What's the impact of width of wheels on crosswinds

[ullmanz]

Hi all,

Is there a benefit to wider wheels on crosswinds / wind gusts?
Would it provide more stability?
I am currently contemplating if I should go for 19mm/26mm wheels vs 21/28 vs 24/30 (inner/outer) width wheels.
I'm riding 25 or 28mm tires, so 19 would be sufficient in theory.
What would be the benefits of the wider wheel?

[toxin]

general rule of thumb is wider wheels are more stable in crosswinds. For rim profile a more U shaped rim is also likely to be more stable than a more V shaped one. The drawback being that wider and U shaped rims are slower, but you can also mount wider tires on a wider rim, if that's your thing.

[HBike]

Hi all,

Is there a benefit to wider wheels on crosswinds / wind gusts?
Would it provide more stability?
I am currently contemplating if I should go for 19mm/26mm wheels vs 21/28 vs 24/30 (inner/outer) width wheels.
I'm riding 25 or 28mm tires, so 19 would be sufficient in theory.
What would be the benefits of the wider wheel?

Some ideas to effect of tire width increase, can be translated to other rim/tire combinations. In addition
a graph showing easurements of CdA vs. Tire width/Weel rim width. Should give a good idea of data when appropriately normalized.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... mbinations

[ullmanz]

I don't see them mentioning the different inner and outer rim widths though

[Wildh]

Trying to find this info as well. Basically the exact same question as you. I have 26/19.5 rims and curios what the difference would be from a25 to a 28 tire.

[StevieB]

I don't see them mentioning the different inner and outer rim widths though

They list Gravon 420's as the wheel (they're from Swiss Side), so that's 24/32mm. As such, even the smallest of those listed gravel tires will be wider than the rim when mounted, so no surprise they got consistently worse aerodynamically with increases in width. For comparison, I'm running LB WR50's that are 25/32mm with 28mm S-TR's that measure right at 31mm when inflated and worn in. If you look at what Spesh/Roval and Reserve are doing, the fronts are going wider and shallower than the rears, with more blunted shapes that get wider as you move up from the tire bead before tapering back down to a rounded shape at the spoke holes. I'm thinking that it ends up with the rear cross section of the front wheel, with the tire trailing, more closely matches the front with the tire leading, so you don't get the big differences in side pressure that cause steering moments. Plus, with a shallower rim up front than at the back, whatever side pressure you do get is not greater up front than at the back, so the front feels relatively stable for a given combo depth.