cyclocross tire for road bike?

[hirochun]

Could you recommend any cyclocross tire for my road bike?

I have Raleigh R500 with 700c rim. I'm planning to keep using my center pull brakes. So the cyclocross tire should fit 700c and between the center pull brake shoes. There is some clearance between the brakes and rim. Hope there's a cyclocross tire for it.

I thought about Michelin 700x30c. but I wasn't sure if it will fit mine. Anyone tried it.

I ride my road bike to work. The route that I use don't have dirt . So it won't have problem with dirt clogging between brakes and rims. It's just that cement and aspalt are broken here and there making small pot holes. I'm afraid that I might hurt myself and my bike going through that road one of these days. I thought cyclocross tire might save me from it.

I won't be using my bike for off road that often, so I feel that changing tire should be sufficient, instead or converting my bike to cyclocross bike or buying one.

I would appreciate any recomendation. Thanks for the wonderful forum. Hope I can participate more in the future.

-hirochun

[Michel Gagnon]

Knobby tires are noisy and have worst performance than slick tires. The only point of knobs is to allow better traction in snow, mud, loose sand (rear wheel)...

For broken asphalt and potholes, I would suggest instead that you get high-pressure slicks... as large as you could fit in your frame. For added comfort and pinch flat protection, you might get slightly a wider tire for the rear wheel. For example, my tourer uses 700x32 front and 700x37 rear.

[Rich Clark]

There's issues of brake clearance, and clearance between the stays and behind the seat tube. Measure and see how much additional room you have.

Additionally, there's the question of rim width. Some rims, particularly aero-type racing rims, have an inside width of 13mm and really can't take much more than a 25c clincher. You might be able to get a bigger tire on there, but running too big a tire on narrow rims risks sidewall damage and handling problems. You can often get a recommended range of tire sizes from the rim manufacturer.

You're right that running the fattest tires you can fit will help guard against impact damage from potholes (but not as much as avoiding the potholes will!), but it's the amount of volume in the tire and the sidewall depth and stiffness, not the presence of knobby tread, that will do the job. A 700x28c touring tire, if it will fit, would probably be a good compromise.

RichC