Fifty Plus (50+) - Cheap bike tyre question

A real cheap bike......

$140; I needed something to ride with the kids (and to places my road bike won't go) but wasn't ready for a 'proper' MTB. In fact. it's better than I expected - simple steel frame, quill stem, Shimano mechs, SRAM shifters. The money's been saved on the fork (let's not go there) and the tyres - almost childishly knobbly and plastic.

I quite like this clunker, and (London being the bike theft capital of Europe now) it's also cheap enough to ride to work. I do really need some street slick tyres though.

The horrible tyres are marked 26x1.95 (150-559) which seems a common enough size. There are no markings on the rims.

Question from a relative newbie. Is it likely that I can fit slicks - all of which seem to thinner than the off road ones, to the rims? I know that most rims have a minimum tyre width - but how could I know? Don't incidentally suggest that I ask the vendor. Drug addled, minimum wage worker ants, there.

Oh and I want cheap - otherwise I might have been better off buying a proper bike in the first place.

Seems like the knobbies I had on my MTB were size 1.95 with maximum pressure of 50 psi. Since I enjoyed the road better than the alternative, I installed some size 1.50 road tires on the same wheels. The maximum pressure on the size 1.50 tires is 80 psi. It made a big difference. Can't comment on price as it's been a while since I made the switch. There should be tires of that size at different prices. Perhaps you could try Wally World (Asda in the U.K.?) Good luck.

Yeh, my gut reaction is that a well inflated 1.50 would be OK - but I'm just guessing...I mean, there must be minimum width below which the bead will work loose. I'd rather not find out.

Asda's interesting. A well run, popular food&household UK retail operation swallowed by Wal-Mart. Curiously, it hasn't been a very fruitful marriage, yet.. This is because the Britain is largely run by Tesco, a store chain straight out of George Orwell. They do sell tyres - Asda don't.

Thanks for the comments.

http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

Near the bottom of the page is a sizing chart.

I would guess you could go as low as 26x1.25" (559-32mm) without problem. Finding a skinnier tube will be a bit more difficult.
I put 1.50's on my 20mm wide rim and they look like they belong there! Your current tube would probably be "usable" with that size.

http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/14145-320_IRCSM5-3-Parts-73-Tires/Mountain/IRC-Smoothie-Tire.htm

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=2311&subcategory_ID=5425

Don't know about a minimum Tyre size but I run 26x1.95's normally. Have gone up to 2.1's. Have gone down to 1.0 slicks on the same rims so I don't really think that for leisure or recreational riding you will have to worry. A good cheap tyre for road use as a slick is the Schwalbe Marathons. I use 1.4's on the tandem. but tyre size on these WIDE rims will go from 2.3 down to 1.3 slicks and that is a performance bike that takes a lot of punishment.

Might want to consider the wheel you have on the bike though before going too narrow. Some of these bikes come with very wide steel rims. Trying to put a 26 x 1 tire on there might cause the tube to push the skinnier tire off the rim. The safe bet would be a 1.50 width slick, which you could maybe use the original tubes with.

Just search for sales. Some things I don't want cheap. Like tires, helmets, chamois'. Since flats ruin my ride, I'd go for the sales; when you can get a decent tire with flat protection , for not that much more. Stock up on the sales.