another way to minimize flats....

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Permalink Reply by David P. on September 9, 2012 at 5:56pm

Sure, roady-guy bikes have tight clearances, but there are lots of 700c bikes that have room for reasonably-large tires. And the suggestion is scalable to whatever you have in most cases - a 30mm tire, if you can fit it, is not, by itself, going to be slower than a 25mm tire and it will be less flat-prone if you're comparing like tires. There are all sorts of things that will fit 35mm tires with fenders, and that's plenty big. I'm not sure what MTBs you're thinking of, as anything designed for 2" knobbies will fit jut about any road tire you can find. Even if you've got something designed around 25mm tires, you're better off from a flat-proofing standpoint using those rather than, say, 19mm tires.

David

James BlackHeron said:

While there are plenty of tire choices for other wheels sizes, such as 700c, many of the bikes that run these wheels lack the clearance to fit them -especially with fenders.

Thus the 650b craze.  It's a wheel often used in frames that were specifically designed to run large high-volume low-pressure tires along with full-fenders while still being lighter-weight distance bikes.    

To a lesser extent some MTB's and cruisers can run fatter high-volume tires without too many clearance issues but still most bikes that can run really wide/tall tires such as the Fat Franks are often built around that idea from the start.  Many MTB frames just can't fit them, and the cruisers that do are heavy tanks ill-suited for the kinds of riding that most people buy 650b-equipped road bikes for.  

David P. said:

There are plenty of nice tires in variosu widths available in 700c, and lots of high-volume choices, and not just armored ones that ride like crap. My intent, really, was to point out a benefit of using higher-volume tires at lower pressure rather than to talk about 650b.

David
James BlackHeron said:

I think, from my reading of many bicycle forums,  the whole 650b craze is fueled mostly by the very existence of the Hetres.  If they started making them in other sizes 650b would slowly begin sinking again into the obscurity from whence it came. 

Still, I think they are pretty darn cool.   

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 9, 2012 at 6:24pm

I'm running 700x28c on a vintage Raleigh road frame originally designed to run 27" wheels.    I could probably run 32's  but I wouldn't be able to run my 50mm-reach dual-pivot brakes and the SKS fenders.  If I jumped up to a longer-reach dual-pivot like the Tektro R539 i probably could but I'd have to machine a new set of custom brake-drop hardware with less drop.   I'm very happy with the way the 28's ride as I go everywhere on that bike.  It performs well on crushed lime and even most gravel.

As for running 2"+ wide tires on MTB's perhaps some of the more modern bikes don't have an issue but 80's and 90's hardtail frames usually don't have that much room at the chainstays or enough room to run 2-1/2"+ fenders that actually work to keep the water off of you.   And such fenders extra-wide fenders are not all that easy to find for 559mm wheels.  Most fenders, like those made by Planet Bike, usually top out at 2-1/4" wide. At least that's what I remember when I was trying to outfit my '84 Ross Mt. Hood.  I ended up with 1.9" kenda slicks and 60mm fenders which sometimes don't do all that great of a job.  I've got enough room at the chainstays so that the tires have about 2mm of clearance on both sides. 

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