When it doesn’t fit.

Tire size should also be based on rider weight, and larger in the rear than front. A 25mm tire in the rear is plenty for a relatively lightweight person like myself who weighs only 135 lbs, but a 200 lb rider would want at least a 28mm tire.

in my defence, I was only being partially sarcastic. I squeezed 700x35mm into a frame designed around 23mm tires that doesn’t have any dimpling on the inside of the chainstays for clearance. What kind of frame are you riding? Is it supposed to be a ‘track’ frame, with tight clearance? What size tires did it come with? What rims are you riding on? What is the rims width? What type of tire are you looking at? What about your brakes? Do they have clearance for the tire? There are a lot of variables that have to be known, before anyone could genuinely help you answer your question on clearance/fit.

as far as what size/type is best, well as a commuter myself I would say that your weight and the extra weight of anything you might be carrying on the bike (groceries? Work stuff?, etc) needs to be taken into account. The heavier the load, the larger volume tire you’ll need. If your tires are too small, you’ll be getting pinch flats on the regular and that’s no fun. If youre a lightweight person and you don’t plan on carrying a lot of load you might get away with smaller tires, but I wouldn’t recommend anything smaller than 28mm for commuting. If you feel you’ll need larger tires, you may need to consider purchasing a bike more dedicated for commuting so that you can fit larger tires. As for type, I would recommend avoiding expensive racing tires, that includes gatorskins. Unless you ride somewhere that getting actual punctures is a risk, tires like that won’t do anything but empty your wallet. Puncture protection does nothing to stop a pinch flat. Again, I speak from years of experience. Gatorskins are racing tires. You’re not racing. I would strongly recommend you look at Schwalbe tires. https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires They have a large selection of really great tires geared toward commuting, and they’re quite affordable by comparison to dropping $60+ per tire To equip your bike with unnecessary racing tires. What you really want in a good commuting tire is long lasting tread, versatility in riding environment, so say good tread for being able to confidently ride on dirt, loose gravel, sand, water, etc. You want a tire with a heavier, stronger sidewall. Pretty much the exact opposite of everything a racing tire is. Racing tires just don’t do well as commuter tires. Anyone who says the opposite is either lying or has no clue what they’re on about.

For everyday use a 28 or 32 (I prefer 32) is a good size. If you’re heavier you should lean towards 32. My personal preference is that a 35 is the best all around size for a commuter, and there’s a long history of the use of 700x35 for utility bikes, to back that up. If you can’t fit a 28, then you need to accept that your bike isn’t a good choice for commuting and start with a frame that can fit larger tires.

Another advantage of a wider tire is that you can run a lower air pressure without the risk of a pinch flat, particularly in the rear. The maximum pressure in any of my tires is 90 psi, and usually a lot less. I notice no significant increase in rolling resistance at lower pressures, but get a much smoother ride on rough surfaces.

Well based on your equipment, you should be able to handle a 700x32, depending on how accurate wabi is with measuring, you might even be able to fit 35. Wabi specifically lists 32mm and I don’t see any reason why your brake wouldn’t clear it (though I can’t be certain about that.) so you should be good to go as a commuter. The wabi classic is a really good frame, so I can see you spend your money wisely. Excellent choice. If you want to run 28’s, at your weight, I’d say you’re fine, but I would still recommend you choose 32mm to better ‘future proof’ your setup if you start carrying more weight. With the right tires you won’t notice any increase in weight between a 28 and a 32, just an increase in smoothness of ride and a reduced chance of pinch flats. I can’t stress enough, that one of the main reasons people get pinch flats is riding on tires that are too small in volume. Of course not keeping proper pressure more or less creates the same effect and increases pinch flats.

as far as recommendations go, well the schwalbe marathon plus, is the gold standard for commuting tires and for good reasons. Of course it’s a heavier tire that doesn’t lend itself well for anything else. But if you want something that can pull double duty for commuting and for more fast&fun riding there are a few I could recommend, all of which can be had in both 28 and 32mm: panaracer RiBMo, panaracer pasela protite, vittoria randonneur (and the pro version), soma shikoro, continental top contact II, schwalbe durano, and if you really want the closest thing to a racing tire, you could go for the continental grand prix 4 season, but it will cost you more and likely have to be replaced sooner.

if a good balance of speed performance and reliability as a commuter is important, then vittoria probably has the widest choice of tires: https://www.vittoria.com/us/tires/ur...nd-beyond.html but I should stress again, that one of the most important aspects of a commuting tire is tread life. A thicker tread, or at least a tread compound designed to wear slower is best. No racing tire is going to properly give you that, by design.

anyway, update us with photos when you’ve got it all sorted eh? Cheers, mate.

folding tires have a Kevlar bead that allows the tire lay flat and to literally fold up. This has the added benefit of saving weight, but it pretty much always costs more. A non folding tire usually has a steel bead, and as you might guess, it doesn’t fold. Basically it’s more like a motorcycle or car tire, in that it comes in the shape of a tire, as you’d expect it to be.

Steel bead tires are almost always cheaper, BUT you can get hit with more cost in shipping because of the oversized boxes they need to be shipped in. If you’re buying them online of course. They are of course slightly heavier as well, but in every other aspect they will perform the same. If you want to save a negligible amount of weight, and spend a bit extra, there’s no reason not to buy folding tires. Most high end racing tires that aren’t tubulars, are folding. Most cheaper tires or commuting/city tires are steel bead.

as for the commonly held belief that folding tires are typically easier to mount? I think it’s complete nonsense. I don’t think there is any evidence to back that up, and it usually comes down the the actual sizing of the tire, and the particular rim. Some manufacturers (Challenge brand tires are notorious for this) make their tires slightly smaller than the size it’s supposed to be. say, slightly smaller than 622mm for a 700c, as an example. This is to help it seat better and hold better to the rim lip. Pretty important for high pressure clincher racing tires. Most tires, I think you’ll find are about equal in any difficult or lack there of, wether they’re folding or not and mostly depends on the brand of tire, not specifically it’s bead. For what it’s worth, in my personal experience, a steel bead tire usually makes it a bit easier to put a tube in, but depending on your tire and rim combo, it may not be the case.

In short, you won’t get any real benefit from a folding tire as a commuter, but there’s nothing wrong with it or a steel bead type. Folding tires have the most benefit to bicycle tourers, because they can carry a spare tire or two on the bike very easily.

LOL. If you get a flat, it is by definition already deflated. So this scenario would never happen. Did you really not think about this at all? Also, there are plenty of brakes that open wide enough for a 28 or even a 32 to pass through. Makes no difference to me what size tires you run mate, but you clearly didn’t use your head with this. And there’s nothing complex about changing a fixed or ss rear tire. If you think it is, then you need more practice. Now, changing a rear tire on an IGH 3 speed on a frame with fenders and a chaincase, is complex.