Just put a Rock Razor on the back of my Sherpa and clearance at the seatstays is fine but at the chainstays it's down to 2-3mm each side
Will fit something narrower for the winter but is this likely to be a problem? Don't really want to wear a hole in my chainstays
It will only wear if it touches. Ride it and find out?
a bit of wheel/frame/tyre flex and you'll be wearing a hole in your frame.
I had a lot more clearance than that in my old five and still had grooves on the inside of the swingarm.
Fit some helitape to the inside of the seatstays and see how you get on.
2-3mm isn't alot of clearance really.
As above 2-3 mm is nothing the tyre will flex that much
stones & dirt in the shoulder lugs goes through metal in no time
My very first bike, a Kona, had a few mm clearance each side. Wasn't an issue in the mud as the tyres were so bad in mud I could hardly ride anyway. A slight buckle in the wheel was enough to rub the chainstays, however that didn't affect anything anyway and the bike carried on for a fair few years.
Rule of thumb, can you get your middle finger between the tyre and CS/SS at the tightest point?
Not a chance!
Weirdly the part of the chainstays that are "dimpled" to create clearance are in the wrong place for this particular tyre - shame that - must be too voluminous
I've got various grooves in the chainstays of my M2 - for a while, I hadn't realised the QR was tight, but not that tight, and extra force on the pedals would pull the wheel out of alignment. I also tried to put large (full 2.1 Nobby Nics IIRC) in the rear and again, the extra side knobbles did for the chainstays, another groove worn..
Haven't broken the bike yet though 🙂
Wore a hole through the chainstay on my (alloy) Scandal. I'm pretty sure there was never contact between the (2.3 Smorgasbord) tyre and the frame, it was just the mud on the tyre that did it. Clearance about 2-3mm either side.
Same problem with my switchback running 2.3 DHR minions it was ok if it was dry but no good in the mud, so i ran it as a 26er and no more clearance problems, handled better as well. sold it on though and gone back to Bfe, much better bike .
I have about 5-6mm with no problems, wouldn't want any less though