Wheel sizing and ACTUAL wheel width questions

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illMATTic

illMATTic

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Ok so I have been searching for a while and only come up with the same canned answers.

What are the actual widths of these wheel sizes? AND is there a standard? OR do the acutal widths very?

26x2.125 =

26x1.75 =


Thanks,
 
Wheel sizing is typically based on the tire size intended to go on that wheel - it does not usually reflect the actual dimensions of the rim itself. This is really the opposite of how car wheels/tires are sized, and it confused the heck out of me when I first got into it - especially when compounded by trying to comprehend the many different rim diameters that are considered 26". Rim widths do vary, even for a given designated tire size. For example, take a look at Velocity's rim catalog. They're nice enough to publish the width and height of each of their rims.

You can often get away with deviating from the indicated tire size by a bit - a narrower rim will make the tire taller and a wider one will make it wider. Also, Sheldon Brown wrote an article on matching tire widths to rim widths, but I think that his advice was overly conservative by today's standards. MTB guys are a good example, they often run very wide tires on quite narrow rims.
 
Thanks this is the info I have been finding.

You only see wheels listed as 2.125 or 1.75. I know these are not the actual widths.

Lets starts from here. What is the actual width of a S2 wheel?
 
I'm getting 1.610" on my chrome S-2s.
Most of my balloon drop centers are 1.5".
I measured one set of middle weight drop centers at 1.35".
It seems to me that the manufacting tolerances were pretty loose. From one rim to the next can be + or - .020".
 
Thanks man. This is what Im looking for.

I wish all rims / wheels were listed with actual width. I am finding that the widths are all over the place even though they are listed in the two sizes. :mrgreen:
 
I think the 2.125 or 1.750 measurement doesn't refer to the rim itself. That should be the widest part of the tire after it's been inflated.
I usually don't worry about the width of the rim too much. It's not an issue unless you're trying to put a really fat tire on a skinny rim or a skinny tire on a really wide rim.
As long as the bead seats, it's all good.
 
You're right, its the width of the tire. The tubes are also measured in tire size.
 

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