A Newbie Question about Tyres

adey8ball

hello all, first post

apologies is this in the wrong board i wasnt quite sure where it would go.

i am currently riding a full suspension mountain bike on the roads for pleasure and occasional commuting. the tyre size is 26" x 2.00. after a 17 mile ride a few days ago the bike has a puncture and also the rear tyre needs replacing.

very nearly all my riding is on roads, cyclepaths and pavements when essential, and looking on the halfords website they do a range of tyres where i could buy road type tyres to put on my mountain bike. what would the advantages and disadvantages of this be. also would i need to change the size of the tyre. i do intend to purchase a road bike eventually but think it would be better for me to stay on the MTB for a bit longer.

many thanks

adrian

jm2012

Hi,
You should check your rim size to see if you can fit a 1.5" tyre. These offer slightly less rolling resistance than a 2" tyre, but they aren't necessary, and you could use either. Road style tyres on your mountain bike may give you a slightly harder time as they are pumped harder than MTB tyres (around 80psi), however this shouldn't be a problem on a full susp. MTB.

Edit: I forgot to mention but no matter what size you get they will probably give a smoother ride, and it will give you less rolling resistance, which may make you go 1 - 2 km/h faster depending on what your original tyre was.

I would recommend that you get a new tyre, however some have slightly worse performance in the wet than MTB tyres, and performance in the wet may be important In the winter.Look at the tyre that you want on chain reaction cycles, and check out the customer reviews there, they usually quite accurate, and purchase them from chain reaction cycles instead of halfords.

I would recommend Schwalbe City Jets, they are available in 26x2" or 26x1.5" and I found that they gave a much better ride than the ageing tyres I had, and they haven't had a puncture yet (in 200-300km of riding)

elderone

hi and welcome.putting thinner tyres on will give you a smoother quicker ride and road tyres will be more suitable for road riding.Halfords told me once that the smallest you can go to on a 26inch wheel is 26x150 but dont take my word for it.

jm2012

Michelin do a 26x1.10" tyre (it probably won't fit on your rim though if you currently have 26x2" tyres). It is called the Michelin Wild Run'R Advanced Light Tyre. I would never fit it on an MTB or a hybrid as I think it would be far too thin for them. I would say that Halfords are sort of right as 1.5 is as small as most 26" rims will go.

adey8ball

thanks for the information so far.

how could i find out is my rims would take a smaller tyre size. as i said earlier the current tyres on the bike are 26" x 2.00. chain reaction cycles look very good, thanks for the advice on that.

once again any advice and information greatly appreciated

adrian

jm2012

This website (http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html) has a small diagram on the right hand size a small way down that shows what you need to measure (the inner rim width). Then there is a green and red diagram near the bottom that shows which tyre sizes fit on which inner rim width (you will need to convert between mm and inches).