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Short background

I recently found my old gravel bike and I want to get it ridable again.
I noticed that the 24" 1.95 (53-507) tires that came with it are super worn out so I want to replace them. The problem is that I can't seem to find tires with the same size being sold anywhere in my city but instead they sell 24" 1.75 tires

Question

Can I replace my 1.95 tires with 1.75 ones? Or different sizes like 1 3/8? If so does the inner tube have to be replaced as well to accommodate slightly smaller tire width?

I'm pretty new to these bike stuff so maybe just ask if I missed out some important factors

DavidW
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Chewy Cheeky
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2 Answers2

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The 1.75 tires should work. Double check to make sure they have 507 bead seat diameter (ISO sizing, which is what the 53-507 on your old tire designates) that matches your existing tires. The 1 3/8 will NOT work. That would likely have either 540 or 547 BSD (quite a bit larger diameter rim). Sheldon Brown has the best reference for tire sizes, which is where I pulled this info: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

Noah Sutherland
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Yes; they'll fit. Normally, one can say "check your rim specs, especially inner width", but for such on old bike, I doubt you'll ever find some specs for them. Between 1.75 - 1.95, there is only few mm's. I'd be more careful if that was a road bike, but since you'll not be cornering hard on speeds above 40 km/h, that'll be fine...

You normally wouldn't need to replace inner tubes, as the difference is not that much. Generally speaking, inner tubes that is in 1.75 - 1.95 region is made to be compatible between 1.50 - 2.00, sometimes up to 2.25.

But since the old tires are "too old", the inner tubes are probably worn out too, as heat & cold, UV radiation, ozone, and old age disintegrate materials in inner tubes.

Barış Atasoy
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