Commuting - Best road tire for MTB

I need to purchase a sert of road tires for a Specialized Enduro that i am going to be using to commute.


I have seen some people suggest the Armadillo Nimbus.

What other tires should i be looking at.


Road conditions: mostly sidewalks and nice paved roads with not alot of trash. No cactisus, briars, thorns, etc....

26 x 2.20" front
26 x 1.90" rear

I can tell you right now, you wont' need those 2.2's at the very least. The 1.9's are up to you. I'd go with the 26x1" if I was going to commute though.

I use 26x1.5's and its enough for the rough roads around here. I'd not go with fat tires unless you have some really rough roads or just want a more plush ride on a fully rigid bike.

I can tell you right now, you wont' need those 2.2's at the very least. The 1.9's are up to you. I'd go with the 26x1" if I was going to commute though.



I should have been more clear. That is what is currently on my bike right now.

The Armadillo Nimbus is only avaliable in 26 x 1.5" i figure that they should fit fine on my bike.


I was also looking at the Vredestein S-Licks.

you can see them here http://www.biketiresdirect.com/slicks.htm

My only major concern with them is the 1.3" width. Is that to small for my current rims.. I don't really want to have to purchase new ones.

I use Ritchey Tom Slick on my Cannondale Killer V frame. They are fast, light and tough. I ride on some pretty crummy roads and have had no problems.

I replaced my 26x1.95s with Spec Nimbus Armadillos this spring. I have a few gravel roads I must ride on, and the 1.5s do well enough on them. They are great on pavement. I'd buy 'em again.

I've been running a set of Nimbus EX's for three years and they still look almost brand new. I'd say I'd buy them again but the things will probably outlast me.

Well i bought the Specialized Armadillo Nimbus today at my LBS (higher grounds in tallahassee) This store keeps surprising me. not only did they have them in stock but he even had a few other sutiable MTB pavement tires for me to look at to see the differences. He even had a couple Vredestein tires (no one else in town had even heard of them). On the way out he asked if i had the latest issue of Mountain Biking Magazine... no.. so he gave me one.


Ill put the tires on tonight and ride tomorrow.
I imagine i wont have to say much about them (no one seems to get a flat on these)

Geax Street Runner with kevlar and 120 psi for $20 is what I use

I can recommend the Schwalbe Marathon Slick to you. http://www.schwalbe.com/index.pl?bereich=produkte&einsatzbereich=4&produktgruppe=5&produkt=118

They come in 20 x 1.35 , 26 x 1.35 and 26 x 1.75. I ride em for 1500 Miles now and had no flat tire yet tho crossing some heaps of glas splinters. I don't know if they are available in the States.

I'm running the Kenda Kwest 'slicks' on that same page
http://www.biketiresdirect.com/slicks.htm

Purchased it for $15 each at a LBS since they recommended it over slicks that had no tread at all. This is my first experience with changing out MTB tires to thinner ones so not sure how they perform :) It hasn't rained yet either so not sure about wet traction.

Two of my LBS also recomended the Kenda Kwest 'slicks' ... over both the specialized and vredestein tires...

They said there were 10 times better. I asked if I could see at least the specialized next to the Kenda to compare and thats when i found out that they can not carry those other tires due to a contract with kendra.

Not that i have anything aganist Kenda but I think its real fishy to recomended a tire and say its better without letting the customer know that you cant even carry the tire i wanted.

My other LBS is a dealer for specialized and showed me it vs other tires. So i ended up with the armadillos.

Two of my LBS also recomended the Kenda Kwest 'slicks' ... over both the specialized and vredestein tires...

They said there were 10 times better. I asked if I could see at least the specialized next to the Kenda to compare and thats when i found out that they can not carry those other tires due to a contract with kendra.

Not that i have anything aganist Kenda but I think its real fishy to recomended a tire and say its better without letting the customer know that you cant even carry the tire i wanted.

My other LBS is a dealer for specialized and showed me it vs other tires. So i ended up with the armadillos.

Oh really? My LBS has other tires but put me on the kwest for the treads since I just switched to thinner tires and didn't want me to ride in the rain in slicks with no treads. :o

I'm running IRC Metro's (1.5") on the Fat Tired Rider at this point. Been happy with the performance, the fact I can take em up to 100 psi is a plus.

I double tubed the rear for additional flat protection.

Oh really? My LBS has other tires but put me on the kwest for the treads since I just switched to thinner tires and didn't want me to ride in the rain in slicks with no treads. :o
Then the folks at your LBS are fools.

Tread for on-road use

Bicycle tires for on-road use have no need of any sort of tread features; in fact, the best road tires are perfectly smooth, with no tread at all!

Unfortunately, most people assume that a smooth tire will be slippery, so this type of tire is difficult to sell to unsophisticated cyclists. Most tire makers cater to this by putting a very fine pattern on their tires, mainly for cosmetic and marketing reasons. If you examine a section of asphault or concrete, you'll see that the texture of the road itself is much "knobbier" than the tread features of a good quality road tire. Since the tire is flexible, even a slick tire deforms as it comes into contact with the pavement, acquiring the shape of the pavement texture, only while incontact with the road.

People ask, "But don't slick tires get slippery on wet roads, or worse yet, wet metal features such as expansion joints, paint stripes, or railroad tracks?" The answer is, yes, they do. So do tires with tread. All tires are slippery in these conditions. Tread features make no improvement in this.

image
Hydroplaning

Car and truck tires need tread, because these vehicles are prone to a very dangerous condition called "hydroplaning." This happens when driving fast in very wet conditions, which can lead to the tire riding up onto a cushion of liquid water. When this happens, there is a sudden and total lack of traction.

Cars can hydroplane because: Bicycles canNOT hydroplane because:
A car tire has a square road contact, and the leading edge of the contact is a straight line. This makes it easier for a car tire to trap water as it rolls. A bicycle tire has a curved road contact. Since a bicycle leans in corners, it needs a tire with a rounded contact area, which tends to push the water away to either side..
A car tire is quite wide, so water from the middle of the contact patch can have trouble escaping as the tire rolls over it, if there are not grooves to let it escape. A bicycle tire is narrower, so not as much water is in contact with the leading edge at once.
Car tires run at much lower pressure than bicyles. The high pressure of bicycle tires is more efficient at squeezing the water out from under.
Cars go much faster than bicycles, again leaving less time for water to escape. At high bicycle speeds, hydroplaning is just possible for car tires, but is absolutely impossible for bicycle tires.

Even with automobiles, actual hydroplaning is very rare. It is a much more real problem for aircraft landing on wet runways. The aviation industry has studied this problem very carefully, and has come up with a general guidline as to when hydroplaning is a risk. The formula used in the aviation industry is:

Speed (in knots) = 9 X the square root of the tire pressure (in psi.)
Here's a table calculated from this formula:
Tire Pressure (P.S.I.)....................Hydroplane Speed (Miles per hour)
........120........................................113
........100........................................104
.........80..........................................93
.........60..........................................80
.........40..........................................66

Then the folks at your LBS are fools.

wow, nice read. Thanks :)

I can recommend the Schwalbe Marathon Slick to you. http://www.schwalbe.com/index.pl?bereich=produkte&einsatzbereich=4&produktgruppe=5&produkt=118

They come in 20 x 1.35 , 26 x 1.35 and 26 x 1.75. I ride em for 1500 Miles now and had no flat tire yet tho crossing some heaps of glas splinters. I don't know if they are available in the States.


I have been using the Schwalbe Marathons on my old Trek 7000 for the past 3+ months and I love them. Highly recommended!

They ARE available in the US from Schwalbe:
http://www.schwalbe.com/index.pl?bereich=produkte&einsatzbereich=4&produktgruppe=29&produkt=97