A quick tire question...
 

Pardon my general ignorance. Recently helped a friend move and rather than move a bike that had been gifted to him and was falling into disrepair, he offered it to me.

Anyhow, I have been poking around the internet trying to find out about tire replacements. What are on the rims now and need to be totally replaced are 43-622 (700x41c) tires. They are totally dry-rotted and just shot.

My question, I am sure I don't need these exact tires, but, what am I open to buying as their replacements? What size range?

Thanks so much for suffering this question and helping a new cyclist out!

What kind of bike is it?

Super skinny tires will have trouble mounting to wider rims, so you probably don't want 700x23.

Wider tires than 41/43 are often going to be MTB tires. There are fatter slicks but not many. The upper limit of what tire will work will be dictated by clearance in frame, brake calipers, fenders, etc.

What kind of surfaces to you plan to ride? If mostly dirt, get some knobbies. If mostly road, get some slicks.

Depends on the rims, can you tell what make and model they are? If so you can look up their specs online.

If you can't, then safest bet is to stay within a couple mm of the tires that were on there.

Does WEINMANN 2115 sound right? Does that give us something to go on?

Thanks so much for the help, fellas (or ladies)!

if youre not looking to spend much the vittoria zaffiro in 700x32 is an ok tire for the price as long as you inflate them to 100psi, even at 85-90 psi theyll feel sluggish.

My favorite at the moment is the Panaracer Gravelking (its really a slick almost, with fine file pattern) in 700x28 for a training tire, but cost 3 times as much, i think a 28mm tire is pretty much as small as you should go for a rim that recently had a 41mm installed. The rims the Gravelkings are on , had 50mm tires mounted on them before.

Youd have to take a look at the predominant type of riding you plan on doing though. I found i dont ride on dirt much, so chose a more street oriented tire for my hybrid, at the same time i studied tire weights and like tires below 450 grams, the Gravelking weighs 280 grams and the tread pattern has less resistance than the Zaffiro, the Zaffiro weighs 420 grams for the wire bead version. While you can tell a difference between the two, its not a three times as expensive type of difference.

As i get stronger i plan on putting the zaffiros back on to prevent workouts from getting too easy with less benefit.

The schwalbe lugano is also a good candidate for a budget tire, but ive never tried it. Ive tried a schwalbe kojak slick in 32mm which was suppose to be fast, but it was a very slow tire, the Zaffiro was quicker....be careful of internet marketing hype. Especially on CRC.

This. If you're just going to be riding on the street, get street tires, regardless of what are on it now. Tires made for hybrids are available in 700x32 to 700x45, and anything in that range will work (assuming there's room for the 45s). If you're new to this, I recommend going to a bike shop rather than buying off the internet, since you may or may not need new tubes and/or rim strips and the folks at the shop can tell you this. While you're there, get them to walk you through changing the tires so that you know how to do it correctly in the future.

How about starting with brand and model of bike, and maybe even a photo?

It is a Jazz Street Life by Trek, it looks like a 7 speed.

I doubt this bike is much good, but, like I said, it was free. It will have to serve to at least get me started. Indeed, this bike will be primarily used for street riding.

If you are going to do mostly casual riding on pavement, I think 35 mm tires would be what I would use for that bike, I might possibly go a bit wider, but definitely not narrower. Going narrower would only make sense (to me) if it was a drop bar road bike. That bike, based on a quick search is more comfort oriented, so it won't ever be fast, so I would focus on keeping the ride comfortable.

35mm tires came stock on the 1993 Streetlife. I'd shoot for anything from 28-38mm.

It's an excellent bike for free.

Pretty decent entry level hybrid.

For mixed use, I'm pretty fond of the WTB All Terrain. Could maybe find it cheaper at Amazon. I got mine as Take-offs at the LBS for $15 apiece.

http://www.treefortbikes.com/product...Comp-700c.html

Here is the catalog page.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=470583

Either hybrid, or flat bar road bike. Chromoly is good, but it doesn't list the tubing size, or butting.

700x35mm tires were apparently standard on the bike. You would have a choice of tires depending on your terrain.

For pavement, I might go with 700x28, or even 700x25.
Gravel, 700x32 or 700x35 with moderate tread.
Off Road... Maybe a big bigger, more tread.