Minimum Rim Width for All Mountain Wheels?

D93 · Mar 25, 2012

I'm looking for a new set of wheels for my All Mountain bike to replace my DT Swiss M1900. What's the minimum width I should be looking for. Checking with the various manufactures, it seems that most of the All Mountain rims are 25mm or greater width. I always thought 25mm was more of XC Trail, but then again my experience is limited. Is the ArchEX substantial enough for all mountain use?

Also, Does width have a negative affect on climbing ability? I don't enjoy climbing and I am hoping not to pay a huge penalty for going to wide rims.

Stumpjumpy · Mar 25, 2012

There is no min. Wider is generally better, except you will generally pay a weight penalty for the added width.

A lot of it comes down to personal preference and the type of riding you do. If its mostly XC then I would place a higher priority on weight than width.

If you want to run 2.35 or wider tires than wider rims are a must.

It really depends on what you want to do with the bike and your style of riding.

wilsonblur · Mar 25, 2012

D93 said:
I'm looking for a new set of wheels for my All Mountain bike to replace my DT Swiss M1900. What's the minimum width I should be looking for. Checking with the various manufactures, it seems that most of the All Mountain rims are 25mm or greater width. I always thought 25mm was more of XC Trail, but then again my experience is limited. Is the ArchEX substantial enough for all mountain use?

Also, Does width have a negative affect on climbing ability? I don't enjoy climbing and I am hoping not to pay a huge penalty for going to wide rims.

Are you measuring the outer or inner width? From what I understand the inner width is what's important. Narrower rims with inner width's of 17-19 mm's cause 2.3 and above tires to roll and squirm. I would say like the other poster if you are running 2.3 or above 21mm's are a minimum and would prefer a wider rim than that. I was running Mavic 717's with 2.4's and weight became much less of a priority than tire stability and traction quickly.

There was a great article on Pinkbike about inner rim width that I can't find at the moment but it was really helpful on this subject showing why you need a wider rim for wider tires.

Tech Tuesday ? Wider Rims Are Better and Why Tubeless Tires Burp Air - Pinkbike.com

slimat99 · Mar 25, 2012

Internal width and tire size are what you need to pay attention to. External width ins't as important.

Generally speaking you want 21mm internal for 2.3 to 2.5 tires. 23mm is really best for 2.5 IMO, but I'm currently running 2.5's with 21mm rims.

wilsonblur · Mar 25, 2012

slimat99 said:
Internal width and tire size are what you need to pay attention to. External width ins't as important.

Generally speaking you want 21mm internal for 2.3 to 2.5 tires. 23mm is really best for 2.5 IMO, but I'm currently running 2.5's with 21mm rims.

Exactly :thumbsup:

wilsonblur · Mar 25, 2012

One Pivot · Mar 25, 2012

My front rim is 28mm, so Id imagine its 22-23 inside.. I ran it with a 2.1 nev for a while and it was great.. rode much better than on a narrower rim. The 2.3 on there now (honestly not that much bigger than the 2.1 nev) is also fine. It replaced a 19mm xm719, and all tires feel better on the bigger rim.

Id just go wider, period. Theres a lot of mid weight (under 500g) wide rims these days.

fatcat · Mar 25, 2012

I have a pretty cheap rim on one of my rear wheels (alex dm24) and its wider than hell 31.5mm
(outside) so the inside must be wide, the tires are a 2.4 so theres a lot of traction, but yes, climbing is a chore. But the false sense of security is great! Blasting down rocky stuff and doing speeds on fireroads(when theres no hikers around). This rim is cheap $27

Not to hijack this thread, but I will, does anyone know of a wide rim for a 29er other than a Sun MTX33? thanks

mint355 · Mar 26, 2012

I have the Ztr flow rims with 2.4 a continental mountain king tire

pastajet · Mar 26, 2012

I think the Stan Flow rims have about the perfect width to me, 28mm external, 22.6mm internal. The ArchEX are 21mm internal, right on the narrow side of things, not quite AM, but will work. All Mountain usually works better with wider tires, 2.35-2.5", and as noted by others the 28+mm (od)/22-23mm (id) rims work the best.

Stumpjumpy · Mar 26, 2012

All of the above info is spot on. I will say this, however. Hands down by far the biggest Impact mod on my bike was the swap to a light wheelset and ultralight tubeless tires (2.25 Rocket Rons on Mavic SLR's). Lost about 950g in rotational weight. Huge!:thumbsup:

This is an XC set-up, obviously - but I gladly accept the 17mm rim width and slightly narrower tire for the extreme rotational weigtht loss. The difference is night/day in terms of climbing/accelerating.

lew242 · Mar 27, 2012

To me it depends on the tire and rim. Sometimes you can get away with a massive tire on a narrow rim with no flex at all, other times you have a bit of flex even with a wider rim and a narrow tire. I would say that for most riding 23mm internal 28mm external is ideal, wide enough for anything, although if I was doing FR/DH I'd be inclined to go as high as 30mm internal.

Minimum Rim Width for All Mountain Wheels?

D93

Stumpjumpy

wilsonblur

slimat99

wilsonblur

wilsonblur

One Pivot

fatcat

mint355

pastajet

Stumpjumpy

lew242

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