Originally Posted by
Kapusta
Yes, this IS why rims are going wider.
However, there are limits to how wide you want to go with any given mtb tire.
The thing you need to keep in mind with MTB tires is that the treads are designed with a certain profile shape in mind. If you go TOO wide with the rim, you end up squaring off the tire enough that the side tread will be contacting the ground the whole time you’re riding, rather than just when you lean the bike.
If the tire you have pictured is a 2.2 on narrow rims, then you’re probably looking at a 2.0 maximum with a 30 mm rim. No 26” MTB 2.0 tire was ever designed to be run with anything close to that wide of a rim.
There are optimum rim widths for MTB tires, and it is a bit wider than we used to think it was. However, that does not simply mean that wider is always better.
Yes, 30mm is a fairly common MTB rim width these days. However, so are 2.4-2.6” tires for even non-plus sized bikes. Also, these tires are being designed for these wide rim widths.
If your plan was to run road slicks (or really any tire with no differentiates side knobs) on this bike, I don’t think this would be a problem. However, if you are looking at running mountain bike tires with any sort of side knob, I think you may end up being very disappointed with the results of a 30 mm rim and 2.0 (ish) MTB tire.
Great input and great points. Thank you. I check all this out and found a monster awesome article
here. What a great read!
In the article he's using 2.35" tires and analyzes the changes when switching from 22.5mm rims to 30, 35 and then 40mm rims.
All said and done, looks like I'm pretty safe when changing to 30mm rims with my current tires. 35mm rims might cause clearance issues for my frame. And like he said, with the 35's the side tread starts to have less of an effect with his tires, meaning with mine I should stay with a slimmer rim.
Again thanks for the input. Good stuff.