# Largest tire a 700c road wheel can accept?



## Kung Fu Felice

Can typical road wheels like the Aksium/Ksyrium safely handle tires larger than 700x28c (assuming frame clearance is available)? Or is it wiser to get wheels made for larger tires (such as the Velocity Dyad)?

Is there a general rule for matching wheel width to tire width I should be aware of? Thanks all.


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## Kerry Irons

*Not to worry*



Kung Fu Felice said:


> Can typical road wheels like the Aksium/Ksyrium safely handle tires larger than 700x28c (assuming frame clearance is available)? Or is it wiser to get wheels made for larger tires (such as the Velocity Dyad)?
> 
> Is there a general rule for matching wheel width to tire width I should be aware of? Thanks all.


You would have to go much larger than 28 mm before you'd have concerns. I've ridden 32s on a tandem with standard road rims. Perhaps some of those 45mm Hybrid tires would look funny, but they would still work. The "wider" rims aren't really that much wider compared to how much bigger the tires are.


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## Dave Hickey

As Kerry said, 28C is no problem. 

Check out this link for more info. Scroll to the bottom-....rim width considerations

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire_sizing.html


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## MR_GRUMPY

Mavic says that an Open Pro rim will fit a 19-28mm tire. (ignore at your own risk)
.
From Sheldon Brown:
"Although you can use practically any tire/rim combination that shares the same bead seat diameter, it is unwise to use widely disparate sizes.
If you use a very narrow tire on a wide rim, you risk pinch flats and rim damage from road hazards.

If you use a very wide tire on a narrow rim, you risk sidewall or rim failure. This combination causes very sloppy handling at low speeds. Unfortunately, current mountain-bike fashion pushes the edge of this. In the interest of weight saving, most current mountain bikes have excessively narrow rims. Such narrow rims work very poorly with wide tires, unless the tires are overinflated...but that defeats the purpose of wide tires, and puts undue stress on the rim sidewalls."
.
One question that I have to ask....If you are going to mount a wide 32mm tire, why on Earth whould you want a high performance wheel??


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## Kung Fu Felice

"If you are going to mount a wide 32mm tire, why on Earth whould you want a high performance wheel??"

In my case, it's not so much that I got a hi performance rim to put on a 32mm tire, but rather I inherited a road bike with standard 700c rims that I'm in the process of converting to a commuter, but don't want to purchase a new rim if the old rim is usable (safely).


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## MR_GRUMPY

In that case, I would try a 28 in front and a 32 in back. The 28 should work fine, and if there was a problem with the 32 (and there probably won't be), you would not crash because of it.


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## Kung Fu Felice

good idea mr.grumpy, thanks!


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## mytorelli

I've used 32's on open pros. They are on my cyclocross bike. I've ridden them through very rough surfaces and harsh terrains, and haven't had any problems.


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## backinthesaddle

I'm running 700x40s on my cross bike on CXP33s...no issues...


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## SDizzle

I've seen Bontrager Jones 2.2" 29er tires on Open Pros.


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## CFBlue

I ran 32's on Velocity Fusion rims. It didn't work well. I could feel the tire rolling when I turned corners. Of course, using a different brand of tire could make it work. I went back to 25's and don't have any problems. I also run 28's (Gatorskins) on Velocity Fusion rims, and haven't had any problems with those.


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## epic

Consider that Bontrager mountain bike rims used to be made from MA40s. We ran 2" tires on those. Going to 28 or 32 is not going to be a problem.


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