One day I was cycling and suddenly I realized that my tire was worn out. So, I wanted to change the tire of my regular bike. But I remembered I have a mountain bike tire in my home. Therefore, I wanted to put a mountain bike tire on a regular bike. After that, I went to a bicycle mechanic, but he advised me not to do this. And today, I will explain the experience and logic of why the bicycle mechanic told me not to put a mountain bike tire on a regular bike.
What Is A Regular Bike?
A road bike is generally known as a regular bike. The regular bike is used for commuting and touring around the town.
- It has a lightweight frame, smooth and skinny tyre, and drop handlebar.
- It is suitable for paved and unpaved. But people feel comfortable riding regular bikes on paved surfaces.
- Since it is lightweight, it can be easily carried and stored safely.
What Is Mountain Bike?
A mountain bike is a special type of bike. It is specially designed for off-road cycling.
- It has a fat and knobby tyre, flat handlebar, and low gear range which are effective in uphill and downhill cycling.
- Besides, mountain bikes are available with suspension which helps to cycle on unpaved, gravel roads, potholes, rock surfaces, and fire roads.
According to suspension, mountain bikes can be divided into different types like Hardtails, Duallies, and Rigid. As mountain bikes are designed for off-road, it is strong and lightweight. Though it is not suitable for commuting and touring, you can use it, if you want.
How Tire Plays An Important Role In Bike Riding?
The tire is the main part of a bicycle and it is also a part of the wheel. In one word, they are the same. After the invention of the wheel, a revolution took place in the world. Modern communication systems are based on wheels. Not just bikes, wheels are playing an important role in almost every aspect of life. So, it goes without saying how important a tire is in a bike. It is described through the discussion below:
- Wheel size, width, and tread make a difference in riding. By using a large tire you can go far with less paddling and it provides better handling and stability. On the contrary, small tires provide good speed, quality, and smooth riding.
Now, let’s talk about the width of the bike.
- A Wide tire provides slow riding, but it can face rock, gravel, potholes, and other obstacles. It is suitable for mountain terrain.
- On the contrary, narrow tires provide high-speed riding. The narrow tire is suitable for less effort and faster communication. It is used on unpaved and smooth surfaces.
Tire tread plays an important role in riding. Treads are suitable for slippery and muddy roads. If you use smooth tires without grooves on this road, the cycle will not move forward.
Thus, every tiny aspect of the tire plays an important role in cycling.
Are All The Bike Tires The Same?
No! All the bike tires are not the same. There are different types of bikes as different types of bikes are used for different purposes. To achieve this purpose, the tire plays a significant role.
One tire is not suitable for all conditions. Because different tire has to face different problems in different places. A mountain bike has to face some obstacles at the time of riding on mountain terrain. But a road bike, racing bike, or touring bike does not have to face the same obstacles. So, you will not get the same result by using road bike tires instead of mountain bikes.
Moreover, a road bike tire is made for smooth and unpaved roads so that it can’t face rocks, potholes, and gravel like a mountain bike tyre. Nonetheless, if you do this experiment, it will damage you and you may fall in danger.
Therefore, it is clear that different characteristics are required in different tracks and bicycles. Hope, it may be clear to you that all the bike tires are not the same. To understand this matter better, the tire sizes of different types of bikes are given below.
| Types Of Bikes | Width Of Tyre |
| Mountain bike | 2.2’’-3’’ |
| Fat bike | 3.7’’-5’’ |
| Road bike | 23mm-45mm |
| Gravel bike | 23mm-47mm |
What You Have To Consider At The Time Of Replacing One Bicycle Tire To Another?
It is not an easy thing to install another bike tire in place of one tire! In this case, other parts should be changed along with the tire. Otherwise, the bike will not perform well. So, you have to consider many parts like the fork, gear, rim, and clearance at the time of replacing the tire. Let’s discuss this matter in detail.
When you want to put a knobby tire in place of a narrow tire, first, you have to see how much clearance is there. Clearance is the distance from the wheel to other parts of the bike and narrow-tire bikes have less clearance. If we put a wide tire in that place, then the wheel will not rotate. So, you should check how much clearance there is before installing the wheel.
Besides, you must consider rim size. Rim is a circular boundary line around which the tire is placed. A narrow tire has a narrow rim, and a knobby tire has a thick rim. Fat tires cannot be placed on narrow rims, doing this may break the rim. So, you must be careful about the rim.
Furthermore, the break is consistent with the tire. A knobby tire creates extra fractions and therefore runs slowly. For this reason, extra paddling is required. The rider gets tired very quickly. So, low gear is used on knobby tire bikes. Because it helps to provide easy paddling, the rider does not get tired, and the bike moves forward.
On the contrary, narrow tires run faster using high gear, sometimes single gear too. So, if you want to replace a narrow tire with a knobby tire, then the gear must be changed along with the tire.
Can You Put A Mountain Bike Tire On A Regular Bike?
No! You can’t put a mountain bike tire on a regular bike. Because mountain bike has a knobby tire and the regular bike has narrow tire. Mountain bike tire width is 2.2″-3″ and regular bike tire width is 23 mm- 45 mm. So, a mountain bike tire is wider than a regular bike.
Besides, since the tire of a regular bike is narrow, its clearance is also less. If the clearance is low, you can’t put a mountain tyre on a regular bike. Furthermore, the rim of a regular bike is also thin. Thus wider tire will not fit on this thin rim.
Moreover, the fork and frame sizes of a regular bike are different from a mountain bike. So, it is clear that you can’t put a mountain bike tire on a regular bike. Despite this discrepancy, we see that 26″ and 27.5″ mountain bikes have thinner tires. In this situation, if your bike has enough clearance, then you can put it on a regular bike.
Is Tire Exchange Between Different Bicycle Types Good?
Of course not. Tire exchange is not good for bikes. Because each bike tire has different characteristics. So, if you put one bike’s tire on another bike it will not fit properly.
As a result, the rider will not get good performance.
If one bike’s tire fits another bike, it still won’t work well. Because the gear, rim, brake, and other parts are related to the tire. If you change these parts with the tire, it will provide better performance. But will not get smooth riding quality like the original bike. Finally, I can say that tire exchange is not good for bikes.
The Final Verdict
All the tires are not the same. If you want to put a bike tire on another bike, you must check the clearance of the bike. Regular bike clearance is too much narrow and its rim is also narrow. So, you can’t put a mountain bike tire on a regular bike.
