What wheels

tonyairborne

I have converted my old (20 years) Airborne Zeppelin titanium road bike to flat handlebars and am now considering changing the wheels. I am currently running a pair of Campagnolo Proton wheels with 23mm tyres but am wanting to use this bike for riding parts of the Trans Pennine Trail so am thinking that slightly wider tyres would be appropriate. I do not want to change the brakes which are Shimano Ultegra calipers so the question is does anyone out there have any suggestions as to what wheel/tyre combination would work?

vincesummerskRoxcBTr

Is there a reason why your existing rims couldn't take wider tyres?

tonyairborne

I don't know what size tyre would fit the Ultegra calipers. I was thinking of tyres around 28/29 mm so what kind of rim width would I need to fit that kind of size. I have always run 23 mm on all my road bikes and have never before thought of what size tyres would fit my rims.

ugo.santalucia

According to this shop, you can fit up to 28 mm tyres on the Proton, which seems reasonable for 20 mm wide rims (possibly 14-15 internal width)

http://www.timslife.com/brancat/wheels/wheel17.php

tonyairborne

Thanks ugo.santalucia.

tonyairborne

Well I took ugo .santalucia's advice and stuck with my Campagnolo Proton wheels but put on some 28mm tyres. I am very glad that I went with this option as I had forgotten the basic that wider tyres are also higher, the 28mm fit within the rear chainstays but anything wider(higher) would foul the front mech band and very likely the chainstay bridge.