reno327

My question is about BELL brand tires and tubes.......are these products good for us uber clydes to use? I noticed that some of the tires had the option of Kevlar also......please give me your input. I'm looking at the mountain tire and maybe the slick tire for my mountain bike.

bautieri

I wouldn't worry too much about the tubes, the tires shold be ok so long as they can be inflated around 70-80 psi. I wouldn't imagine them to be any better or worse than other inexpensive brands, just have a patch kit and frame pump with ya

ctwxlvr

For most riders tubes are tubes (size and valve type), and tires can be slick, knobby, treaded, or hybrid. the main thing you need to look at for tires is max pressure, and width, wider tires require less pressure to support weight, narrow tires require higher pressure to support the same weight.

For mountain biking and being a Clyde I would look for a 2" or a 2.125" tire that inflates to at least 60# prefer 70# to 80# (many snake bites at lower pressures DAMHIKT) .

as far as Kevlar it is a good addition but always carry a Flat kit consisting of multi tool, tire levers, patches (and glue if needed for patch), tube, and boot material.

ochizon

hey, does it matter if you overinflate at tube past the max rating of the tire? My hybrid tire states a max of 70 psi, but my weight still makes it squish a bunch, and I would like to bring it up to about 90 psi or so, at least in the rear.

Alathea

*IANAL* Most tires can go 1.5 to 2 x's their bead listed pressure, but per their legal they put the conservative PSI. I have Continental Contacts, 1.75 on my mtb and they say a max of 58 and I run them regularly at almost 70.

Tom Stormcrowe

Bell Tires are made by Chin Ho, which also makes Kenda. The only real issue I've seen with Bell is their 24" tires seem to have a loose bead. Their 27" tires are nearly the quality of Continentals or Vittorios. Their 26" are equal quality to Kenda.

Alathea

Ill have to remember that. The local WM carries Bell tires in a 26" commuter type...

arleban

What is boot material?

ctwxlvr

it is any thin strong flat item that can be placed between the tube and tire in case of a hole or small cut type of puncture where the Tube will pop out of. it can be plastic, foil, US paper money... it is a temporary fix till you get home or to a place where you can get a new tire.

LarDasse74

I wouldn't... a lot of tires will blow off the rim if you go much above their rated pressure. Get tires with a higher rated pressure instead and be happy. My touring bike has 700 X 32c tires and I inflate them to the max of 85 lbs and they feel pretty good under my 260 lb carcass. Tires are available in all sorts of widths and pressure ranges.

Bill Kapaun

Bell are Cheng Shin.
I've used them when "resurrecting" my first bike.
They seem to be a good value FOR THE MONEY, but there are better tires out there.
I used their 26x1.75" "Bike Path" tire. It was a non aggressive tread, usable for pavement and hard packed dirt. For $8 at my local mart, I couldn't complain. They got me riding with a limited budget.
I've since gone to 26x1.50" Serfas Drifters @ $20 ea. I wish I had them first. Lighter and easier rolling.

Wogster

Most limits these days are lawyer limits, the engineers say, this tire is good to about 100PSI, the lawyers say make it 50, marketing then negotiates with the lawyers and they end up with 70. The problem for the rider is, you honestly don't know how close the rating is to the engineering limit. I would not go over 10PSI above the rated pressure. All tires squish down a little, if they didn't then there would be no advantage to the pneumatic tire over a solid one.

The issue comes down to the contact patch, say you have a tire, with a contact patch roughly an inch square, and a rider that puts 100lbs of force on that tire, you have 100lbs per square inch, if the tire contains 70lbs per square inch the tire will squish down, to make the contact patch larger until it equals the pressure (70PSI). There are two solutions, one is a tire that can accommodate a higher pressure, or a wider tire, that has a larger contact patch. There is more to it then this, the stiffness of the tire sidewalls is also a factor.....

Now if you had an old bike with straight sided rims, then you had to be careful with air pressure, as too much could blow a tire off the rim, modern rims have shaped sides, so that the tire bead fits into the side of the rim, this makes high pressure blow offs, much less common, and combined with light weight Kevlar beads, has pretty much signed the death certificate for tubular (sewn up) tires for road use, although they are still common for track (velodrome) use.

if you look at a racing bike, the tires are pretty narrow, typically 25mm or narrower, these tires have a very small contact patch, and are designed for very high pressures, typically 110PSI or higher. Touring bikes designed for a 180lb rider, and 50lbs of gear, will typically take a 35mm or wider tire, at about 85-100PSI. One thing to remember, the softer the tire, the more comfortable the ride, a rock hard tire on an AL framed bike, on a rough road, and your likely to feel like your doing your distance on a jack hammer.....

Tom Stormcrowe

Gah, that's what I meant.......Cheng Shin. A bit of a cranial flatulation there.

LarDasse74

Continental tires used to have the reputation of being able to hold 2 X their rated pressure... the most I ever did was 160 psi on a 700 X 23 tire - and most of the bolts on my bike rattled loose on the way home. Many other tires I would not try this at all - someone above said 10psi above rated and that sounds fair... I don't think the guage on my cheap pump is accurate to within 10psi anyway.