 

[Paul Narramore]

Well that's the new tyres fitted. I struggled with the back inner tube and punctured it before realising it was marked 26x1.60 up to 2.10 or something. No wonder I struggled to fit it into the 1.50 tyre.

Thanks for the help.