Originally Posted by
Kapusta
My road bike has 29mm wide tubeless-hookless rims with 28mm tires which pump out to 30mm on the wider rims. The benefits are lower pressure, more grip, and more ride comfort and are not limited to only road bikes. This is why manufacturers across the board are offering wider rims for all disciplines.
My latest 27.5" build uses Crest MkIII rims which are wider than their predecessor and I noticed a lot more grip while ascending. This is because the width of the tire's surface area increases dramatically with wider rims. That together with lower tire pressure means a lot more grip. (Honestly it would be great to understand the math behind it and calculate exactly how much more surface area. I guestimate up to 50% more lateral surface area.) I was even able to ascend some pretty heavy grades while out of the saddle, something that was impossible with my Stan's No-Tubes 355 rims (Crest MKIII pre-predecessors) and same tires (Thunder Burt).
Thanks for the link. Those are however 700c rims. There are a lot of 700c's our there with wider profiles. At this time Enve has the best wide profile rim brake rims for road bikes but they cost $1000 per rim!