Tyre width change on a hybrid

ineedalager

I have a Boardman Comp Hybrid 2009 it has 700c 28mm rims have just taken up road biking and want to put a narrower tyre on the hybrid will my 28mm rims take a 25 or 23mm tyre I am going for some Continetal Gatorskins as I got 3,700 mile out of the last set.

I cut the side walls off them and lined the original maxis tyres with them and have done another 2,200 so far but I want to reduce the weight on them.

I notice when I'm riding my hybrid now compared to the Allez is I am 2 to 3 mph slower everywhere I ride now. Hybird has 50/36 crank and 11/32 cassette and my Allez has 52/39 double 11/28 cassette

I know the hybrid is 2 kgs heavier but I'm thinking the tyre combo I have while great budget way of puncture proofing standard tyres is slowing me down!

Your thoughts and advice please guys

Wooliferkins

Is that definitely the rim width? If you've measured yourself it should be the internal rim width. Sheldon Browns rim tyre width chart is at the bottom of this page 28mm rims would be huge.

ineedalager

It's the outer rim width all Boardman comp Hybrids have 700c 28 tyres.
A year or two back a guy in my LBS sold me some 700c 35 Swable trailblazers so I could try the hybrid off road. they were ok until you pumped them up to about 60psi then they popped out of the rims!

I am now wanting to use the Hybrid as my winter hack I could get some narrower rims but the hybird is disc brakes?

I know the weight effects speed as I had a problem on the rear tyre where the inner tube doubled over itself inside the tyre at the valve and I could start to fell a bump evrytime the valve went to the road. The bike was riding as slow as my MTB!

I new some thing was wrong with the hybrid when I beat my 20 mile PB on the MTB so I was getting fitter.

I took the tyre off found the doubled over inner tube striaghtened it out it was sort like a z shape in the tyre. The next day the bike felt so much faster I knocked 12 minutes of my PB for my 20 mile ride.

Wooliferkins

Riim widths are measured internally. Your tyre width is no gauge. If it came with 28s as standard and 35s pop off, then with a little guestimation from Sheldons chart in the link above 25s should be fine. IMHO no point going down to 23s

ineedalager

Thanks for the info maybe it's best if I strip the front tyre and measure the rim.

ineedalager

I took the front tyres off my Hybrid and Allez and compared the rims and the hybrid which runs 28s and the Allez which has 23s the rim inner width was only 1mm wider on the hybrid. So I test fitted the 23mm tyre to the Boardman hybrid and it fits fine,

So now I am going for some 23mm tyres for the hybrid.

ineedalager

Well I got a set of tyres. 700c x 23mm specialised Mondo secondhand but unused. I put them on my Boardman hybrid and there is a noticable speed difference from my 28mm wide Maxxis detnonators lined with old Gatorskins. I was 2- 3mph faster evrywhere on my hybrid matching the speeds I was doing on the Allez.

I got within 1 minute and 17 seconds of my best 20 mile time on a regular route I do and it was a windy day so without the wind I think I have a hybrid that matches my road bike for speed now.

My intention is to use the hybrid as my winter hack so the Allez doesn't have to go out in the bad weather. I am now going to convert my hybrid to drop handle bars. Should be a good challenge as I will them have a road bike with disc brakes.

I have purchased all the bits I need off ebay drops cables etc so I just have to wait for it all to arrive.

PBo

ineedalager wrote:

Well I got a set of tyres. 700c x 23mm specialised Mondo secondhand but unused. I put them on my Boardman hybrid and there is a noticable speed difference from my 28mm wide Maxxis detnonators lined with old Gatorskins. I was 2- 3mph faster evrywhere on my hybrid matching the speeds I was doing on the Allez.

I got within 1 minute and 17 seconds of my best 20 mile time on a regular route I do and it was a windy day so without the wind I think I have a hybrid that matches my road bike for speed now.

My intention is to use the hybrid as my winter hack so the Allez doesn't have to go out in the bad weather. I am now going to convert my hybrid to drop handle bars. Should be a good challenge as I will them have a road bike with disc brakes.

I have purchased all the bits I need off ebay drops cables etc so I just have to wait for it all to arrive.

just checking - I don't think you can run disc brakes off normal drop brake levers, you need disc specific ones - do you have these?

tiny_pens

ineedalager wrote:

Well I got a set of tyres. 700c x 23mm specialised Mondo secondhand but unused. I put them on my Boardman hybrid and there is a noticable speed difference from my 28mm wide Maxxis detnonators lined with old Gatorskins. I was 2- 3mph faster evrywhere on my hybrid matching the speeds I was doing on the Allez.

I got within 1 minute and 17 seconds of my best 20 mile time on a regular route I do and it was a windy day so without the wind I think I have a hybrid that matches my road bike for speed now.

My intention is to use the hybrid as my winter hack so the Allez doesn't have to go out in the bad weather. I am now going to convert my hybrid to drop handle bars. Should be a good challenge as I will them have a road bike with disc brakes.

I have purchased all the bits I need off ebay drops cables etc so I just have to wait for it all to arrive.

Interested to see how this goes. Conventional wisdom generally suggests it isn't cost effective to change to what you can buy off the shelf. You'll need to check your brake setup. Drop bar (STI) brakes have a different cable pull ratio (less I think) to flat bar brakes. Hence you normally need a road specific disc calliper. Have you bought matching levers to the rest of your groupset. I spent some time trying to get clean shifting with non matching groupset (shimano road levers with mtb mech) and it proved to be fun trying to get it to adjust nicely so that you could get all the cogs working without skipping and shifting cleanly. Sounds a fun project though.