Are Thickslick tires a taller profile than a typical 700 x 25?
Got tight clearance at brakes aith current rubber.

That's too vague. And since you are dealing with critical clearance issues, you need precise answers.

ALL tire profiles vary depending on the rim width. In some cases the changes can be significant. Your best bet would be to find a mounted ThickSlick and measure it and the rim. Or ask that specific question here and see if anyone can answer.

+1 to SquidPuppet If your rim is more narrow than someones rim who gives you the measurements it won't stack up.

From what I've gathered, they have something of an egg-shaped profile due to the extra tread rubber:



If your current tires are a tight fit at the top, you might want to pass on ThickSlicks in the same width.

They also mount wide-- in the Thickslicks a 23 is really more like a 25, and that's before mounting. They "underspec," basically.

Edit: OP, what is the inner width of your rims?

If you have close tolerances on 25s, I would recommend you try your LBS and see if the tires will actually fit. The non-Elite Thickslicks are some of the cheaper road tires, most bike shops will have them, and a good bike shop will mount one up and not make you buy it if it doesn't clear the frame.

We have to be careful there. I have a pair of the 26 x 2.00 tires. They are without a doubt the roundest tires I have ever owned. I noticed it the moment I inflated them. They are on 32mm outside width rims but still measure under. They are exactly 48mms wide and 48mms tall. That might be different on the 700c version, but I think OP should definitely measure before buying.

Aha! Experience trumps theory.

Why bother running Thickslicks with brakes . If you have a front brake for emergencies just run a different tire up front and the Thickslick on the rear.

If their claim to have twice as much rubber as other tires is true then I'd assume it will be slightly taller. I'm picking up the "flat guard" version this weekend to test on the rear wheel of my Fuji since the GatorSkin is on it's last legs. I don't plan on being gentle with it so guess I'll see if the hype about it lasting longer is true.

Thats about what my Gatorskins look like. lol. I just switched the front to the rear for now, but plan on doing the same Flat Guards for the next round of tires. I'll be keeping an eye out for your opinion of them.

Thanks for the input. I will pass on them with this bike.

I'm not positive, but I think the air chamber is smaller so that the outside dimensions measure (close to) correctly.

That makes sense, I don't have clearance issues but I'll compare it to my front tire see if the difference is noticeable.

Yeah I'll post some feedback. There have been so many variants of this tire over the years it's hard to tell what review to go by.

Pass on them with every bike and you will be living a good life.

Good move.

I am not a fan of thickslicks.

Gaudy and loud "thickslick" branding aside, they are terrible tires.
Harsh riding and very poor quality (there's been a good number of reported instances of thread separation from the casing due to inadequate bond for the greater amount of material).

My personal opinion and those of my friends came from their nicer flat guard version too. At $20 a pop on clearance sale (gee I wonder why), I felt ripped off and similarly got flak from said friends who came to the same conclusion.


The only good "high material" skid oriented tire I have used was Soma's everwear which they source from panaracer. Likewise, Vittoria Ranndoneurs are proven.

With any tire, you're going to have to deal with reduced cornering ability due to the squaring and flatspotting from these tires from skidding wear and tear.

I heard of issues with the Everwears tread separating as well and they are quite expensive. I haven't been able to find much feedback on the Thickslick Flat Guard version that is being sold under the WTB name. Previous versions of the tire sold under Freedom seem to have mixed reviews. For the price I'll give the current version a try. But I agree, if you are not brakeless or don't really care for extra longevity there are better and lighter puncture resistant tires to run.

Never had/ heard of any issues with them on my end but I would not bet against that. Nevertheless chances of that happening are quite high on tires that have such a great amount of material vs traditional tires. It's very difficult to combine a rigid thread with a flexible casing and expect the innate rigidity of the thread to comply.

The probability of that happening is definitely more in the rider's favor with everwears than thickslicks though. They've been produced for significantly longer than thickslicks have and sourced from Panaracer by Soma who make excellent tires. Panaracer is owned by Panasonic and make tires that meet and exceed NJS certification.

You will get cracking on everwear tires though over time. This is a result of UV exposure from the sun brittling the outer layer of side-wall rubber as with any sort of tire exposed to the outdoors. This should not be confused as separation in the sense that I am implying about thickslicks.

Thickslick separation is more of a clean "peeling" along manufacturing seams.

I think what we can garner here is any tire will eventually fail or perform sub par if you continually skid on it. I've separated a pasela tread from my sweeeeeet skidz.

As I always say "If you don't skid your undies why do you skid your bike?"

uhh do you mean we don't all skid our undies?

Yup, one of the contributing factors why I ended my skidding phase. Also knees.