# Which 26" Tire for Wide Rim



## mtbnutty (Feb 13, 2003)

I hope the tandem brain trust can help me with this one.
I just converted our mtb tandem for road duty and was wondering about proper road tires. Our rims are 26" Rhyno Lites and are 27.5mm wide. My question is how narrow of a road tire can/should we safely use on such a wide rim? Looking for suggestions. Thanks.


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## JCavilia (Sep 12, 2005)

I'm no tandem guru, but I'd guess that any tire wide enough for tandem use will work fine. I mean, you're not going to put a 1.2" slick on there, I'd bet.


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## mtbnutty (Feb 13, 2003)

I put 1.5" Armadillo's on there for a simple test ride (without my stoker). With an older wheelset I used to have, when we wanted to do a century I put on Avocet 1.25" tires that worked well. I think those old wheels had 22mm rims. Our current rims are much wider so my question still is, how small of a tire can I safely go. (BTW - Team weight 320lbs)


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## mtbnutty (Feb 13, 2003)

Bump......


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## onespeedbiker (May 28, 2007)

mtbnutty said:


> I hope the tandem brain trust can help me with this one.
> I just converted our mtb tandem for road duty and was wondering about proper road tires. Our rims are 26" Rhyno Lites and are 27.5mm wide. My question is how narrow of a road tire can/should we safely use on such a wide rim? Looking for suggestions. Thanks.


I'm currently running Ritchey Tom Slicks 1 inch on 26" Ryno Lites. While the OD of the rim is 27.5mm, the ID at the rim lip is about 22.5, which is less than an inch. Further, if you check out many road tires you will see the tires are about as wide as the rims. Our team is also about 320lbs. I previously use the old IRC Metro 1.5, which worked well but the thinner tires do roll better. Most 700c tandems come with 28mm tires. After I mounted the 1 inch tires, the surface was about 29mm.


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## mtbnutty (Feb 13, 2003)

onespeedbiker said:


> I'm currently running Ritchey Tom Slicks 1 inch on 26" Ryno Lites. While the OD of the rim is 27.5mm, the ID at the rim lip is about 22.5, which is less than an inch. Further, if you check out many road tires you will see the tires are about as wide as the rims. Our team is also about 320lbs. I previously use the old IRC Metro 1.5, which worked well but the thinner tires do roll better. Most 700c tandems come with 28mm tires. After I mounted the 1 inch tires, the surface was about 29mm.


Wow! That's a small tire. Thanks for the good info. I still have the Armadillo 1.5" tires on and have a few hundred miles on them. We're doing a 65 miler tomorrow and for now feel really confident in them. They seem to laugh at potholes, gravel and the like.

I would like to go to a smaller tire eventually, but not sure I could go to 1". Maybe a 1.25"?


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