rim and tire widths influence riding performance

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rim and tire widths influence riding performance

In order to understand the development we have to look back at the mountain bike history. Mountain bikes where developed due to customer needs, when a group of people wanted to ride their bikes off-road. Since road bikes with 28” wheels were absolutely unsuited for this task city bikes with smaller wheel sizes and with thicker tires were used. These bikes were the kick off to develop mountain bikes and the 26” wheel size was never questioned.To get more news about Mountain Wheels, you can visit zpebicycle.com official website.

Wheels with a smaller size are more stable, correct? Yes, that was an issue at the beginning of mountain biking. Until a couple of years ago material development wasn’t that advanced and it wasn’t possible to build functional and firm wheels for mountain bikes with bigger sizes. But this has changed. From a technical point of view for most customers a bigger wheel size is the better product. How so? Bigger wheels rol better. That is simple physics. Furthermore they are firmer, don’t get nervy that fast and due to the bigger foot print do have a better grip. This knowledge lead to the 29” wheel size, which basically is a 28” wheel with wider tires and bigger outer diameter. The rim size already existed. As a complement there are 27.5” wheels. 26” are being used nowadays on kid bikes only. What criteria should I consider when choosing the wheel size?

That depends a lot on individual needs. Unless you are a very small person I would recommend a bigger wheel sizes to the mountain bike beginner. A smaller wheel size would make more sense to the ambitious mountain biker who prefer an agile driving style since the smaller wheel size is more playful.Yes, it can make sense. Therefor you can find bikes with 27.5+” on the market. These are nothing else than 27.5” wheels with wider rims and wider tires. Normal mountain bike tires do have an average width between 2.1” and 2.3” inches. The outer diameter changes very little. This is different with 27.5+” wheels, which can be mounted with tire widths of 2.8” or 3.0”. In this terms a 3.0” tire on a 27.5+” rim has the same outer diameter as a 2.1” tire on a 29” rim.

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