Originally Posted by
Doc_Wui
My wife took a spill hitting some soft ruts on a packed limestone path. Her tires are 32mm wide. Do you think she would be more stable on this stuff with wider tires? I was thinking of 2.125 (54mm). Rolling resistance is not a big issue. How wide can one go. RIms are 17mm wide outside dimension.
Or maybe she just ride a bigger wheel on this stuff. We rarely ride on crushed stone.
I recently toured New Zealand on a 18" Tyrell IVE with 1.65" tires (the widest w/o needing to remove the fenders).
Do-able, but I did take care with my speed and handling.
A lower tire pressure will help, but the tradeoff will be the risk of pinch flats.
Wider will always be better on gravel.
I noticed that on parts with loose/deep gravel, even MTB with 1.75" tires had issues and only ones that were wider or very low tire pressures handled ok.
Anyway, tires are cheap, so no harm getting 2+" ones to try out provided the rim/frame/brakes can handle it.