tcd511

Just curious but is a 700c rim able to accept say a 700x25 and 700x32

SpedFast

Yes.

Russ Roth

More than likely, depends on the internal width of the rim. A lot of newer 700c gravel rims may be too wide for a 25c, particularly depending on who you ask, but any standard road rim meant for a 25c will be fine with a 32c. Just built a set of cross wheels with a 24mm internal width, not sure I'd put a 25c on there, but will probably use a 27c road in the summer time.

soyabean

If the OP is asking this, then they aren't going to do anything professionally agressive anyways, so no problem with rim width, go ahead and throw on even a 700x23 or 700x20 on that and enjoy.

maddog34

the 32mm tire might not fit the FRAME though... some road bikes can only handle a 28mm tire width... and just because "it barely clears" when the bike is sitting still, doesn't mean it won't rub when you are actually RIDING the bike...

Jeff Neese

There are charts like the ones on this page that show compatible tire and rim sizes. As you'll see there's quite a bit of range and overlap, so you'll probably be fine. As already mentioned, you're more likely to encounter a limitation fitting larger tires within the frame, more so than with the rim.

Tire Size Chart For Bicycle Rim

tcd511

Thanks all for your input. Sure is a lot to learn.

Iride01 

You'll know when your tire is too wide or too narrow for your rim. You are unlikely to be injured.

oldbobcat

And a lot of the older road rims will not work happily with the newer wide tires. For example, I'm running 28s on the stock wheels of an 11 year-old Madone. The ride is comfy but the handling suffers and it's a bear to get a fully inflated tire past the brake shoes.

urbanknight

I can't help but chuckle every time I see one of these charts because back in the day (mid 90's) we RACED 1.9" to 2.1" wide tires on 17mm internal width rims.

Russ Roth

That's the part that still keeps me freaked out. I've got a NOS set of 217 and they're narrow enough to fit inside the beads of my daughter's track bike and road bike. I can remember running 2.00 tires on a pair of rainbow anodized ones. My new SS cross wheel build used "old" carbon mtb rims which are now too narrow with their 25mm internal width. The 32c cross tires do look good on them though.

SW84

Thanks for this thread. I was looking to replace my 700c x 35 tires and the bike shop said all they had were 700c x 32. They said they'd work and I bought them, but I had some questions I was going to post here. You beat me to it. I still need to determine what size tubes they can take.

choddo

They’ll likely take the same tubes as 35s. Often a 28-42 kind of range.

tungsten

Yup and I have 2 bikes the hubs laced to X22's (remember them?!) shod w/1.5 Schwalbes.
It was a real struggle to seat those also.

oldbobcat

Mountain bike tires are made to be ridden on relatively narrow rims. The sidewalls are stiffer, the reinforced strip around the tire bead is wider, and the pressures are a lot lower..And cantilever or linear pull brakes give more clearance.

urbanknight

True, but it seems to me that every "road" tire wider than about 32mm is also built more like a mountain bike tire and less like a road racing tire. So no worries there either.

oldbobcat

Whatever you say.

tungsten

Not anymore.
My WTB i23's circa 2015 have an inner width of...wait for it...23mm! A width like that might be utilized for x-country racing where weight is paramount but tyres today are designed to be ridden on wider rims.
Your typical 30mm inner width rim works swell with anything from 2.25 up to 2.6 tyres. Maxxis 2.5 WideTrail tyres are designed to be run on 30mm or 35mm width rims. Otherwise 35mm wide rims are generally paired with + tyres.
Ibis even marketed some 40mm wide rims at one time but that was just nuts.

oldbobcat

I was thinking more about what urbanknight was riding on 15 or 25 years ago when I wrote that. There was considerable "lightbulb effect" in the way MTB tires fit on their rims back then. It's certainly true that wider tires are being made to ride on wider rims these days. I see that in the way 28 mm Bontrager R3s fit on my 11 year-old Bontrager Race Lites, and I wouldn't even think of putting that tire on my 17 year-old Mavic Ksyrium SLs. And we had to deal with it with every customer who wanted to put 2.7s on something like a 2009 Stumpjumper.

urbanknight

I was thinking things like the Marathons and Cinturatos are stiffer sidewall tires that are common in wider sizes while the GP5000s and Pro 1s are supple race tires common in narrower sizes. Feel free to share evidence of the contrary if you feel my logic is way off.

I agree that modern wide tires aren't meant to run on the older, narrower rims. No doubt the ride quality is affected, but I think the warnings of impending doom are overreaching as there doesn't seem to be stories of crashes caused by running 35mm tires on 17mm rims or anything of the sort.

spclark 

But then neither do I even after close to 75 years... why I look to learn new stuff with every day's dawning.

This forum is a great place for that kind of pursuit.

JohnDThompson 

The problem with wide tires on narrow rims is that it increases hoop stress on the rim sidewalls. But that problem is reduced when you run those wide tires at a lower pressure than you would with narrow tires on the same rims.

spclark 

Won't that solution simply add another problem in the handling / responsiveness of the bike + rider during use?

Would seem to be a 'best practice' to use rims within a range of widths the manufacturer of a particular tire-of-choice recommends for their product? These (bike) things are systems after all; to behave as intended the various components included should be well-matched to other components they'll be working with.

base2 

The problem with severe mismatch between rim width & tire width is that with out proper internal support from the air pressure the tire/rim can either wallow resulting in anomalous steering behavior or in the opposite condition the tire is spread out too wide at the beads and the sidewalls do a poor job supporting the rider. This results in pinch flats from insufficient rim height to provide a safe distance between the rim edge and the road surface for safe travel and often insufficient air volume for smooth travel among other potential issues.

For every possible combination and use case there is a "nominal" but exactly what that is, is a highly variable moving target. Hence the wide range of "acceptable" or so called "permissable" recommendations.

A 2.2 inch tire mounted to a 15mm wide rim back in 1987 might have been fine back then because they were also running 35 psi for proper sidewall support and the tire height was the only suspension available. The bulbous shape provided a consistant spring rate & the height guarded clearance against most trail obsticles and the contact patch was still minimally big enough for reasonable traction. The air pressure in the tire was the spring in the system that made that combination work.

It is just done different, now. Not that there is/was anything "wrong" with the old way. Taking advantage of the absence of a tube to be concerned with combined with the knowledge learned from actual testing of rolling resistance: Wider widths, lower pressures, lower rolling resistance and wider contact patch for more optimized for broader range of conditions has generated no end of competing charts.

Eyes Roll

Depends on the width of the tire rim. For a road bike, 700x23 or 700x25 are the ideal size, generally. You may also try a 700x28 tire, if it fits into the rim. If you do not know or are not sure, if a wider tire will fit (say, 700x32), take the bike to a bike shop (at least, for the first time); do not order the tire online, which becomes harder for you to try out the tire and return, if the tire does not fit.

700 is the DIAMETER of the rim/tire - O. 23, 25, 28, and 32 are the widths of the tires.

Check out legendary bike guru late 😢 Mr. Brown's guide, and educate yourself.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

P.S. My road bike has 700c wheels, and I currently use 700x25 tires. A 700x32 tire will not fit my rim. The widest tire I can use on my rims is 700x28, which I am planning to buy next time.