They say there are no dumb question so here’s mine:
Can a wheel accommodate different tire sizes?
The reason I’m asking this is that I’m shopping for a new commuter bike with the Alfine group but most of the time the offered tire is in a size that I don’t want. More than that, I would really like to ride on 26 or 28 during summer and maybe on a 32 for winter(all 700). Is this possible without changing the wheels?
Thanks
A wheel can only accept different tire widths, and even then there is only a certain degree of flexibility. Different tire sizes, no.
How do you know which width can go on a wheel?
For example, if I have this wheel: DT Swiss x470 disc specific rim, I know it can accommodate 28 but will a 26 or 32 go on it?
All rims (except some for very heavy commuter bikes) have a width of approx 20mm, where at least tires between 18 and 45mm can be used.
Thanks to you both! I check the rim width and some bikes I’m looking have a 23.5 mm. I found a nice table on Sheldon Brown’s website (http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html) but it seems a little exagerated since it says that a 23mm rim could accommodate tires in the range of 40 to 50 but 2 of the bikes are respectively sold with 28 and 32 tires! So I guess it means that I can theorically go from 28 to 50 (depending on the fork, fenders, brake…).
I now understand a bit more but sizes are still complicated!
Your limiter will be your bike, not the rim. Most cross racers run up to 35mm width tires on “regular” road rims like Ksyriums, Open Pro, Zipps, etc.
Needs to clear the frame and brakes mostly. You can certainly run 25s with little issues. It gets further complicated in that what they advertise isn’t really true either if you use a caliper and measure the actual tire width.
I’m using a mix of half worn out race wheels and cheap commuter wheels on my training/commuter bikes.
Using half worn out race tires in the summer (20 and 23mm), touring, cyclocross and wintertires up to 42mm in the winter, haven’t had any issues regarding rim/tire width.