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I am often asked why I use knobby tires on my wheelchair. Since most manual chair users roll on a skinnier tire, my knobbies stand out. It’s a style thing, sure, but they’re not just for style points. “I spend a lot of time off the pavement, and the knobbies are easier to use on that type of terrain,” I usually answer.
Wheelchair users also sometimes ask where they can get a set, but that question requires a much more involved answer. Wheel size, chair geometry and rolling resistance are just a few things to consider when selecting tires, and the simple act of putting wider tires on your chair can have a big impact on its fit and performance.
My attempts to fully answer that question have become something bigger — a guide to everything you didn’t know you needed to know about selecting the right wheelchair tires for your life. I hope that after reading this, you will be able to better understand the nuances of the various options for wheelchair tires and make an informed decision about which setup best suits your needs.
Let me start by saying that tire size is confusing. Until recently, there were no agreed-upon standards on how to measure a tire, so we were left with a mishmash of measurement systems from different countries. Here in the U.S., we follow the imperial system, which uses inches. What is flawed with this system is that it measures the outside diameter of a tire, and the outside diameter changes based on the width of the inflated tire. That’s one of the reasons we’ve reached a nothing-makes-sense world where a 25-inch wheelchair rim fits a 26-inch mountain bike tire.
Fortunately, tire and wheel manufacturers across the world have finally gotten on the same page and use a two-number system that does a much better job of keeping your head from exploding. Both numbers are in millimeters and the first refers to the tire width — the bigger the number, the wider the tire. The second refers to the inner diameter of the tire. In this system, a 1-inch wide tire that fits a 25-inch wheelchair rim is designated a 23-559, while a 2-inch-wide tire that fits the same rim would be labeled a 54-559 (see below for a list of conversions for common wheelchair sizes).
For more information, please visit 8 inch wheelchair wheelset.
The good thing about this system is that you know the tire will fit as long as the second number matches your wheel size. But. That doesn’t mean it’s always a simple swap. Remember how I said different widths change the outer diameter of a tire? That’s important for wheelchair seating.
Simply put, a wider tire is a taller tire. These days, most manual wheelchair frames are measured and built to fit narrow tires, so if you put a wider, mountain-bike-style tire on your chair, it will raise your rear seat height.
Take a look at the side-by-side photos below where I show the same 559-rim-size wheels with both a Schwalbe Marathon Plus (25-559) and a Kenda Small Block Eight (54-559). Do you see how much taller the Marathon is on the same size rim? If you look closely, you’ll notice the center of gravity changes along with the angle that the casters meet the ground. By putting on a wider tire, I have raised my seat almost an inch — a huge change when it comes to chair setup.
Many people opt for two sets of wheels: one setup for indoors and pavement, the other for off-road wheeling. That way, you can pop the off-road wheels on if you’re going camping, on a hike or to your kid’s soccer game, without having to deal with the width and rolling resistance of off-road tires when you don’t need them (see Rim-Tire Size Hack above for more info).
It is common to use a size smaller rim with a knobby off-road tire to match the original-sized skinny tire/wheel diameter. Note that when you put on wider tires, you may have to space them farther out so they don’t rub on your side guards or clothes. Similarly, you may need to make minor brake adjustments depending on the tire/wheel combo.
For example, if you’re currently using a 559 (25-inch) wheel with a skinny tire and you want to switch to the Kobra, you need to buy a 540 (24-inch) wheel to put the Kobra on to keep the chair angles close to the same.
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