Originally Posted by MrProsser

I recently got a bike from a friend and I would like to use it for commuting, and generally getting around town. This means it will largely be driven on pavement, and the most off-road use it will see will be on very fine crushed rock walking paths. However, it needs a bit of love, especially the tires which are badly worn. The current setup is a bit weird, with a front tire that is 26"x1.95" on a 559x18 rim, and a rear tire that is 26"x1.75" with a 559x27 rim. I would like to move to a thinner slick, but I am not quite sure how low I can go. I've seen a few threads like this one:
http://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...tain-bike.html

which include links suggesting that the front could go as low as 1.1" or so, but I am not sure about the back. One of the examples on that thread mentioned they moved from 2.125" to 1.5" which would be fine with me, but they do not mention the rim size. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had experience with this, or knows of a lower limit I should make sure to shy away from for each of those rims.