Tire width
 

Hi I own a Giant Talon 29er XXL. Previously i rode in forest but now in town. Is it possible to get narrower tires. Changed to slick tires same width but to Wide and slow. Is it possible to get more like reglar tire width. New bike not possible. Please help on how to do it.

29er is a marketing name for some ETRTO/ISO 622mm (aka "700C") rims. In principle, any 622mm bead seat tire will mount on the rim. Narrow tires are not necessarily faster than wide tires; rolling resistance is more a function of sidewall construction than width. Fortunately, there is a wide selection of high performance 622mm tires to choose from, if you're willing to spend enough $$$.

N.B. there's no free lunch. Lower rolling resistance comes at the price of durability and puncture resistance. You makes yer choice and you pays yer money.

Pretty much what was previously mentioned.

There might be a label on your rim that tells you the ISO formerly ETRTO size of the rim. It should look like the very small print on this rim
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/j2...-no?authuser=0

The 622 x 20. Sometimes you see it written the other way 20 x 622. Maybe that's when the tire and rim mfr aren't quite going by ISO standards.

Anyhow, the 20 is the internal width of the rim in millimeters. Once you know that you can look at the recommended tire widths for what you might want to put on them. They sometimes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and some might consider them conservative and go outside that recommendation.

Here is a chart from Continental Bike Tire with their idea of proper rim to tire sizing.

https://blobs.continental-tires.com/...re-04-data.jpg

As for getting more speed out of your tire, play around with the tire pressures. A little higher or lower might help. Some only believe what a chart or online calculator tell them. But I'll ride the same pressure for 12 rides, then change to a different pressure and do another 12 rides and based on what my data shows and my legs feel, I'll zero in on the ideal pressure for me on the road surface conditions I encounter.

However if you ride for longer than 60 minutes and you are going up a lot of hills or a lot of stop and go, then you might just be wearing yourself out with a frame that might weigh almost twice what a decent road bike might weigh.

Narrower is not necessarily faster as noted by JDT. A tire with supple casing, smooth tread, and at the proper pressure is the key. Too-high pressure results in increased suspension losses (vibrations transmitted to the rider). For every combination of tire and rider, there is an optimum pressure that combines lowered hysteresis losses (casing and tread flexing) and lowered suspension losses. For tires in the 28 mm width range, that pressure is around 6-7 bar (80-90 psi). For wider tires (with similar casing and tread) the optimum pressure declines. Bicycle Quarterly has done extensive research on this and explains it well: https://www.renehersecycles.com/tire...re-calculator/

how wide are your new slicks? what size are they? the sidewall should have numbers you can see

as an example, my used mountain bike, also a "29er", came from the previous owner w/ 40mm tires & I went wider w/ 2.25" tires. I can probably put 35mm tires on it if I wanted to, but I have other bikes

my bike had these
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...27baadb17b.jpg

now my bike has these
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...35891fe3d9.jpg