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i have a planet x spitfire with sram force 2 x 11 groupset inc caliper brakes that i love.
i changed tires early last year from the panaracer jack brown 25.5mm to continental gatorskinz 28mm and as you can guess have to deflate the tire if i want to remove the wheel from calipers now (not the end of the world i must add as i do love the bigger tire) but is there a brake thet will let us run tire up to say 32mm if possible without having any clearance issues at all (and that would be compatible with my force 2x11 levers).
thanks in advance 🙂
This may be me being captain obvious but you are flipping the lever on the right side of the caliper to move the brake block away from the rim to give more clearance aren't you?
ha yes i am flipping the lever, unfortunately there isn't enough clearance even then to remove the wheel without deflating tire.
This seems like the perfect excuse for a shiny new bike
Short answer, no. the max you can get into any racing bike frame is 28mm as the limiting factor is the brake caliper. Any larger and you need long drop calipers (i.e. the non-series shimano offerings) and a frame to suit them.
Long answer, someone somewhere will have managed it with some niche brake in a frame with slightly out of tolerance brake mounts I'm sure. E.g. those fouriers forged brakes are slightly bigger and will squeeze around a 29-30mm tyre (avoid the CNC version, it has a different and inferior leverage curve and nowhere near as powerful). It's tight though and I'd not spend all that money just for another mm (that may not even work depending on your frames tolerances).
This may be me being captain obvious but you are flipping the lever on the right side of the caliper to move the brake block away from the rim to give more clearance aren’t you?
I've got 25c Schwlabe's that measure 27mm on the rim, and they need a bit of a hammer to get them in even though I run my brakes very loose to get the bike point down to the bars. It can depend to an extent on the rim as well, wide rims make it easier as most people then set the pads even wider. So 28's on a narrow rim could be a struggle.
Specialized used to make "roubaix" versions of it's tyres that were 27 tall and 25 wide IIRC, but what you want is probably the opposite, with some persuasion most 27 and some 28's will fit vertically, but it'd be nice to get some wider options.
How close is it to coming out through the relaxed calliper? Do you have to deflate a lot or a little?
If a little, could you perhaps fit an inline adjuster set at max tension when the brake is ready to use and then back it off fully when you want to remove the wheel?
I have managed to resolve this previously by flipping the brake caliper release and winding-in the cable adjuster a couple of turns, but when you using a 18mm rim with a 28mm tyre you’re probably getting beyond the design limits of a short reach caliper brake.
thanks for the replies 🙂
i will leave it then as i can live with the current 28mm and having to deflate it (i have to delate tire fully to release it from caliper). not the end of the world.
If you used a wider rim you would have to set the brakes up with the pads wider apart, so the brake quick release would then open the pads wide enough to drop the wheel out easily - but that means new wheels.
Otherwise, Cane Creek eeBrakes would also sort it, but $$$ (sorry, £££).
Something to look out for: I have a Pinarello with Campag Record brakes. I tried a GP4000 28 (they come up a bit tall) which just about fitted when I span the wheel. However, when the brake was applied the caliper fouled the top of the tyre. A bit too risky for my liking.
SRAM Rival or Force calipers might give enough clearance. I've got 28mm ProOne tyres on one of my bikes and there is (just) enough clearance. TRP do long-drop calipers which I have on my Equilibrium running 28mm GP4000 tyres. Both are on wider rims (Kinlin TL-23 IIRC)
Newer Shimano callipers offer more clearance than older generations but still fit standard frames (longer drop callipers require different fork/frame drilling).
I've gone from 25mm (measuring 27mm) on my old Rose with older generation Ultegra Callipers, to 28mm (measuring 29mm) on my new frameset, using latest generation Ultegra.
Haven't checked tyre clearance when dropping wheels out right enough as I'm building it up in dribs and drabs (a terrible project to start mid-summer as now the only road bike I have is my winter bike).
I'm also on ultegra calipers, no problems with 28mm tyres.
Ultegra caliper a couple of years old. Masses of room on a 28.