The widest rims you have ever seen?

[focomat 1c]

A few years ago I was restoring a 1986 Ridgeback that was fitted with Ascenti rims laced to Shimano MN-72 (XT) hubs
The rims were seriously corroded around the eyelets and were scrapped. I obtained some Rigida safetyline rims
from Germany for the re-build.

My recollection of MTB design progress during the 80's is that wheel rims got seriously wide at some stage, and then
reduced to the now current norm of about 25mm ± 2mm

Looking around my 'collection' I have the following dates/sizes :

1985 Raleigh Maverick ....................... Araya 28mm
1986 Ridgeback ................................. Ascenti 32mm (replaced with Rigida 30mm)
1986 Aventura ................................... Champion 22mm ( 650B rim)
1989 Muddy Fox ................................ Araya 26mm


Sheldon Brown, on rim widths : ' Pretty much any 26" (559) tyre will work on any 26" rim - but it is best to avoid
very narrow tyres on very wide rims or vice versa '

I wonder why it was considered desirable to make such wide rims (though they look good, and in keeping with
the 'go anywhere' image of the early MTB scene)

I would be interested to hear about any wider rims that were available, with dates in order to establish a timeline

 

[The History Man]

I have some 1.5 inch rims here. Araya I think that's about 39mm in new money.

 

[shogun700]

They actually started wider and then went narrower. Coming from steel, I'm assuming it took a bit of time for people then to trust the durability of aluminum rims. One of the first true MTB rims was the Ukai 26 x 2.125", I believe they were introduced in 1978 or '79. Here is Gary Fisher holding a couple:

You may want to search MOMBAT, they have a pretty good timeline of component introductions, might save you the trouble of compiling it all yourself.