this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Cycling noob here - help me understand tires and wheels so I can swap mine around (self.bicycling)
submitted 1 year ago by Obsession to c/bicycling
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I recently got my first road/endurance bike, a Felt VR60. According to the specs, the wheels it came with are: Devox WheelRDS.A3, Tubeless ready, 6-hole, 12x100/12x142 mm. Default tires it came with are Vittoria Zaffira V tires.

I'm thinking of doing some light gravel riding with this bike, so was considering some 30mm tires to swap between depending on the activity I want to do. However, I have no idea what I should be looking for when it comes to buying new tires/tubes.

  1. What factors do I need to worry about when buying new tires? I assume the wheel size matters, right?

  2. Can I reuse my existing tubes, or do I need new ones?

  3. Searching for 30mm gravel tires, I mostly found tubeless options. Is there a reason for that?

  4. Anything else I should know before buying and swapping tires?

Any help is greatly appreciated here :)

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[–] Obsession 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not planning on doing very rough gravel. The trails I have in mind are all hard packed gravel and paved surfaces, but not the best quality paving.

Here's an example of what I mean

It looks like something that should be doable even on my 25 road tires, but I'd like to take this chance to also learn about different tires on my bike, and it would be a lot more comfortable on 28 gravel tires.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

how old is your bike? the bike you linked should have come with 30mm road tires. those are what you should use for hard packed roads. if your bike is a few years old and came with 25mm tires it probably can't fit 30s. my road bikes are all 5+ years old and none of them fit wider than 28mm.

you do not need gravel tires for that sort of thing. at all. i ride those roads on my 23mm road bike and it's totally fine.

'gravel biking' in 2023 means a bike with 40mm+ tires that is basically a light mountain bike.