Roadies_Rok

Hi Everyone, I need to replace the tires on my Litespeed Arenberg road bike pretty quick. The bike has the Michelin Pro Race Service Course size 700 x 23 tires on it now and when I brought the bike home I was thinking "good, I am set for tires for a while" but maybe not so much. The tread looks new with very little wear other than the approx 200 miles I have put on them but the sidewalls are starting to flake. I want to go with a 700 x 25 and hopefully a 700 x 28 tire on my bike but I am worried about the fit. The front fork look fine as far as fit with all the room I could hope for and the rear brake and brake bridge are the same, plenty of room but the chainstays give me cause for concern. They are tight and even with the current 700 x 23 tire on the rear wheel it is tight with maybe 4 to 5 mm on each side of the tire between the tire sidewall and the inner part of the chainstay.

I am pretty sure I can get a 25mm tire in the rear but a 28mm tire I am thinking might be a problem. Does anyone have any experience with this and can give me their thoughts? If I buy the 28mm tires and they don't fit I don't want to be stuck with them so thoughts and opinions are appreciated. Thanks.

Gresp15C

I've been fortunate to have a fair amount of tire clearance on my bikes. But I've noticed that measured tire widths can vary from the rated width by a mm or more. One possible reason is the inside dimension of the rim, but this doesn't seem to be the only factor.

Would a shop let you try out a tire?

Crankycrank

I've noticed that some mfrs are also making their newer tires slightly narrower than in the past for a given marked width. Something about the trend for rims to be wider than in the past which creates a tire that measures wider when mounted. Don't know how old your Pro 4's are but the newer Michelin versions seem to come up a couple mm or so narrower IME so you may be safe with 28's. I wish I could give you a guarantee on fit but that's all I got.

Roadies_Rok

Crankycrank Thank you for bringing this up and I have noticed the same thing for quite a while. Some tire makers either exxadurate or understate the widths of their tires. Whether this is due to irregularities in the molds or creative liberties by the marketing departments I don't know but they do it. Vittoria in my experience is the absolute worst at this. I once when I was racing bought a pair of their Open Corsa EVO tires in size 700 x 23. The tires got great reviews for ride, traction, and grip so imagine my surprise when I mounted the tires and to me the ride felt like I had a rod up my butt and the tires just looked off. When I put my calipre on them the supposed 23mm tire was actually a 20mm tire! I think Continental is the most honest and the most accurate as to their tire widths so I am probably going to go with a pair of their mid range tires. I don't race nor will I spend the money for their GP's or the 5000 tire but something on the order of their Grand Sport tire I think will do nicely.

Thanks for weighing in.