jmitchelltfo

I've done quite a bit of searching for a list or thread with lots of real world info for rim and tire compatibility, with no success. I figured I'd start this thread so that people don't waste money on rims or tires that won't work for their intended use. Feel free to use this format if you'd like to contribute your knowledge. Don't be like me with pants covered in tire sealant and trying to investigate a tire issue while it's still dark on a morning commute.


Current Weight: 280 lb/127kg
Bike and gear: 33lb/15kg
Primary use: commuting on tarmac and mixed surfaces
Rim info: BTLOS hookless carbon, 30 mm internal width (premium layup with 160kg capacity and strengthened spoke holes)
Tire: 29 x 2.2 Rene Herse Fleecer Ridge (tubeless)
I thought I needed to add a couple psi to my tires since the temperature was supposed to drop that day, while I was at work. I increased from 35 to 38 psi before I left home and had a complete debead/blowout about five miles into my trip after two weeks of commuting @35psi. I definitely take the blame, but to be honest, the sidewall said 30-55 psi and the RH recommended hookless rim width was 18-41 mm, which put me close to the middle of that range. The tires felt slightly squirmy in fast corners, on tarmac, at 30 psi, but felt comfortable but slightly "soft" at 33 psi. After having that issue, I did some research and found out that riders quite a bit lighter than I am, have had issues with debeading/burping on RH tires with hookless rims (possibly made by Panaracer in Japan). It looks like the sidewalls are just a little to supple for a guy my size on a hookless rim with such a narrow pressure window.

Current Weight: 280 lb/127kg
Bike and gear: 33lb/15kg
Primary use: commuting on tarmac and mixed surfaces
Rim info: BTLOS hookless carbon, 30 mm internal width
Tire: 29 x 2.15 Schwalbe Marathon E-Plus (with tubes)
I bought these tires since they were on sale and supposed to be super durable. I have been blown away by how well they have worked. They are very heavy (1400 grams on my scale), and ride slightly more harsh on gravel, but zero punctures has been nice since I have had punctures on my commute with every other tire I've run. I will say that Schwalbe recommends these tires for hooked rims only, but I didn't notice that before I purchased them. They were delivered and said "Crotched rims only" on the sidewall. I decided to fit them up with tubes on my hookless rims anyway and let them sit for a couple days @50 psi. The beads never budged and had a consistent bead line all the way around the rim. I dropped the pressure to 30 psi and have commuted on that setup for six weeks. They roll relatively fast and handle fine for my use. I've used them on gravel and just use a little more caution when I'm in a corner since they don't have much in the way of side knobs. With a 136 kg capacity per tire, I guess I overreacted and just went with the most heavy-duty tire that I could find.

I am taking a risk by running tires that aren't recommended for my rims, so obviously do so at your own discretion. I have a wheelset with 22mm hooked carbon rims (I would have preferred 25mm rims but couldn't pass up the deal I found on these) that I'm just waiting for tires to show up. I overestimated the size of tire that I thought I would need for gravel and commuting, so I have a set of 700x38 Schwalbe Marathon Almotion that are rated for tubeless use that should be showing up any day. I'm hoping that will make my commute just a little easier due to decreased rolling resistance and quite a bit less weight. I incorrectly assumed the weight capacity that Schwalbe lists for their tires, was for two tires. But after adding the capacity of both tires and dividing by 70% (conservative estimate) since the majority of my weight is on the rear tire my weight capacity looked like this:
110 kg x 2 = 220 kg
220kg x 70% = 154 kg/340 lbs

That conservative estimate of 70% still gives me 20 pounds of extra room with the 700x38 tires. Most estimates that I saw were 80% but I guess I figured I would err on the side of Clyde for this one.


Here are a couple of very useful links that I use to help set up my tires and rims to help avoid the steep learning curve that I've had over the past several months.

Sram has a great calculator here to give you a good idea on where to start for your riding style and tire/rim choices.

SRAM | AXS


Reifen_Felgenkombinationen_2020_EN.pdf (menlosecurity.com)

Schwalbe does a great job of letting the user know exactly what rim width is optimized for their tires, even though a wide range of rim widths are actually ETRTO certified.

I hope a bunch of people contribute to this thread for an easy way to research the choices for rims and tires. I know I'll add to it as I try new tire and rim combinations.

Barrettscv 

I've had many rim and tire combinations. From a 1972 Paramount with Mavic vintage rims to 700x40 tires on Stan's rims on my gravel bike. I'm between 215 and 235 lbs.

aid expect any well-made touring tire 700x35 will not fail you.

On smooth pavement, any well-made wheel with a 700x25 tire is adequate. Unfortunately, typical damaged pavement requires a 700x28 tire or larger.

Bad Lag

OP, you are running your tires too soft (too low in pressure).

The Rene Herse pressure calculator shows 39-48 psi for your weight. That you had a blow out would be a good indicator it is too low.

tyrion

FWIW I run my RH Antelope Pass (700x55) a good 8psi lower than the Rene Herse calculator suggests. I find the Silca tire pressure calculator much more to my liking. https://silca.cc/pages/sppc-form

(zero tire issues with those tires/pressures for me, but I have hooked rims)

jmitchelltfo

​​​​​​​That wasn’t my experience. If your advice was correct, then I would have had a blowout at 35 psi the two weeks prior. 250+ miles would have let me know that I was running to low of pressure.

The SRAM app that I posted a link to, has put me within 2 psi (with great results) of what I end up running on every tire except for the Rene Herse.

Rudz85

My American friends, you will have to convert pounds to kilograms, PSI to BAR, and kilometres to miles before reading the rest of this answer. So go ahead and open up a seperate tab.


I currently weigh 108kg in casual riding gear. My panniers, with laptop, lunch, spares, locks etc probably comes in at approximately 11kg; including the weight of the panniers themselves.

I ride a hi-ten steel hybrid frame (which can comfortably suport my weight) shod with 700x38C Chao Yang Kestrel tyres/tires. These are rated at 70kg each per tire load and are recommended to be run at 3.0 bar to 6.0 bar.


This means that I am within the weight limits of my tyres by 21kg but I do inflate them to 5.5 bar to leave room for pressure increases due to hot weather and the heat generated by fast rides- provided I can ride fast on the day. I would rather inflate my tyres close to the limit (80/20 rule) than underinflate them and deal with tyres that age poorly due to the side wall cracking. When the sidewalls start cracking- you have to throw them away. I run a Duro 700x37 tube on rear and a Decthlon 29er 1.75''+ tube on the front, while both wheels have MTB tyre liners within the tyre.


However, perhaps more important than my tyres, in my humble opinion are: my rims. I have a vintage Wolber GTA 700x16mm 36 spoke rim on the rear and a Weinmann 700X16mm rim on the front, 36 spoke too.


Does this mean that my rims don't come out of true? Definitely not. I regularly ride 40-60km for return trip commutes, covering a alot of poorly surfaced road (70%) with the remainder being smooth tarmac that still has drainholes, large stones and pieces of glass on the road shoulder. Since I am also zig-zagging through suburbs, I ride around sppehumps where I can (in the gutter) and over them when the gutter is too filthy.


I am convinced that relatively high tyre pressures, smart riding and 36 spoke rims keep my wheels fairly round.

tallbikeman

80-81 Schwinn Sports Tourer with 27"x1 1/4" wheels and tires.

1973 Schwinn Varsity with 700c x 35mm Schwalbe tires.
260lbs on 700c x 35mm Schwalbe Marathon tires. I use Velocity Chukkar hooked rims 36 spokes and literally go months between flats. I ride this bike on lots of dirt/gravel roads. At my weight I find that I can use 36 2mm spokes except for the cassette side of the rear wheel which are 2.3mm-2mm spokes with the thicker part at the head of the spoke. I have a Schwinn Sports Tourer, made in Taiwan from early 80's, and have kept it with the original 27"x1 1/4" tires. Sun CR18 hooked Aluminum rims with 36 2mm spokes. Schwalbe Marathon tire rear and Continental Gator Skin front. Flat every 4 months or so. Sometimes I go 6 months without flats. Surprisingly I found that this bike was fine on dirt/gravel roads with no problems with the wheels or tires. I don't ride near as much as OP but I get thousands of miles on my bikes every year. I'm not a big fan of tubeless tires. I've helped several riders who had tubeless tires fail far from home. We ended up putting tubes into the gooey mess of their tire/rim combination and pumping that up. So far I have supplied the spare tube as none of the people I helped had one. If getting home means a tube why not just start out with tubes and forget the messy tire leakstop. I don't use leakstop in my tires because of the mess should they hole. If I sound like a opinionated old man that's because I am.