how narrow of a tire can I put on my Kona Jake wheels?

[knucklesandwich]

I am in the very early stages of succumbing to the N+1 equation, possibly getting a San Jose or building some other such singlespeed cx-type bike. If I do so, I am thinking about 'quickening up' my current Kona Jake a bit, albeit cheaply. It currently has knobby Nokian 35mm tires on Sun MZ-14 rims, and I am wondering how narrow of a tire I can put on those rims? Would 28's be ok? I'd like to go with something like 28 (or 30mm, max,) for the time being if possible.
Thanks.

[Psydotek]

I think the minimum width tire is usually however wide the rim is at the braking surface.

[thatguy]

Are you riding on the road in the offseason? You can use any road or 'cross tire. It will work fine.

[3dw]

I have a Jake with the same sun rims. Right now I have a set of 28 Bontrager Race Light Hardcases on it. There not the fastest wheel, but no flats.

On a side note... have you had any issues w/ your rear wheel? I went through 5 broken spokes and constantly out of true, than finally the rim started cracking at the eyelets. I finally took it back to the LBS and Kona set me up w/ a new rim and payed the labor to have it re-laced to the old hub w/ dt spokes. WAY TO GO KONA!!! Definitely not my last Kona bike!

[knucklesandwich]

I have a Jake with the same sun rims. Right now I have a set of 28 Bontrager Race Light Hardcases on it. There not the fastest wheel, but no flats.

On a side note... have you had any issues w/ your rear wheel? I went through 5 broken spokes and constantly out of true, than finally the rim started cracking at the eyelets. I finally took it back to the LBS and Kona set me up w/ a new rim and payed the labor to have it re-laced to the old hub w/ dt spokes. WAY TO GO KONA!!! Definitely not my last Kona bike!

I'm thinking 28s might be a happy medium for my daily commute and getting some speed on weekend rides.

Have had no issues with my wheels, or anything else for that matter. I've had the bike since last June and have put over 1,300 miles on it. Tires are in good shape, replaced the brake pads once (I guess they wore down fast b/c they're OEM and I ride in the wet often which grabs grit and grinds it in.) I keep my rims well cleaned, so hopefully the next set will last a little longer, esp as we head out of winter.

[251]

I have some Hutchinson 28 mm road tires on my Salsa Delgado Cross rims. While I am not familiar with the rim dimensions on the JTS wheelset, the Salsa rims are very wide. I think 25 mm tires would be as narrow as I would go with my rims.

[nowheels]

I'm running some conti ultrasports 700/28's on some salsa delgado rims.....no issues. but I would not go with anything less than than. I tried mounting 25's but it did not look like enough room to me.

[AkAk2000]

I ride 28mm Serfas tires on my 2006JTS, and they are great. I think you can easily go down to 25mm without a problem.

3dw(?), you might have gotten rotten spokes in your rear wheel. My JTS came with rotten spokes. They must have been made of bad SS, because they actually started rusting at approx. 3 cm. intervals along their lengths. Ended up blowing 5-6 spokes on the front wheel, before I finally rebuilt my wheels with fresh spokes.

The front fork dropouts were also not aligned.

Quality control on the Kona, in my experience, has been far from exceptional.

[3dw]

I couldn't see any corosion on the spokes, they'd just snap at he elbow every time. The bike only has about 1600 miles on it. I did ride it pretty hard, but it's a cross bike right?

I'm glad I got a handbuilt wheel out if the deal, it should be much stronger.

[cachehiker]

I'm thinking 28s might be a happy medium for my daily commute and getting some speed on weekend rides.

The MZ14's are the same width as my Open Pros give or take a half mm. You could run tires all the way down to 700x20's if you felt like riding some kind of Frankenbike. I commute on my Soma with an ultralight rear rack on 700x25 Michelin Carbons. They run pretty big for 25's and weigh in under 300g. I'm always riding short sections of dirt and through the occasional vacant lot on them too with no prob. I've considered going to some 700x28 Zaffiro Pros when they wear out but it will be a while longer.