Gravel/bikepacking drop bar max tire clearance

Education
1

Hey all,

I’m pulling together a gravel bike design in bikecad. Curious what people have found to be the max tire clearance in real life they manage without adding a yoke and keeping the CS at a reasonable length and not going to a 73mm bb.

Thanks

2

If you look at existing bikes utilizing the same constraints you’re working with, clearance seems to be somewhere around 50mm. Some brands that use heavily manipulated chainstays can eek a bit more out but for a home builder that may not be doable.

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3

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, thats what i saw…just wondered if is was missing something.

4

What @BigFootMetal said, with heavily manipulated stays, the limit looks to be around 50mm.
The widest I’ve seen is Fairlight’s Secan 3.0 and Faran 3.0 - both can officially take 700c x 53mm with reasonably comfortable clearance.

But those tubes have been squished so much that they’re essentially yokes - and to achieve all those tube shapes takes a lot of expensive tooling and trial & error.

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5

Thats a good shout, I hadn’t seen that bike before.

Here’s a link the technical specs and some close ups of the spacing

6

I copied the geometry of the secan for my gravel bike and 700x48mm Rene hearse oracle ridge tires on 23mm internal width rims fit just about perfect. If I recall correctly the chain stay length was 432mm, this was with a standard bsa bottom bracket and off the shelf unmodified chainstays (I can find the part number if that’s helpful!)

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