Following from another thread earlier this evening, rum widths.

On my current HT I probably can get much bigger than a real 2.35 in the rear although I could get 2.5 in the Pike at the front I reckon.

Right now, that bike has a set of Flow EX’s (25.5mm ID).  I’ve got a nice set of i35’s left over from a Plus bike and I’ve got a set of 29mm rims and most of the necessary for building them.  I’m trying to cut down so looking at only having one wheelset for this bike.  I’d assumed it would end up being the i35’s as moar = better (!) but after thinking again about this after the earlier thread, I’m wondering if they might be too wide for tyres like Breakouts, Shorty 2.3, Vigilante 2.3, High Roller 2.4 etc?

Worst Gainsbourg song ever.

Use the i29 rims.

I have some i35s with 2.8″ Maxxis & I wouldn’t want to put a narrower tyre on them. Go with the 29s

I tried non plus rims, but I really wasn’t impressed.

I tried non plus rims, but I really wasn’t impressed.

I cant believe I didn’t see that coming…

Overall, that’s the answer I was expecting although I’d hoped to be avoiding a build.

What’s generally the starting point for the 35’s then, 2.8?

If the wheels are built, give them a try at 35mm.

One of the Pinkbike writers did some b2b tests on various rim widths with schwalbe 2.35in tyres and 35mm came out quicker than 30mm or 25mm.

That’s not definitive obvs, but worth a go.

The i35’s aren’t handy but they should be tomorrow.  I’ve actually just offered a ruler across the seat stays of my Soul275 and I’ll be interested to see what the currently fitted WTB 2.8’s look like in there.  I know they’re an actual 68mm and it looks like there should be width to spare.  Of course there may not be height, and I seem to remember 27.5×2.8 is tight on a regular non boost Pike, too.  If the 2.8’s won’t fit (tbh, I’m really not expecting them to, but the Mk1 Solaris wasn’t officially ‘Plus’ either, so you never know…) then I’ll fit a Breakout and Vigilante and see how they look.  Obviously they’ll fit, the question is what the tread is going to look like.

If it’s a total no-show then I’ll look at going back to the i29’s.  Hubs will be a bit of a PITA though as I don’t ideally want to destroy either of the existing wheelsets  because they’re nice builds and it would be a shame (silly! I know.) but I’m going to need a new front hub and an XD driver and 10x135TB adapter for my 350 rear which plus spokes is rapidly stacking up…

I accidentally ordered 35mm rims on the 29HT and run them with 2.35 tyres front and back. They feel good and roll , grip and corner well.

I seem to remember 27.5×2.8 is tight on a regular non boost Pike, too.

Bit tight on a 29er Pike so I’m surprised it goes in a 27in one at all.

I’ve run 2.2 and (far more often) 2.35 Maxxis mainly ikons but also ardent,  2.5 minions and a 3” chronicle on a pair of LB 35mm rims.

Strava data tells me over 25,000km on those wheels. Maxxis seem to size up big and the 2.35 are spot on. I thought they were ok but not quite wide enough for the 3” tyre. It was quite lightbulb shaped on there.

edit to add that a 2.35 on those rims seemed to me to hit a sweet spot. Really quite a lot of volume but with out the weight penalty of full plus’s sized wheels/tyres.

With the ikons I rode a lot of ultra distance stuff and covered ~10,000kn off road a year.

It’s over a year since I offered the plus wheel set at a non plus bike which was a Mega TR with the same Pikes that are on my Soul now.  From what I remember, they mounted and turned but I wouldn’t have ridden them as it was close enough that a piece of pea gravel could have caused a wheel jam.  I might be remembering incorrectly.  I’m not really interested in running plus on the Soul, I don’t think it would benefit from it most of the year but I’m interested to see how close they are!

Bigwill, good to hear the positive vote.  Can’t wait to see if this actually works! 😀

Okay, so an i35 wearing a 2.8 Trailblazer does actually fit the tail of a Mk4 Soul, and there does look to be enough clearance to ride it!  Little close at the chainstay but finger wide at the seatstay.

I am surprised.

I didn’t actually want plus on this but it’s nice to know it’s an option.  I’ll get the Vigilante and Breakout on later and see how they look.  I think I’ve found my new wheels though!