A tire went bad on my road bike, and the best tire I have is a little too big, it rubs on the frame and in the brake housing. After a lot of fiddling, I got it to kind of work, but it’s loud and annoying. In this situation, is there anything you can do to get to fit besides having it not fully in the dropouts? Maybe file away a bit of the frame

Time for a New Tire.

Before people start ripping into me, yes I know the proper thing is to get a tire that fits. I plan on doing so. This thread is about paths you can take to MAKE it work. naively, I bet the people that made gravel bikes ran into this problem a ton

Depending on the bike, there may be more clearance at the front or the rear. Put the bigger tire where there is more clearance.

Another thing to check is to make sure the tire is seated properly on the rim. If part of it isn’t fully seated on the bead, the tire may wobble as it rotates and that could cause a tire that might otherwise just barely fit to rub in that one place.

Otto

Do not let a tire rub on your frame. It will trash the tire and it's not good for the frame neither. Seeing if the tire will fit in the front without rubbing is a good suggestion.

This would be better posted in bicycle mechanics btw.

What size tire are you running and what should you be using? It's really not a hard question and you can find tires fairly cheap that would fit.

Maybe a couple of zip ties and some goop...

Tire flatted 4 or 5 miles after I made this thread, walking home, someone’s coming to pick me up. Was a 38 semi knobby. Probably just rubbed until it failed

I was going to tell you that, but I guess you figured it out. I had threads in a sidewall on a Kenda tire break causing a slight bulge in the side of the tire. I tried to make it home by running it low on air so it wouldn't rub so bad, still didn't get very far haha.

And I was going to suggest slathering the tire with Crisco. Too late and too tragic

No, they just bought tires that fit.

So you used the bike with a severely rubbing tire? Nothing I can suggest.

Angle grinder. Either grind away at the part of the frame that's rubbing, or grind away some of the tyre knobs that are rubbing. Your choice.

omfg........

Sedation, straitjacket, lobotomy, euthanasia...

Are you kidding? Because of a wrong tire size?

I think you should modify the frame to fit. A hammer, blow torch and angle grinder would fit your style here.

Get a tire that fits is the only proper answer

pretty bad idea to file the frame to make tire fit, and if it rubs you can get a hole in the frame pretty fast

being frugal is great, until is just dumb

Run it at a lower pressure.

Isn't it nice how most problems somehow resolve themselves, eventually?

Larry…you never fail to humor me. Keep up the good work.

He can just keep on riding those wide knobbies. Might take a few tires but eventually the chainstays will wear in exactly the right places and he will have the clearance he needs. And if Larry is a light, smooth rider that is kind to bikes he might get a year or years out of the frame before the chainstays snap. (I've broken several chainstays on steel bikes very close to there. Not a big deal. Don't know what it is like when it happens on a carbon bike.

Find a monorail and ride the rims... Final answer...

A classic Larry thread. "I have all the wrong stuff, but want to make it work. Give me some ideas." It is funny, in a way.

Its not like I would have done it differently if I could go back in time, the bike got me to where I was going faster than walking would until the tire failed. Its just the back tire, not dangerous when it fails. The plan with the rubbing tire was "I'm going to ride this until it pops then throw it away."

I was thinking along the lines of bolting a couple "bolt on dropout extenders" to the dropouts, an inch would buy a lot of room. If someone is envisioning what im saying and is bored and wants to draw the part that would be cool.