I've got mismatched wheels to go on a bike. The rear is the MT500 which is 24mm internal but the front is a RaceFace AR 40 offset which has a 40mm internal width.
I'll be running 2.35" Nobby Nic's, for now, what benefit will the wider rim give me on the front? Will changing the rear to a wider rim be a good thing too? At the moment it's an experiment
On 2.35 I can't see how you could get any benefit, and there is a chance you will diminish the tyre performance.
40mm is plus tyre sizing - so really want to be looking at a minimum of 2.6 front tyre to go on it.
Might return the wheel back to CRC then not sure that 2.6 will fit the forks
Benefits of a wider rim is that it will spread the tread and allow you to run lower pressures without the tyre rolling around on the rim. 2.35 on a 40mm rim is quite small though, I used a 2.6 on a 45mm ID rim and felt the tread was quite square, going around corners on roads especially felt a little uneasy.
I now have a 35mm ID rim with that 2.6 and it feels just right.
For a modern 2.35 tyre you'll be after a 25mm-30mm ID rim. Anything wider (or narrower) will affect how the tyre performs.
I think it depends on the tyre and what you want out of it.
Wider rims make the tyre adopt a square shape. Which means you get that cornering on rails feeling as that square edge digs in. A rounder tyre on the other hand gives you a consistent profile which some people prefer.
That depends on the tyre though. Some tread pattterns are even all over and suit a rounded porfile, some are clearly built to have big square shoulder luggs.
And if you go too wide then the tyre shape will be deformed. All the threads in the carcas don't actually want to stretch so to make the tyre a square shape the threads over the shoulders are under a lot of tension, likewise a narrow rim will leave the shoulders loose as they want to be further out than they are.
I have Duroc SD42 rims (36mm internal) with 2.5" Maxxis WT tyres. I feel my rear tyre is a little undersized for the rim. It will buckle under hard turning at speed. Putting a 2.35" tyre in the rear on that rim could end up with you being thrown off violently.
For a modern 2.35 tyre you’ll be after a 25mm-30mm ID rim. Anything wider (or narrower) will affect how the tyre performs.
For summer I run 2.0 tyres on 30mm internals on my HT - lovely ride.