26" Rims

Looking for 26″ Rims for your 90’s mountain bike? We got you covered. We have a huge range of 26inch rims in our warehouse, for rim & disc brake.

We know it can be hard to find 36H rims these days, but don’t worry, we’ve still got them!

Whether you will be restoring an old vintage bike, or simply replacing worn rims, we have the solution.

If you are considering an upgrade of your rims, we definitely recommend ‘MSW’ which is a Machined Sidewall rim. A machined sidewall is a better gripping surface for your bike’s brakes. This makes your rim brake bike safer to ride in the wet. You’ll find this isn’t exactly a new invention, but not every rim out there will have machined sidewalls.

If upgrading is your intention then you will be looking out for D/W or double wall rims. This means that the rim surface that your inner tube is touching, is separate from the exposed rim. Double wall rims are stronger than single wall rims. And this is why they are almost a common standard now. The double wall of the rim gives it strength against forces acting on the rim from the side, ie when turning.

If you need help finding the right rim, get in touch with us friendly folks at Abbotsford Cycles & we can help!

When it comes to building wheels you’re going to roll around to the rim choice quite a bit. Because your choice here determines the strength of your build, and the kind of tyres you’ll be able to run.

Another factor in your choice will be the join type, whether there are eyelets for distributing the weight & the hole count.

But let’s not make things too complicated too soon – let’s start with the basics of wheels here.

Choosing a rim – the width

When it comes to rim’s the internal width is a major factor. The internal width is where your tyre bead will sit, and the width determines the size of tyre you can run on it.

You will find rims from 17mm to 40mm width in our warehouse. This accounts for skinny road tyres (think 25c-32c) up to mountain bike & fat bike tyres (anything from 2.1″ to 4.0″).

So if you are running 35c tyres on your commuter bike, you will need something like a 17mm internal width rim. If you run 2.5″ tyres on your mountain bike then 32mm internal width rim is for you.

Choosing the rim – the height

But the width isn’t the only thing to think about with rims. It’s also the rim depth (or how ‘tall’ the rim is). Deeper, taller rims are more aerodynamic but they are also stiffer & stronger. Being a larger profile rim there is more material to resist the torsional forces enacted on the wheel.

So you will find a deeper rim (often called “deep dish”) is a more expensive rim, and a higher quality too. If you want to upgrade your road bike wheelset you would generally choose a deep dish rim.

Choosing a rim – the spoke count

Spoke counts on wheels have reached a pretty ‘standard’ number at 32. So it’s very likely you will be looking at a 32 spoke wheel on any modern bicycle.

But different numbers of spokes still exist – because they determine how strong the wheel is. More spokes makes for a stronger, stiffer wheel as there are more points of stability. Your 36h rim is stronger than a 32h.

For this reason if you have an electric bike wheel or a downhill bike wheel or a cargo bike wheel you are likely to have more spokes. These wheels are doing more work under load, and need to be stronger for this.

We would always recommend choosing a higher spoke count wheel if you are loading the wheel up with a lot of weight. Or are creating a lot of weight with a lot of downward or lateral forces like enduro or downhill riding.