New Specialized Allez tyre ‘clearance’: Will I die?

I guess Specialized weren’t lying when they claimed the new Allez had clearance for 28mm tyres, but I can’t help but look at that 2mm gap and think of some innocuous little pebble getting carried round and wedging, instant over-the-bars!

Am I being paranoid?

If that’s a 28mm conti,they measured 31mm on my rims. It could be that specialized tyres measure 28mm for a 28mm tyre. I also found that a 25 measured 28. But I agree with you, that does look too close

If only used under laboratory conditions it might be ok but on a standard clart and grit laden winter road that does look a bit tight.

Hmm… good point, I’ve fallen into the old trap of using the tyre manufacturer’s widths instead of the actual width haven’t I!

Actually thinking about it, alarms bells should have rung when I measured the width of the stock 25c tyres, they measured 27mm at the widest point on the stock R460 rims, so logically the 28s probably do measure up to 30mm…

Oh well, back to the 25s!

you’ll get a bit of wear if riding on ded muddy, gritty roads but IMO no way (unless you’re REALLY unlucky with a wedge shaped stone) that you’re going OTB – tyre’ll deform and let it through

Agree. I have pretty tight clearances and ride gravel roads and never once had an issue. The paint has worn off of the rear brake bridge where the grit has rubbed it though.

I had to swap 28s back to 25s on my Trek Domane because it was eating into the bridge. The gap was less than that though. Never had a problem with anything getting trapped, anything small enough to get picked up would just squash into the tyre I’d have thought.

Looks similar to what my Cannondale Supersix with 25mm tyres. I’ll always remember riding down a freshly resurfaced road and a road chip getting caught between the tyre and fork. Left some loverly gouges on the underside of the fork.

Remember that the tyre will flatten with your weight on it….

Oh well, thanks all but I bottled it and went back to the 25s, this is supposed to be the trouble free winter bike so wanted to maximise clearance where possible. Disappointingly clearance is STILL really tight with 25s once I’ve fitted guards, this isn’t turning out to be the trouble-free winter bike I’d hoped, had more mudguard clearance on my summer bike! (mainly due to the chainstay mounted brakes I guess, which are a p.i.t.a in their own special way…).

Ive got Specialized Roubaix Pro tyres on mine in 25/28mm flavour. Plenty of clearance and extra volume.

What rims and what guards are you running?

Am thinking of buying a PDW z-bracket and chopping the rear mudguard either side of the brake calliper, will allow me to raise it off the tyre a bit more and cure the rattling off the underside of the brake calliper…

Remember that the tyre will flatten with your weight on it…

🙂

The risk with running a tyre that close to the fork arch is that any stones etc.. getting pulled through will scratch the fork arches paint

Saw this on a Colnago C60 that i was upgrading from Ultegra to Dura Ace for a customer
It was so bad that the Ultegra caliper that i removed had slithers of alloy missing in line with the scratches on the fork’s arch

On my Cervelo s3 I use use 25mm wide rims which mean 25 gp2s blow up to 28 or more.
This happened to the rear Caliper on mine after riding down a newly surfaced road last summer.

I felt a bit of resistance and it didn’t lock up or anything.

I have a few scrape marks under the fork but nothing has ever jammed.

Many years ago a friend had a Peugeot road bike with ridiculous clearance for the rear tyre and was plagued by punctures. He reckoned that sharp grit that stuck the tyre was getting pushed deeper into the tyre by the tight clearance.

on and on, do you run the brake with the QR in the open position all the time?

I had a gap like that on my Kona with 25s, and whilst it went round fine it would pick up tiny stones and grind them into the bridge. So I put 23s back on.

on and on, do you run the brake with the QR in the open position all the time?

No. Just popped it open to try and get the stone out.