Road tyres on a Hardtail - narrowest tyre size

[BerksJack]

Im looking for some help chaps. Im looking to get some semi slicks and im unsure on how narrow I can go with them. Ive still got the knobbly 26x2.1 Kenda tyres that were standard on the bike when I bought it. Would a 1.75 fit or is 1.9 the limit on my rims?

Also any recommendations?

[bga]

I used to run conti slicks on one of my MTB's. I can't remember which model but they were 1.25's

[itsnotarace]

Have run 26x 1.0 on mine before, there's no problem running narrower tyres. It's when you go larger you can have clearance problems

[BerksJack]

Thanks for the swift replies guys. The reason that I posted was that the lad in Halfords told me 1.9 was the limit.... he'll be one to avoid in the future as the other guys in there seem quite clued up.

Im assuming I can keep the same innertube?

[BerksJack]

I ordered the Schwalbe city jets last night off Wiggle. I went for the 1.5's, ill give an update later in the week once I've got them on.

Thanks again for the advice.

[mph1977]

surely it;s going to depend on the rims to a point - if you've got wide rims (designed for 2" + tyres) trying to put 1.25 or 1.5 s on whould be a 'stretch' ... where 1.5s replacing 1.75s or 1.9s ...

[itsnotarace]

^^ they should still fit, but you may lose some rim wall protection if you kerb it or go down a deep thin pothole

[BerksJack]

mph1977 said:

surely it;s going to depend on the rims to a point - if you've got wide rims (designed for 2" + tyres) trying to put 1.25 or 1.5 s on whould be a 'stretch' ... where 1.5s replacing 1.75s or 1.9s ...

Thats what I was worried about but the tyre is significantly wider than the rim. If it stops raining ill whip the front off and get the tape measure out.

[BerksJack]

itsnotarace said:

^^ they should still fit, but you may lose some rim wall protection if you kerb it or go down a deep thin pothole

luckily my commute isnt too bad for pot holes but there's a few big kerbs I wont be able to drop off at full tilt now.

[BerksJack]

Just a quick update. The tyres arrived yesterday afternoon, excellent service from Wiggle and I even got a free bag of Haribo in there aswell .

fitted them to the bike earlier and they fit fine, as already suggested I could have gone for a thinner tyre but these are a massive improvement over the knobblies already.

im not sure if I need to buy a set of smaller inner tubes as the ones ive got are stamped 26x1.9/2.15 and did seem quite snug in the tyre.

[Kell]

You tend to find that if the the inner tubes are too fat, they 'bunch up' in places, create high spots on your tyres and make it feel like your wheel is buckled.

[Vladimir]

I have some 1.5" semi slicks I never fitted. Oops.

[P-Jay]

It will depend on your rims really, if you've got wide-ish rims, narrow tyres are going to give a flatter contact patch and could make the handling a bit weird, but I guess massive lean angles aren't going to be such a concern on semis.

[BerksJack]

Thanks again for the replies all.

I was quite careful when i pumped them up and did a trial run before sticking them in the rim, once inflated they looked ok. I've had a quick look for inners and I'm struggling to find a 1.5? Ill do a bit more digging tonight/ tomorrow.

I've done about 35km on them so far and I'm really pleased with them, now i wish id swapped them over sooner to be honest. My speed on the flat has increased by 3-4mph and I knocked over a minute (previous time was last week) off a hill on my commute home last night.

[BerksJack]

I think the biggest difference has to be how quiet they are! I didn't realise how noisy the knobblies were, I always thought that the humming noise was the bike . The downside to the silence now means that I can hear a clicking sound when I'm peddling hard which I think is coming from the bottom bracket.

Only a couple of bad points. I nearly lost the front end when I put a wheel on some wet grass at the side of the footpath and I'm constantly checking the rear for a flat after every manhole or small pothole I hit. Neither are obviously faults of the tyres and will just take some adjusting to my riding style to get used to.

[BerksJack]

Apologies for the multiple posts but I kept getting an error message when I tried to post it in the same message.

[yellowjack]

BerksJack said:

I think the biggest difference has to be how quiet they are! I didn't realise how noisy the knobblies were

Ah, the knobbly tyre 'hum'. Reminiscent of the '40mph tyre hum' on a military Series III Landrover. Just at a lower speed.

[BerksJack]

yellowjack said:

Ah, the knobbly tyre 'hum'. Reminiscent of the '40mph tyre hum' on a military Series III Landrover. Just at a lower speed.

really?

I nipped into Decathlon earlier and got hold of some thinner inner tubes but now I need a stand pump as I can't get anymore than 60ish psi into them with my handpump. Its never ending.......