Tyre Size?! (Potentially stupid question I'm sorry)

chrisdouglas

Right so I need to replace my tyres. I've been using my bike for both road and trails, and now I'm finding that the grip I had when I first got my bike has declined and so I need to buy some new tyres. So right now it runs 29x2.2 Maxxis Ikon tyres. Can I run 29x2.4 Maxxis Arsents without any trouble? The rims are WTB SX23, 29". In my head it shouldn't be a problem but can anyone confirm this will be fine?

The Rookie

You are more likely to run into frame and fork clearance problems than have an issue with the width on the rim which with 23mm internal width rims would be fine.

wilberforce

Hi, the problem will not be the rims as much as the frame clearance for the 2.4 size.

I assume by Arsents you actually mean Ardents and they are pretty big so may have frame clearance issues

chrisdouglas

Sorry yeah I did mean Ardents. I'm typing on the phone and I'm sure we all know how that usually goes haha so I'm better off sticking with the 2.3 format to avoid issues with frame and fork then?

The Rookie

Measure frame and fork clearance to your existing tyres and see how the extra width and height is likely to affect them, you currently need at least 15mm clearance to consider using the 2.4's.

The Northern Monkey

Maxxis tyres come up fairly narrow imo, 2.35 minions are more like a 2.2.

Dirtydog11

Great resource for "actual tyre sizes" here

http://www.reifenbreiten-datenbank.de

According to the above...

2.2 Ikons come out at around 52-53mm wide, whilst 2.4 Ardents measure around 60-61mm.

warpcow

The Northern Monkey wrote:

Maxxis tyres come up fairly narrow imo, 2.35 minions are more like a 2.2.

This has pretty much all changed in the last couple of years. The Minion DHF, for example, now comes in 2.3 and 2.4 and is pretty true to size. The Ardent has always been pretty much true to size (the 2.25 is noticably larger than a 2.35 Minion).