How To Read Mountain Bike Tire Sizes
Whether you are mountain biking on dry trails in utah or through the waterfalls of iceland having the right tires is crucial for the best riding experience.
How to read mountain bike tire sizes. There are a myriad of wheel sizes for road mtb touring and children s bikes. Once you ve identified your tire diameter 29 27 5 or 26 you ll want to dial in your width. There are multiple tires to consider and it s important to understand tire size. Mtb wheels in particular can be further categorised by 26 inches 27 5 inches and 29 inches.
Widths range from 1 9 to nearly 5. It s actually the same bead seat diameter as 700c tires but most 29 tires are simply too wide and tall to fit 700c wheels. The actual outer diameter of the tire may vary based on the tread pattern so the bds bead seat diameter is the measurement of the inner diameter of the tire. The sizes you commonly see for mountain bike wheels like 26in 27 5in and 29in all refer to the outside diameter of the wheel with the tire fully inflated.
Trail and all mountain bikes will have tires in the 2 25 to 2 4 width range. You can find this measurement on the side wall where you should see two numbers separated by an x ie. As long as your replacement tire size matches your original though no need to worry about what style of bike you might have mountain bike tires. Mountain bike tire size and width.
A cross country bike will have tires in the 1 9 to 2 25 width range. These sizes can be thought of as a sort of shorthand for decimal sizes each with a corresponding iso measurement. Outer tire diameters can be 26 27 5 or 29. Read the size carefully.
The example sizes below give you a rough guide for tire sizes on different types of bikes today. While you can find a variety of bikes with wheel sizes ranging from 16 to 27 5 inches the most common sizes include 26 inches 27 5 inches 29 inches and 700c. Tires are essential to mountain biking the type of terrain you ride and they can have a big impact on your riding experience. Sizes written as decimals such as 2 75 are different than sizes expressed as fractions such as 2 3 4.
29 the 29er another popular size for mountain bike wheels and tires. A hybrid of road and mountain tires cyclocross tires are labeled as 700c and have widths indicated in millimeters like road bikes yet are knobbie like mountain bike tires. To confuse matters further all tyres use the european tyre and rim technical organisation etrto system so for a road it would display 622 x nn with the nn value indicating the tyre width which is the same as 700 x nn.