Afternoon,

I’ve got some 650b Hope Tech Enduro wheels which are 28mm external and 23mm internal. I currently run a 2.3 Maxxis DHRii on the rear and a 2.35 Magic Mary on the front.

I quite fancy a Shorty for the front but the 2.3 Shorty looks much more narrow the the Mary I have on there just now. I know Maxxis don’t advise it but is anyone sucsessfully running the 2.5 WT Shorty on 28mm rims?

Ran that combo, no issues. Its all marketing bollocks.

2.5 shorty had much bigger knobs than a 2.3, more similar in size to the mary you have.

I beg to differ. It will work but it won’t work well if it’s a 2.5wt on 23 internal.

If you keep that rim, I’d just stick with a magic mary, it’s an awesome tyre.

Conclusive! Anyone else?

I reckon. 2.5wt maxxis would be prone to tyre roll on a Tech Enduro rim. You’ll not die* but it won’t be the best combo.

*all views are subjective opinion and not legally binding professional advice.

The Shorty 2.5 is the same size as the Magic Mary 2.35

Maxxis created the WT tyres because their older designs didn’t work well on very wide rims, becoming too squared off. Plenty of racers are running narrower rims, 25mm is still common in WC DH and the EWS – and WT tyres work well on narrower rims. I’ve used the WT Shorty, DHF and DHR2 on 25.5mm Stans rims.

I beg to differ. It will work but it won’t work well if it’s a 2.5wt on 23 internal.

If you keep that rim, I’d just stick with a magic mary, it’s an awesome tyre.

Danny Hart won on a 25mm rim at the weekend with 2.5 high rollers, us mere mortals arn’t going to notice a 2.5mm difference.

I prefer my 26mm Arches to the 30mm roval carbons on my enduro, Rovals were harsh and didn’t like the way the bike rode. But thats digressing.

A slight digression, and perhaps stating the bleeding obvious, but tyre pressure has a massive bearing on the feel of a wheelset.

I say this because the last bike I had came with 30mm wide rims which was the widest I’d had on a bike. I spent quite a few rides massively unimpressed with the ride quality until I experimented with much lower pressures, finally finding a sweet spot in the low 20’s.

Whilst the WT tyres will work on narrower rims, as has been said above, its the profile that won’t be ideal. I’d also argue that a lot of the benefit from the wider rim / tyre combo comes from the fact you can run lower pressures. Putting a wider tyre on a narrower rim will require a higher pressure which then negates some of the benefit of said wider tyre.

I think that’s when the argument comes in that says it may be better to just stick to a 2.3″ (ish) tyre on something with 25mm or less rim width.

Having said all of that though, I did used to have some Hope Tech Enduro and they happily ran a 2.35″ Magic Mary. They’re also bloody strong so at least if you did run lower pressures they will stand up to abuse better than some rims would.

I use a tech enduro wheelset, fitted with surly knard 3.0 tyres.
It’s absolutely fine, with the caveat that you need to use a suitable tyre pressure for the intended load, otherwise they will feel horrible.
Tyre roll will certainly be an issue, if they are too soft.

Danny Hart won on a 25mm rim at the weekend with 2.5 high rollers, us mere mortals arn’t going to notice a 2.5mm difference.

I don’t know about snowshoe, but at the worlds he used 2.4wt , not 2.5wt front and rear on ex471, which is 25mm internal. Without being too pedantic, that is not 2.5wt on 23mm, as the OP asked. It’s just my opinon, i don’t think it’ll be optimal, unless you use higher pressures, which kind of negates the point.  Pro’s chasing world titles and EWS podiums are not you and I.

Up to you OP, some people won’t mind it, some will 🙂