I have alex ace-18 rims on my kona, and i currently have 26x2.1 tires on it. I am wondering what the largest size of tire i could get is???
Widest? The 26 is the size of the tire and you can't change that. The 2.1 width you can go wider on. There are tires made by a company called Surly that go really wide (I think 4 or more) but they require a special frame and rim to accomodate them. There are tires for downhilling that range from 2.5 up to 3 that fit a standard mtb rim. If your bike is a standard XC frame, you'll most likely be able to fit up to 2.3 in the rear seat stays. One note. different manufacturers may have the same size listed, but they'll fit differently.
Maximum tire width depends on 2 things: 1. Frame clearance 2. Internal rim width First check the width of your frame and fork to see what tire width they can handle. Second, be realistic. These rims will not handle the Surly Endomorph 3.7 tires for the Pugsly. They pretty much fit just the Pugsly. Largest I'd recommend after checking frame width is 2.25. Anything larger is generally a down-hill tire.
