tyre/rim advice

[warren123]

Hi, seen this friendly looking forum so decided to join so, hello!

Im after some advice on tyres/rims. I'm keen to start commuting to work by bike but as i work on a farm some short parts of the journey are over very bumby lanes with a lot of loose stone/grit on them, if i make it through that there's then the farm drive with biger potholes and larger grit! I have a road bike but just don't like riding it on those sort of roads. An ideal solution is to buy a new bike (i like the trek 7.0 fx and specialized sirrus) But can't really afford the £300+. I have a spare set of wheels for my road bike so would it be possible to put 700 x 32c or 35c on those rims or will it just not work or look very odd?


Many thanks for any advice given


Warren

 

[Paulus]

Hi there Warren 123. What size tyres are on/were on your on spare wheels? You can go up a couple of sizes normally, but not too much. Secondly, would there be enough clearence on your bike to take larger tyres between the front forks and crown?

 

[gaz]

Cam you tell us the make and model of the rim?
If not can you measure the interior width of the rim walls

 

[HLaB]

The interior rim width of the spare wheels will determine how wide you can go but I doubt a road bike would have clearance for 32 or 35mm tyres anyhow. I've occasionally took wrong turnings and ended up on far tracks and touch wood I've done no damage to the road bike wheels but I'm a light rider and I wouldn't want to do it often.

btw

 

[warren123]

My bike is a Giant SCR 4 and my spare wheels have alex DA22 rims and formula hubs.

 

[gaz]

The Alex da22 has an interior rim width of 13.9mm.
You should be able to go upto 28mm tyre width on that, anything more and it's a risk.

 

[Brommyboy]

Another thought, if there is insufficient space for larger tyres due to small clearances, would be to go for 36 spokes per wheel, preferably hand built by a reputable wheel-builder, but, if not, get a standard wheel tensioned by hand, so that all spokes play the same tune on the same side of the wheel. This will be a much stronger wheel even if using skinny tyres.