How much tire clearance is enough clearance

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How much tire clearance is enough clearance
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flag Andyt11
Posted: Feb 13, 2022 at 14:04 Quote
I finally took delivery of my new Farley 5. It's a medium and I'm really enjoying it.

The medium comes with a 4.5 Gnarwhal on the front and a 3.8 on the rear.

I knew that going in, and had decided already I would chuck on a 4.5 and get rid of the staggered appearance before I stud them.

Before I buy the second 4.5, I've mocked it up with the 4.5 that I have, and clearance at the chain stays goes from 20mm to 8mm. So the question for the brain trust, is would that concern anyone?

It got me thinking about my existing mountain bike and it's (now skinny) 2.1" rubber. Turns out it's only had 8mm clearance for the last decade and it's never been an issue. Can I apply the same thinking to a fatbike?
flag mark027
Posted: Feb 13, 2022 at 15:57 Quote
Hey man nice to see it came in, that’s great congrats. Did you slide the dropouts to the back when you mock measured or take that into consideration? That will change your numbers. Also a few threads down a guy talks about having a medium Farley and he put a 4.5 on it. Maybe send him a message. Comparing the Farley to the Yukon…
Sliding the dropouts will position the widest part of the tire in between the stays where it’s the biggest.
I’m sure you’ll be fine.
flag Andyt11
Posted: Feb 13, 2022 at 17:09 Quote
Yes, dropouts are all the way back. Thanks for the pointer to the other thread. I sent him a pm.
flag iamhans
O+
Posted: Feb 28, 2022 at 19:41 Quote
Andyt11 wrote:
Yes, dropouts are all the way back. Thanks for the pointer to the other thread. I sent him a pm.

What did you learn about tire clearance? I have a Carver O’Beast and with a 4.0 tire on a 65mm rim I have 21mm of clearance. I’d like to see how much float I can get next winter. Do you think I could fit a 4.5 on an 80mm rim?
flag barp
Posted: Feb 28, 2022 at 20:44 Quote
This is just a wild-ass guess, but I don't think you'll have enough room to do the wider tire and the wider rim. One or the other, maybe.
flag Klimbnbike
O+
Posted: Feb 28, 2022 at 21:54 Quote
8mm is plenty of clearance.
flag iamhans
O+
Posted: Mar 1, 2022 at 7:44 Quote
barp wrote:
This is just a wild-ass guess, but I don't think you'll have enough room to do the wider tire and the wider rim. One or the other, maybe.

Well, I don't want the wider tire with the skinny rim because I already have issues with burp flats running 4.0 on the 65mm rim. I don't want a wider rim with the same tire because I'm trying to increase float for the winter. I may be stuck.
flag iamhans
O+
Posted: Mar 1, 2022 at 7:57 Quote
Klimbnbike wrote:
8mm is plenty of clearance.

I did some measurements last night. I have 130mm between the chain stays. I have 21mm of clearance with the 4.0 Snow Balls. Those snowballs on the 65mm rim are 88mm (3.4") wide. The same tire on an 80mm rim in the front is 94mm (3.7").

Observations:
The Vee Snow Ball does not get that close to the advertized 4.0".
+15mm in rim width resulted in +6mm in tire width (about half of the rim diameter increase).

Conclusion:
If I got a tire that ran true to the stated diameter on an 80mm rim and left 8mm of clearance (which sounds tight to me), then I should have room for 4.5" tires. If I increased the clearance to 10mm, then I'd be at 4.3" tires. That sounded like a strange number, but then I found the Yippee Ki Yay (https://www.terrenetires.com/collections/yippee-ki-yay).

I guess I know what tires I'm getting for next winter.
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