Originally Posted by
littleArnold
Yeah I went to a bike shop and talked to the guy there, he really discouraged me from going down from 35 mm. He mentioned you got worry if you shave too many mm's off in tire width that you also need to worry about the rims too. Then he mentioned you got make sure its going to fit in your Fork right. He basically shot off a whole lot of reasons why he thought going down to a 28 mm tire or even lower 25 mm on a hybrid he thought was a very bad idea.
He thought I should just stick with the 35mm tire and choose a different kind of tire.
I also talked to a Trek representative and he said I could get down to a 32 mm tire with my rims, but I shouldn't try to go any lower than that.
so the question is what is faster lower rolling resistance... getting my same tire that I have now on the fx2, but in a narrow size 32 mm or getting a different 35 mm tire that is suppose to have less rolling resistance... like the 35 mm hybrid tire that was mentioned in a previous post...
So, yes; you can downsize and upsize tires from stock size. There is a limit to this as mentioned based on rim width and frame/fork clearance.
Stock tires are for protecting the rims during shipping, they can be improved on every metric except price. There are many proven brands and models out there. On my gravel bike, I use
Soma Supple Vitesse EX 38 and keep up with my friends on road bikes. They are light, supple, and fast. The bike does not feel slower than my road bike with 28c. Bontrager is Trek's house brand; they're not sold outside Trek stores. I don't know anybody who rides aftermarket Bontrager tires. Continental, Vittoria, Schwalbe, and Panaracer are the tires I see the most.