Will these tyres be suitable for my rims?

[steve evans]

I have a Giant MTB with Alexrims DP17 (559x17) rims.

I will be using the bike for commuting to work on decent tarmac roads most of the time so I want to change the supplied knobblys for something skinnier with less rolling resistance for the commute and keep the kobblys for offroad riding.

I read somewhere that the tyre should be at least 1.45 times the rim size so if I understand correctly then I could go as low as 25-559.

Would this be too thin? would my delicate backside get to much hammer? should I go for 1.125 or even 1.25's?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[sleuthey]

I have a Giant MTB and do allot of tarmac riding. I have Schwalbe City Jet slick tyres size 26 by 1.5". These are budget tyres so if your bike is expensive you may want to buy something a little dearer but I have found them to be brilliant. Its well worth the hassle of removing nobblies if your riding on the road most of the time.

 

[RedBike]

A lot depends on what you get used to. Most racing bikes use 23mm tyres.

You don't need to go to increadably thin tyres to get a very noticable decrease in rolling resistance. I belive that 28mm are actually more efficient than 23/25's! However, wider tyres weigh significantly more and they arn't as areodynamic, which is why roadies often go for the narrower tyres.

Unless you're a commuter racer you'll probably find that it's not really worth dropping down much bellow a 1.5" tyre, 1.9's will probably be fine.


The pressure of your tyres will have a significant effect on the ride.
You could always start off by running the tyres at a relatively low pressure for comfort, just until you get used to the ride. Although lower pressures will be less efficient you'll still roll along noticably quicker than with your existing knobblies!

I will second the City Jets. Great tyre. You often see promotional packs that include 'free' inner-tubes. (You're exisitng tubes will probably be too big).