MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Will I die as my rims fold in half in spectacular fashion or will it just be 'a bit squirmy', can I get away with it until wheel upgrade pennies arrive?
The plan is to have Vittoria Mezcal 2.1 on a set of Hunt 4 season rims on my new gravel build for a few weeks...
Isn't this what everyone used until wider rims became a thing?
It'll be fine but all your friends will shun you.
That's a pretty much old school combo from times before wide rims. Unless you are using ridiculously low pressure, then no issues at all.
I think I ran up to 2.4" on 17mm internal in the dark and distant past...
Will be fine, just don't use modern low pressure, something ~40-50PSI.
Used to run 2.5s (albeit anorexic maxxis ones) back on 17mm internal in the distant past before we cared about such things...
Isn’t this what everyone used until wider rims became a thing?
17 mm used to be the standard XC width so 1.95 or 2.1 tyres were normal, 19 mm was trailbike territory so fat tyres like 2.25 or 2.4 were normal.
I remember when 19mm rims were the burly option
I have this combo (2.4F, 2.25R on xm719) on my hardtail and rode it 50km on Sunday. I am not dead
It may work in practice, but the theory is not sound.
Just read this. Even if it’s not true you can pretend it is until you buy new rims
https://www.renehersecycles.com/myth-18-wide-tires-need-wide-rims/
Great, you are all culpable when I die in a spray of aluminium and sealant....
It's a bit like those heady days of forgetting to do at least one v brake up when you put the wheel on after getting it out of the car.... and chin it down the first hill.... and wonder why you don't stop... Surely that wasn't just me...
I'm going 2.25 now.....
You will not die. I had Open Pros until recently and they're 15mm.
I think it will be fine. I echo others in refrain from using low-pressures.
It'll be OK, but I wouldn't want a wider tyre on their. DT Swiss still made 20mm internal width XC rims until very recently.
You could run a 2.0"/50mm Terreno Dry on the rear to be sure? Vittoria do a gravel TnT casing version that should be tougher than the XC casing, and hence a big more stable even on a narrow rim.
fwiw, I run 2.6" on 25mm internal width atm, at under 20 psi on the rear for my 77kg weight. No squirming, although that is mostly for XC riding on a single speed.
While a wider rim has benefits in shape of tyre, lower pressure tubeless etc,. it seems that the marketing of such has got out of hand if people are now doubting the safety of 2.1 on a 19mm rim.
My MTB is the old days (1996) so I run 19mm rims with 2.1 (Mezcal tubeless) and I didn't even think about it being too narrow or somehow unsafe.