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Show HN: Web page that parses and explains the label on a bike tire
History: Last year I had to replace the tire on my bike, and I was surprised how difficult it was to find a suitable new tire. There were a lot of numbers written on the casing, so I googled what they meant. In the end I was successful, but I didn't want to do the same work again for the next bike after I've forgotten the details. So I wrote this website.
Technically, the web page is kept very simple, no frameworks, no templates, no website builder. It uses HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, and it privides a responsive layout for mobile usage.
I'm happy to receive feedback. If you have tried the label of your bike tire, and it doesn't work, please post it as well. Thanks!
- grumbly09 5y agoNice website. Where did you source your data from?
- moasda 5y agoThank you! I used the official product specification from the manufacturers.
- Simon_O_Rourke 5y agoGreat idea! I made a mess out of buying a new stem for a road bike and I can confirm that reading/guessing numbers from bikes parts is non trivial. How are you going about monetizing this? Affiliate links?
- sasawpg 5y agoI've never understood why bike manufacturers don't make it easier to look up parts by serial number. SRAM has done this right, you can search for parts based on s/n and it will give you exact specs (s/n is stamped onto the part). Their service manuals are also very well designed and free!
- moasda 5y agoThank you! Yes, there are affiliate links on the page to get some money for the hosting, but that's not the main goal of the page.
- brigandish 5y agoThe responses here validate the existence of the web page.
- ape4 5y agoThere don't appear to be any newlines. Wasn't it hard to edit by hand that way? (Unless I am missing something)
- moasda 5y agoAre you looking into the HTML code? It's minified by the deployment script. That's not the way I edit HTML files. :-)
- Grustaf 5y agoThe most useful link on HN of the year has already been posted. Those labels are baffling.
- moasda 5y agoThanks!
- habibk0322 5y ago[dead]
- sasl 5y agoThanks for this, I remember going down a rabbit hole parsing the codes on my last set of tyres trying to figure out what to replace it with (I learned there's a standard, ETRTO [1]) and I'm glad something like this now exists! Great work. Do you have plans for it beyond what's there already? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Tyre_and_Rim_Technical_Organisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Tyre_and_Rim_Technica...
- moasda 5y agoThank you! Right now, I just implemented my knowledge from my personal notes when I had to replace my tire. Maybe I'll add some more tools after I learnt something new about bikes.
- virgulino 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_5775 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_5775
- mkoryak 5y agoNit: Send me to the US version of Amazon if I'm from the US.
- moasda 5y agoGood idea, I will think about that.
- sasawpg 5y agoIf you think decoding those numbers is tough, wait until you try fitting road (700c) tubeless tires. Buying is the easy part as in theory any 700c tubeless tire will fit provided you're within the appropriate width range, which is relatively generous (provided you respect hooked/hookless). In practice it is far more complicated and the experience can be a nightmare. Sometimes the wheel/tire manufacturers don't follow standards, other times they do but results leave something to be desired. You have Uniform Standard Tubeless, Tubeless Ready, Tubeless Easy, Tubeless Compatible, hooked, hookless, yet no real guarantees the tire and wheel will be compatible. I fit Continental GP5000TL (depending on the generation and width, they are notoriously difficult to mount) to two different sets of wheels. One set of wheels gave me a hard time and it took 30-45m per tire, but they eventually went on. On the second set of wheels, one went on easy enough. The second took well over an hour and resulted in multiple blisters (and much cursing) even after using every known trick. Schwalbe Ones in comparison mounted in a minute with no struggle, and actually hold air better than the Contis which can supposedly be used without a sealant.
- stefan_ 5y agoIt is really pissing me off that "tubeless ready" wheels and "tubeless ready" tires have made it infinitely harder to just fit a tire with a good old tube inside.
- sasawpg 5y agoCan you elaborate on this? With the exception of hookless rims (which are not common yet, at least here), TL wheels will take a clincher tire and tube, and TL tires will take a tube. The potential incompatibility comes from TL tires and TL wheels, not at all related to tubes, and is because of lack of spec and manufacturing tolerances.
- notatoad 5y agonormally when fitting a tire, you put the bead on one side in the "gutter" in the center of the rim where the diameter is narrower while you lever on the bead on the second side. leaving the first bead loose and un-seated while you pop on the second bead makes it pretty easy. rims with thick rim tape designed to seal with tubeless tires have much less gutter, so it's a bit more difficult to squeeze the last bit of the tire onto the rim. they're compatible, just difficult to work with.
- mbrameld 5y agoThe first scenario in the FAQ sounds more like a pinch-flat to me. This happens when you ride up a curb or over a rock and the tire compresses, pinching the tube between the rim and the curb. Running higher tire pressures, using a product like CushCore, or as the author discovered running stiffer casings can all help reduce the incidence of pinch-flats.
- sasawpg 5y agoA pinch flat (aka snake bite) will generally have two pinholes, making it relatively easy to identify. With that said I have never had a flat on the outside of the casing without actually an obvious sidewall tear/puncture. Definitely possible, but I would say it is far less likely.
- moasda 5y agoThank you for the hint.
- sasawpg 5y agoI'd also add an important point - never replace a punctured tube without thoroughly checking the inside of your tire for sharp objects. You'll likely only make this mistake once.
- pbhjpbhj 5y agoI've never really found a good way to check - visual check can miss things, running your hand around the inside works but you're liable to get something such in your hand! Wiping a around can work. But I've not come up with anything better? Maybe a tissue, or microfibre cloth will snag more easily and avoid missing something?
- manwe150 5y agoI am often still wearing my biking gloves anyways, so I run my hand around inside, and then toss them in the wash when I get home.
- 5y ago
- aeharding 5y agoThis is really cool, thank you for sharing! It would be neat if the information and links could be localized.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- moasda 5y agoThank you! The web page is in English and German for now.
- mywacaday 5y agoGreat work and thanks for NOT making this an app. The people that creat the standard should have done this.
- moasda 5y agoThanks!
- thinkling 5y agoHuh. I thought the C in 700C indicated that the tire was a clincher as opposed to tubular but that seems to be wrong. You tool says: > Reifenhöhe C: ca. 39 mm (French designation) but it says that for 700x19C as well as for 700x40C which seems odd? The wikipedia page for Bicycle wheel [1] says: > The ISO 5775-2 standard defines designations for bicycle rims. It distinguishes between 1. Straight-side (SS) rims 2. Crochet-type (C) rims (...) and also > Road wheels may be designed for tubular or clincher tires, commonly referred to as "700C" tires. but it doesn't explain the B in 650B. Sheldon Brown [2] says (emphasis added) > A second number or letter code would indicate the *width* of the tire. (26 x 1.75, 27 x 1 1/4...650B, 700C...) The wikipedia page does mention both 650B and 650C and that the ISO diameter differs by a few mm. So if I understand right, these codes (650B and 700C) specify the full-wheel diameter (650/700) and the letter indicates how much of that diameter the tire needs to make up, i.e. a 650B rim is slightly smaller (571mm) than a 650C (584mm) and the tire needs to make up that differencxe to get to 650? [EDITED] 700C rims are ISO diameter 622mm, which matches with 2x 39mm tire width: 622 + 78 = 700mm. So I guess the intended tire height at time of standard-invention was 39mm? But in practice a 700x19C rim-tire combo will be smaller in diameter than a 700x40C so I guess they're not fully "700C" standard compliant? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_wheel#650B_gravel_bicycle_wheels_/_ISO_584_mm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_wheel#650B_gravel_bicy... [2] https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html
- moasda 5y agoWow, thank you very much for the valuable information. I will check how to improve the page accordingly.
- sasawpg 5y agoPasted description below from Sheldon's page. The A/B/C designation is even more confusing when you consider 700C wheels/tires which these days range from the uncommon 19mm to well over 40mm. In the French sizing system, tires are designated by a three-digit number, which may be followed by a letter. The number is the nominal outside diameter of the tire the rim was originally designed for. The absence of a letter indicated a narrow tire; "A", "B" and "C" indicated increasingly wider tires."A" was originally a tire about 30 mm wide, so the 650A rim is pretty large, 590 mm. If you add the top and bottom 30 mm tire thickness to 590, you wind up with the 650 mm tire diameter. The 650C size was originally intended for a quite wide tire, about 40 mm wide. Top and bottom 40 mm tire plus the 571 mm rim size again bring you to a 650 mm outside diameter, even though the rim was smaller.
- DenisM 5y agoNeeds a note re tubeless setup, esp for mountain bikes. Fewer punctures, easier to repair in the field. Tubeless-ready tires should also have a note on the sidewall.
- moasda 5y agoThank you for the hint!
- 6LLvveMx2koXfwn 5y agoValve length is important if you have deep section wheels, something missing from your tube FAQ. Most 40mm valves will not fit moderately aero wheels.
- moasda 5y agoThank you very much for the helpful hint. I will extend the FAQ accordingly.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 5y agoBeautiful website! No bullshit, high utility, zero tracking. As it should be!
- moasda 5y agoThanks!
- Matthias247 5y agoNice site! I'll also suggest an easy thing to add: You could add an explanation of folding tires vs wirebead tires. Often even tires with the same dimensions come with both formats. The difference and the benefits of each version (price vs weight and rolling resistance) are understandable for most people.
- moasda 5y agoThank you, good idea, I will add an explanation.
- Lio 5y agoFor anyone interested in tyre rolling resistance I can recommend: https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/ https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/ It’s a wealth of standardised tests of tyres and tubes, if like that sort of thing.
- wolverine876 5y agoForgive me, but apparently this is the 'post-truth' age: What makes the person and their tests credible?
- Lio 5y agoThat’s a good question! He’s published his test protocol[1] so I guess the tests could be repeated for verification. I don’t think that’s happened yet though or much other peer review either. The guy running the site launched it as a personal project in the absence of all independent test data except for manufacturer’s claims (and they all claim to be the best). It’s also worth noting that the fastest tyres in test might not necessarily be fastest in use. Eg stiffer mtb tyre might roll slower but give more support when going hard downhill. He’s pretty up front about his test being quite specific and designed for repeatability. 1. https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/the-test https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/the-test
- wolverine876 5y ago
- pieter 5y agoWhat I would love is something that can give alternative tube sizes. My bike uses 22x3 tubes, which are unusual and hard to come by. However, there have been reports of 20x4 bike tubes or 18x3 motorcycle tubes also fitting. A website that recommends more widely available or cheaper “this will also fit” tubes would be amazing.
- moasda 5y agoYou are right, my tube page also doesn't list a fitting tube for that size right now.
- PascLeRasc 5y agoWhat are those numbers in reference to? And what size tire do you have? Tubes can stretch to around 3x the size of a tire. A lot of enduro riders carry a 26" tube for their 29er to save some hip pack space.
- stazz1 5y agoyou're a very kind person to create such a tool. is there a way to make it work offline so one could use it without an internet connection? just a thought -- it seems like it'd be a useful standalone program.
- moasda 5y agoThank you for your feedback! Permanent offline use could be achieved through a mobile app, I will think about it.
- ada1981 5y agoMake this use the camera so You can just use a photo of the tire :) Rad!
- moasda 5y agoThank you for the hint!
- pharmakom 5y agoI wish ETRTO was more common terminology for consumers. It tells you most of what you need to know with very little ambiguity. It would also be great if tyre widths were in MM across the entire size range. Even in Europe, mountain bike tyres are sized in inches!
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoThank you for that. Really. Is there a way to decide which tube to use, having the measurements of the frame? (the round metal part on which the tyre goes on sorry if this is not the correct expression, I am no a native speaker of English)).
- moasda 5y agoThank you! If you know the diameter of the rim (the round metal part in your description), e.g. 600 mm, and you can assume a tire width, e.g. 40 mm, then you can search for "40-600" and find some tubes: https://fahrrad-tools.de/tube.html?text=40-600 https://fahrrad-tools.de/tube.html?text=40-600
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoThanks. This is especially the "assume a tire width" that is a problem - are there hard rules for which width is possible for X (X being something I measure)
- moasda 5y agoI wonder why you focus on the tube first? Wouldn't it be easier to choose a tire for your rim first? Then you can also easily find the right tube.
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoAh la la - sorry. I meant which tire of course. My problem is that I have a rim that is there for good, and then I would like to see which tires are possible for that given rim (there are several choices of width and I do not understand what drives the minimal and maximal width - I can imagine the the brakes are a limiting factor for the maximum width, but maybe this maximum is smaller because [some measurement of something]). Then comes the tube, thus the OP's useful page.
- deweywsu 5y ago
- pzumk 5y agoNice, well done. I'll bookmark that one! Let us know how much you make with those Amazon ref links while being HN's #1
- moasda 5y agoThank you! So far, I haven't even earned a coffee, but it would be great if I could compensate the hosting costs in the long run. :-)
- mauvehaus 5y agoThis is handy, but the good news is that if you're dealing with anything made in the last 30-40 years, it's all but guaranteed to have the ETRTO measurements marked on it somewhere. Practically speaking there are two rim diameters you'll likely come across on all but old, "unusual" or high end bikes: 559mm: the ubiquitous "26 inch" mountain bike tire. Has largely fallen out of favor on high end mountain bikes, but there are zillions of bikes with 559mm wheels and frames sized for them out there. On high end mountain bikes, largely displaced by 29" or 27.5" setups. 622mm: "700c" road rims or "29 inch" mountain bike rims. Nearly universal on modern road bikes. If you have something else on a new road bike, you probably already know it. Other sizes you might find in the wild: 630mm: The largely obsolete "27 inch" road rims. uncommon on new bikes, but you'll still find plenty of them on older bikes. Not even the slightest bit interchangeable with 622mm. Usually, you can't even switch to 622mm rims on frame built for 630mm because the brakes won't reach 4mm closer to the axle. Easily mistaken for 622mm if you aren't paying attention. 584mm is the "27.5 inch" mountain bike standard that splits the difference between 26" and 29". If you have this, you probably know already. Once you've got the rim diameter right, the tire width is pretty straightforward: if it looks right, it is right. It'll be pretty obvious that a "29 inch" mountain bike tire doesn't go on a road rim, even if the diameter on both is 622mm. If you have needs under which that doesn't apply, you're probably already aware of them. You can put hooked tires on straight sided rims safely (I have), but likely not the other way even if you could find dedicated straight sided tires. Tubulars are a while 'nother animal, about which I know nothing :-) ETRTO made it much, much simpler to get the rim size right when all of the various standards had different names to different people.
- moasda 5y agoThanks a lot for the insights!
- mauvehaus 5y agoThanks for putting this together! There are probably another half dozen vastly less common sizes that you might encounter in reality (e.g. kids' bikes, adult BMX, folding bikes, jogging strollers and bike trailers). I can see this being a huge help if you have one of those and you're trying to find a tire in a pinch. I have a Brompton and a BOB trailer. I have no idea what size tires they take. The BOB must be a common size for a kid's bike because I blew a tire and had to replace it from Walmart while touring. Being able to type in the size and know wtf I need would be a huge help if you're calling around and the shop can't see the tire in question.
- sirodoht 5y agoI've also found http://biketiresize.com/ http://biketiresize.com/ to be useful.
- junon 5y agoTIL that has nothing to do with pressure. Huh.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- yawnxyz 5y agoThis is really great!! Definitely something that would have helped me back in the day before I realized how complicated / annoying getting proper tires was. I won't need it for my own bike anymore, but definitely when I get a new (used) one next.
- moasda 5y agoThank you :-)
- melissalobos 5y agoThanks for sharing, this looks really useful. I have started biking again recently and the labels on the tire are super confusing. Do you have any plans to extend this(attempt OCR or something)? I tried looking at the source a bit and it seems like your markup is pretty clean, if a bit unreadable after minification. I liked the classes "question" and "answer". It looks like you are planning on using affiliate links to monetize it?
- moasda 5y agoThank you for the feedback. OCR is a great idea, for me it seems to be quite difficult to implement and probably requires a mobile app. The affiliate links are just a side effect to pay for the hosting.
- _p9qq 5y agoYou could possibly do it server side. I would personally implement it as a Flask server that took an image, ran it through either Pytesseract (quick, got to manually preprocess, needs tesseract installed) or Easyocr (slower but works out the box) then send back the if and only if it was a valid tire-info-string to avoid people abusing it for other purposes.
- moasda 5y agoWow, thank you, I will check that.
- phkx 5y agoThere is a barcode scanner on https://schnelltesttest.de/ https://schnelltesttest.de/ Their source code is here: https://github.com/zerforschung/schnelltesttest.de https://github.com/zerforschung/schnelltesttest.de
- moasda 5y agoThanks for the tip, I will look into it.
- hprotagonist 5y agohttps://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html has (i think all?) of the edge cases you're going to encounter in any bike made after about 1925.
- schwartzworld 5y agoSemi-tangential, I took my fixie to Harris Cyclery for a tuneup before it closed. Boy, was I floored when the guy working at the counter told me that fixies weren't cool anymore. Sheldon was a big part of my journey to riding fixed gear. I learned everything I know about bikes from his site and he even answered questions personally by email. I'm pretty sure when the guy said fixies weren't cool, I heard Sheldon spin in his grave a little.
- sasawpg 5y agoDon’t worry, fixies are still cool among a select bunch of people. I’ve never cared for them, but plenty still do. There is also a budding fixie racing community outside of the track (including crit and CX), which is simply terrifying to me.
- jamil7 5y agoYeah the hipsters ride ill-fitting vintage steel racers now, some of the girls look so uncomfortable straining forward to reach the brake leaver. Fixed gear has gone back to being for a few enthusiasts and messengers and other bike weirdos like me. I’ve ridden one as a daily for years and years due to how awesome the virtually zero upkeep is, plus I personally find them safer, especially in winter.
- moasda 5y agoThanks, this link definitely helps to cross-check if I got the mapping right.
- hansvm 5y agoFor anyone else stumbling across this, sheldonbrown.com has a wealth of high-quality information about bicycles, and it's rare that I don't look there first.
- nicbou 5y agoThis is the sort of websites we need more of. It's simple, fast and useful, and not monetized at the users' expense.
- moasda 5y agoThank you :-)
- csours 5y agoI tried to buy bike inner tubes on Amazon and I just could not do it. I would do a search, go to a product page, and the thing I wanted simply was not on that product page. I wound up going to a local bike shop and was in and out in less time than I had spent trying to find them online.
- nicbou 5y agoAmazon's search is completely useless if you're looking for specific things. It simply ignores what you typed and throws random sponsored products at you.
- analog31 5y agoYeah, tubes are complicated by the fact that one tube size fits more than one tire size, plus there are two different kinds of valve stems, and some contemporary wheels need extra long stems. One favor you can do yourself is to start patching your tubes if you're not already doing so.
- convolvatron 5y agois there a trick? when I first started riding I got a bunch of patch kits. I'm doing this in the shop so I have plenty of time to clean the area, rough it up. clamps to make sure the patch is firmly set, etc. after about..10 tries? I just gave up. I am religiously for wringing the last bit of functionality out of something before burying it...but it just wasn't worth it.
- chedabob 5y agoAre you using self-adhesive patches or something that uses a tube of glue? I never got on with anything other than Rema's patches.
- analog31 5y agoIndeed, the answer is Rema. There may be some other brands that are as good, but Rema forms an actual chemical bond between the patch and the rubber of the tire. The vulcanizing fluid prepares the surface of the tube so it will bond to the patch. Better living through chemistry. Everything else, check. Roughing up the patch area, waiting a few minutes for the vulcanizing fluid to dry, squeezing the patch for a few seconds after applying. I've never had a problem with the little sandpaper that comes with the kit.
- Freak_NL 5y agoHeh. Even in bicycle-rich countries like Germany and the Netherlands, these numbers are somehow still tricky. I guess it doesn't help that they are often hard to read and a lot of the numbers are actually redundant. So yeah, useful! And my compliments for the neatness in your data privacy approach. At one point I just took the old tyre into a bicycle repair shop and asked for the proper replacement, and the person who sold me one even managed to get the wrong one (they replaced it for the proper one afterwards of course). It used to be that most normal use bicycles all had the same tyre, and only racing bikes had those weird French style ones, but newer bicycles tend to have fatter tyres (which is not a bad development for sturdy day-to-day bicycles laden with groceries, an adult cyclist, and a child in front or behind the cyclist).
- moasda 5y agoThanks!
- jackconsidine 5y agoGreat work. I've replaced several tires and every time it's the same ambiguous lookups followed by crossed fingers as I install the thing. I'm sure I'll use this page in the future
- moasda 5y agoThanks!
- taeric 5y agoI like putting 700x32 tires on my bike. Haven't issue attention to the other numbers. Are they mostly redundant? Guessing for a casual rider they don't have much of an impact?
- moasda 5y agoThe ETRTO numbers are the most useful ones. If you just look on them, you're good to go.
- wiredfool 5y agoYeah, that 28" number is goofy. In Mountain bike terms, it's a 29er. For road usage, it's 700c. But the rest of the world, at least those who measure in mm, use 622.
- moasda 5y agoYes, the outer diameter is a bit more complicated. From this point of view, some bikes can use different tire sizes.
- usr1106 5y agoThat's what I learned around 1984 from reading a book. 10 years before internet was a thing :) Have ignored all other numbers since then. Have not had any worse problem than some clerk might have given me a strange look when I bought tires referring to ETRTO numbers.
- analog31 5y agoYou're probably OK as 700x32 is a fairly common designation. The ETRTO for that tire is 32-622.
- 323 5y agoA somewhat important factor is if the tire is slick/smooth, knobby or in-between. For casual riding you probably want something in the middle so that it's fine on most surfaces.
- analog31 5y agoVery nice. As a long time cyclist with a fondness for bikes thrown together from odd parts, finding suitable tires that are affordable is always an issue. I've learned that the ETRTO number is the only thing I need to know. Virtually all modern tires provide that number. There have only been some rare cases such as a 1963 Schwinn repack cruiser, where I needed to do a bit of research to match its oddball tire size. Then the Sheldon Brown website came to my aid.
- moasda 5y agoThanks!
- tpmx 5y agoIs there something like this for car tires?
- jawmes9 5y agoKind of similar: https://tiresize.com/calculator/ https://tiresize.com/calculator/ I've used it for buying my truck's tires in the past.