[ebbett]

just got my first cross bike and was wondering what tires people recommend for fire roads. I'd describe it as gravelly and loose dirt. I plan on riding from my house to the trails so the tire needs to work well on roads too. Not much mud where I ride (San Francisco/Marin area). Thanks!

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[arctic hawk]

I personally like the Ritchey SpeedMax, Bontrager CX Jones, & the Maxxiss Mimo Larsen (not in any particular order) as I have used them all.

[borasam]

Michelin CycloSport Pro!

[Thor29]

WTB Cross Wolf sticks like glue to the fire roads in the Marin Headlands. I was also impressed with the traction when my mountain bike was temporarily out of commission and I went down to Skegg's Point and rode the single track with a bunch of mountain bikers.

[rmwun54]

+1 for the Cross Wolf.

[travis200]

+2 for the Cross Wolf's ran them all CX season and still look new

[legalize_it]

this season i raced on ritchey excavaders. kind of like a more aggressive speedmax. i definately feel that these tires gave me the edge in certain conditions like wet grass, or loose stuff, and mud, but are a tad slower on paved sections. also, they corner extremely well in grass, but so do the speedmax.

[SteelCommuter]

just got my first cross bike and was wondering what tires people recommend for fire roads. I'd describe it as gravelly and loose dirt. I plan on riding from my house to the trails so the tire needs to work well on roads too. Not much mud where I ride (San Francisco/Marin area). Thanks!

You've described the kind of terrain I rode for years in Southern California, and I think for fire roads a wider touring or commuting tire is plenty enough. One of my bikes has very round and very smooth Avocets on them, and I ride them on fire trails everyday as fast as I can, and they actually hold their own in mud, thin snow, frozen soil, and of course the road. I experimented with knobbies for that kind of riding, swapped tires to test, and I'd argue that knobbies are appropriate for more aggressive trails. 32-37 mm Avocets, Panaracer Paselas, Vittoria Randonneurs, and some of the Schwalbe tires really excel at this mix. The trick is to run them at a relatively low pressure compared to road-only tires, and they grip well.

Once the trails become much more rocky, with steep fast declines and tight corners, I prefer knobbies.

Hope this helps.

[Pigtire]

Conti Twister Pros. If it's still available in the now defunct Supergo, on sale for 12-15.00 bucks. I grabbed half a dozen.

[legalize_it]

check out the club roost cross terra. connected center line, and nice corner knobs.

[Grampy™]

My favorite for that type of surface is Ritchey Speedmax Cross 700X32. You can usually find them pretty cheap too.