General Cycling Discussion - Can I put Mountain bike tires on a Hybrid?

I recently started cycling again after a long absence. I bought a cool old Raleigh mountain bike at a garage sale, but after I spent a lot of money fixing it up, finally figured out it was too small for me. I traded that bike in for a bigger, like-new 1996 Gary Fisher Nirvana hybrid, but after riding it for the first time today I am totally bummed - the hybrid tires really aggravated my TBI (traumatic brain injury - i had two concussions in 2007.) I didn't have any problem with the Raleigh's tires, or with my wife's' older Trek mountain bike. My questions are: Can I switch the hybrid tires I have for Mountain bike tires? How expensive would that be? And should that solve the problem of creating a smoother ride that doesn't jostle me around as much.

Short answer: yes you can, but it'll be hugely expensive and probably not worth it. Hybrids use a different size tire & wheel than a mountain bike.

You're probably better off getting a mountain bike with fat tires. If you're doing mostly road riding, put smooth tread tires on it, which will be faster than knobby tires.

Piece of cake. The nirvana has 26" wheels. Don't go too wide though if fork or chainstay clearance looks tight. You can probably go 1.95" I'd guess.

If your hybrid was 700c, there are gobs of 700c knobbies available these days thanks to the whole 29er thang. If you've really narrow rims you might want to stick to cyclocross choices, however.

Woah, lotta questions here.


How expensive would that be?
$30-120 or so depending on how fancy you wanna be.


And should that solve the problem of creating a smoother ride that doesn't jostle me around as much.

A smoother ride than 1.5" tires, wow! Have you tried just running lower pressure in them?

There are Michelin Country Rocks in 1.75" that go for $22.

Schwalbe Big Apples come in 2.35" if your frame/fork have the room - they cost $35 each.

If you need a smoothe cushy ride but still efficient, Big Apples are ideal. I run the 26x2.0" size but they come in 700c (622) size as well.

Depending on your frame clearance, you can go to a wide knobby 700C tire. Most hybrids will accept a 38 or 40 C tire with no problems but there are wider choices out there if your frame and fork has the room to accept them.

Thanks so much for the suggestions everyone! This is my first post here, and i am really impressed with the collective knowledge you all have. I definitely have a lot to learn about biking, and this seems like a really great place get up to speed. All the specs are still a bit confusing to me, but the Big Apple tires sound like something I might want to look into more.
In case it might help, here is the tire and rim info listed for this model from BikePedia:

RimsMatrix Lobo, 32-hole Tires26 x 1.50" Tioga City Slicker Spoke BrandUnion stainless steel, 1.8mm straight gauge