Commuting - Need commuting tires for interesting terrain

I commute on a Trek ZX 6500 with Bontrager 26x1.95 tires. I know; they're pretty big with some serious drag. However, they work well for two reasons.

1) My commute to work is roughly one mile, so the drag isn't that big of a deal.

2) While not part of my daily commute, there are two areas that I ride bi-weekly with terrain that does not lend itself to traditional commuting tires. First, there is a quasi-dirt and gravel road full of glass, metal, and other flat-inducing objects that I ride through occasionally. I ride that way because it's a short cut with absolutely zero traffic. Second, another massive short cut links one part of my town to another via an abandoned/condemned road. The "road" is more like a wide, rough trail.

Thoughts?

For a one mile commute, as you mentioned, you can pretty much commute on anything - tire size and rolling resistance hardly matter.

Whenever your current tires wear out I would be tempted to replace them with 1.5" Schwalbe Marathon's simply because of their reputation for lasting *forever* and their puncture resistance. And with such a short commute and a bigger tire, their lesser rolling resistance and ride quality wouldn't be much of an issue.

Or you could definitely stick with 1.95" tires. These are all just random thoughts - unless you have an issue with having flats, what you have now for a 1 mile commute sure sounds fine.

Get a MTB tire that has a continuous line in the centre tread. Like these: http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302693791&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442618124

The centre continuous tread design will give you minimum rolling resistant (at high psi) while the aggressive thread will provide traction on those interesting trails. They are good on sand too.

I commute on a Trek ZX 6500 with Bontrager 26x1.95 tires. I know; they're pretty big with some serious drag. However, they work well for two reasons.

1) My commute to work is roughly one mile, so the drag isn't that big of a deal.

2) While not part of my daily commute, there are two areas that I ride bi-weekly with terrain that does not lend itself to traditional commuting tires. First, there is a quasi-dirt and gravel road full of glass, metal, and other flat-inducing objects that I ride through occasionally. I ride that way because it's a short cut with absolutely zero traffic. Second, another massive short cut links one part of my town to another via an abandoned/condemned road. The "road" is more like a wide, rough trail.

Thoughts?

What's the question? Tires are good to have.

I had the same Bontranger tires on my Trek 800 MTB. I switched them for some Geax 26x1.6 streetrunner tires. I haven't really noticed a huge difference so far. In fairness, I haven't really gone on any long rides to see if there would be a noticeable difference in performance. But for short rides I didn't notice much of a difference in speed and resistance.

If you looking for a knobby agressive tire with good rolling resistence, then try somePanaracer Fire XC, they come in 1.8 or 2.1 widths. It's a good offroad tire and it's not bad on pavement if you pump it up to around 60 psi, these tires have much less rolling resistence then other knobby tires.

I'd use some 1.75" Schwalbe Marathon Plus for that route. I used them on a 15mi r/t commute and they weren't bad for rolling resistance on the good sections. I could also take them over the worst sections of thorns, large gravel, etc. and not worry about a flat.

Currently I ride 700 x 28 Gatorskins, and I've ridden them over all kinds of dirt/gravel/crushed stone paths and they're fine. No intentional routes full of metal and glass shards, though.

[QUOTE=CliftonGK1;9724446]I'd use some 1.75" Schwalbe Marathon Plus for that route. I used them on a 15mi r/t commute and they weren't bad for rolling resistance on the good sections. I could also take them over the worst sections of thorns, large gravel, etc. and not worry about a flat.


I echo this suggestion - but would suggest regular Schwalbe Marathon in the 47x599 [1.75x26] size.
Have used that size on the rear of my recumbent - ride on a lot of dirt and gravel roads they seem
to be a good balance features plus wear well. Have about 3000 km on my current set, still going strong.
Before i got the 47 mm size, I had the 40 mm - they were faster on good pavement; but not as sure footed on gravel and other crappy roads.

thin slicks, riding those off road does wonders for your bike handling and line-finding abilities.