Can I fit narrow tyres on a wider rim?

[alpine fenlander]

I have an old hybrid bike with the equivalent of 700x35 tyres on at the moment and it looks slightly too wide. As I want to use it mostly for road cycling I want to fit narrower tyres.

Should 700x25 work?

I'd be happy to give it a try as I can use the tyres for another bike, or is there a danger of the tyres coming off?

 

[alpine fenlander]

Thanks Adrian - very quick reply! No sorry, it's all worn off and my dad couldn't even read the bits on the tyre properly and he hasn't got a width measure thingy. I'm pretty much guessing it's 35 from the tyre and bike type.

So, theoretically speaking - is there any danger?

Like I said, I'd be happy to just put 25s on and give them a try unless there is a obvious danger of them coming off ...

 

[MikeW-71]

If the tyre is too narrow for the rim, it won't seat correctly and could come off the rim during cornering.

If you've a 35mm tyre on now, the rim width is likely to be something like 19mm. In that case, I would agree with using 28mm tyres. 25's would be right on the limit.

 

[alpine fenlander]

Thanks Mike that makes sense.
I've just found a good chart on Sheldon Brown towards the bottom of this page which seems to confirm that 25 is right on the limit:
http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

Thanks all for your input!

 

[sreten]

Hi,

Good 32mm road tyres willl be IMO the best compromise between comfort and speed.
Go 28mm by all means if you are light, and stick with 35mm if you are heavy.

rgds, sreten.

 

[alpine fenlander]

Thanks sreten, comfort isn't really an issue as I mostly want to use it for short fast rides. Will probably stick some TT bars on it to make it a bit faster as I can't be bothered to put road bike bars on it and swap all the other stuff over.
It's at my parents in Germany so I should be able to at least find a couple of short routes without potholes ;-)

I think I'll try some cheap 25s - if they don't fit I can use them as winter tyres on my UK commuter bike and then try 28s...

 

[geekinaseat]

Sheldon Brown has a good article on this that I used to decide whether or not I could do the same (I could). My wheels were Giant SR2 which came with 35mm tires, I switched to 25mm Gatorskins no problem

http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

Oops just noticed this has been posted before!

 

[alpine fenlander]

Thanks! I've done the first ride on 25s today and they seem to fit very well, quite a bit more comfy than the 23s I'm used to from my road bikes.
I'm not sure but I doubt the rim is 19mm, the 25s don't look particularly small on it...