Road Bike Tire Sizes

Most racers like to use tire 700 width range from 18 to 23 mm to the narrowest alternatives.

Road bike tire sizes. A tire size you might see on a road bike. These would usually be measured in inches 26 27 etc or millimeters 650 700 etc. Some older road bikes still have the 27 inch size. You see 650b that is same of today s 27 5 inch mountain bike tire and 650c that is little smaller inner diameter instead of the 560b tire and easily got into a few road bikes.

Touring bikes come in many shapes and sizes depending on the intended usage from light and fast tourers based loosely on regular road bikes to round the world heavy duty models. 23c 25c and 28c their width in mm. Conversion tables for common bicycle tire sizes. Generally bike tire sizes are indicated with two numbers that correspond roughly to the outside diameter of the tire and the width of the tire.

The letter at the end of a tire size is a throwback to an old french system when the letters a b and c designated different inner tire diameters it does not stand for cm. When it comes to choosing width there are two major factors at play. Common road bike widths in millimeters come in sizes ranging from 18 to 23 with a typical road bike tire at 700 x 23. Unusual size once used on some gt bikes.

Nowadays bike tires are typically marked according to iso standard a system originally developed by etrto european tire and rim technical organization but older english and french tire size dimensions are still used as well use the data from the following tables to determine interchangeability and convert between iso etrto english. The letter has no use today and can be ignored. 26x1 1 2 650b 27 5 some raleigh and schwinn mountain bikes french utility and touring bikes some new 27 5 mountain bikes. Road bike tires generally come in three widths.

Despite the relatively consistent size options it s important to know what different tire sizes mean in terms of performance comfort and durability. 700x25c indicates a tire with a 700mm outer diameter and a 25mm width. Tyre size typically varies from 25mm to 42mm and some heavier duty touring bikes use 26 inch mountain bike wheels with even bigger volume tyres. 25 622 is the international standardization organization iso way of identifying the 700x25c tire in the example above.

A third type of tire size might appear on either a mountain or a road tire. Old schwinn cruiser bikes. 26x1 26x1 3 4 650c. Especially any 700 tire nowadays is similar to the size of old 700c tire.

Tire and wheel sizes for road riding don t vary as much as mountain biking with a 700c wheelsize almost universal for road riding and tire sizes typically ranging from 22mm to 28mm. 650c size used for modern high performance road bikes for smaller riders and triathlon bikes. Because of the high pressure and desired low rolling resistance road tires come in narrow widths.