Hybrid Bicycles - help deciding on a tires

im currently riding on stock 700x40 but i want to get a set of 700x28 for when im street riding. ive narrowed it down to the panaracer ribmos and the serfas seca survivors, based on reviews, looks and price. has anyone tried these tires out and can give me some feedback? which is the better tire? thanks

Vittoria Randonneur 28c.

It's the best of the moderately priced midsize tires.

I just finally got a flat today on 700x28 Vittoria Zaffiros after a little over 2000 miles. The rear tire gave up the ghost and started poking the tube. I'm replacing them with a new pair of Vittoria Zaffiros, $14 each delivered. I can't see using anything else, as their performance far exceeds their price.

Vittoria Randonneur 28c.

It's the best of the moderately priced midsize tires.
Gotta 'gree with this.

I've run the Serfas "Survivor" on two different bikes with excellent results. No Flats! Latest set is 700 X 28. Only a couple of hundred miles so far, but perfect.... Good luck

I run the Serfas Secas on my bike. It's been about 120 miles on them. No flats whatsoever. I ride on some harsh terrain, and would get flats every 75-100 miles on my old tires.

Vittoria Randonneur 28c.

It's the best of the moderately priced midsize tires.

i'm with you on that..

I run the Serfas Secas on my bike. It's been about 120 miles on them. No flats whatsoever. I ride on some harsh terrain, and would get flats every 75-100 miles on my old tires.

I bought 12 of them on sale for $9.95. Have one with 4,000 miles no flats.

Another vote for Vittoria Randonneur or Zaffiro. I have both and am very happy with them.

I'm a 200 lb. + Clyde. I'm 6' 1" and have been hovering around 200 my entire life. Lets say I never get down to 170....

What tire would you recommend for me?

looks like i overlooked the vittorias, back to the drawing board

Dahut, a 700x28 tire will easily support 200 pounds on the right wheels. (Anything but ultra low spoke count, really.)

The Vittorias are good suggestions.

My Marin Mill Valley came with Vittorias. One failed catastrophically riding home from the shop. The other died a few weeks later.

I've had better luck with Continental Gatorskins and Specialized Armadillos.

I'm going to try 70x28 Schwalbe Marathon Plus next to try something different. They're supposed to be better than the gators and 'dillos from what I'm told here.

It's hard for me to tell the difference but I did notice two flats in the last week, so I think I need new rubber. I blew my pay on a saddle, pedals, shorts, gloves, tubes, patch kits and a torx wrench, so i'm hoping to get two more weeks out of the Contis. :(

The Marathon Plus has quite a bit of tread... it's meant to be for sporadic gravel or light trail use. It's very, very different from the Continental Gatorskin which is a near-slick not intended for any dirt use.

A friend who has a Schwalaby Marathon 32 on his tourer has over 20k miles on the tire. It spent 17 to 18k miles on the front.

The Marathon Plus has quite a bit of tread... it's meant to be for sporadic gravel or light trail use.

According to who? Schwalbe lists them as city/touring.

My Marin Mill Valley came with Vittorias. One failed catastrophically riding home from the shop. The other died a few weeks later.:(
Do you remember which Vittoria tires you had? I've had great success commuting on Vittoria Randonneur Pro tires on my commuter bike, and only a goathead flat on my Vittoria Rubino Pro III tires on my road bike. While I've had good luck so far with Vittoria tires, if there is a model I should avoid, I want to avoid it.

According to who? Schwalbe lists them as city/touring.

What's the purpose of tread on a bicycle tire intended for purely road use? Slicks are ideal for road, even in the rain.

Once you add in a little dirt, though, tread becomes useful. LOOK at the tire and make your own conclusion.

I'm a 200 lb. + Clyde. I'm 6' 1" and have been hovering around 200 my entire life. Lets say I never get down to 170....

What tire would you recommend for me?

Depends on what your priorities are.

How much do you want to spend.

What do you want a new tire to do that the old one doesn't

In general, I like the Vittoria Randonneurs. The original is quite good.
I have been riding the randonneur Hypers, and they are quite good.

now i cant decide between the randonneurs and zaffiros, good thing is they're not expensive. before i go out and pick up a set of 28s, i have another ? for the bf pros. i really dont even know if they will fit on my wheels, info on the wheels say 622x19.

A 19mm rim is very typical for a road bike, pretty narrow for a hybrid. Your range of useable tires is 23-28mm.

Within that range you would find most 23mm tires to very snug and not overly fun to install even with plastic tire tools. Conversely the 28mm will probably fit loosely and be able to be installed and removed by hand (without tools).

However, you need to be very cautious putting the wider tires on... it is easy to pinch the tube, unseat the bead, etc. I'm sure the maint & repair forum has topics about this, but in general you will want to inflate slowly and check the bead to ensure it is seated. That's a good idea every time, of course, but very critical in this situation.

A 19mm rim is very typical for a road bike, pretty narrow for a hybrid. Your range of useable tires is 23-28mm.



I wonder if there was a mistake. They don't pick the brightest bulbs to write the catalogs.

I'm running Kenda Kwest 700x28c on my hybrid. I've ridden over 2600km and I've only had one flat, which wasn't the tire's fault - the valve stem of the tube broke. No puncture flats, at all. And Shanghai streets are not precisely tire friendly - lots of debris, rough pavement, cracks, etc.

I'm a 200 lb. + Clyde. I'm 6' 1" and have been hovering around 200 my entire life. Lets say I never get down to 170....

What tire would you recommend for me?

Don't stress about weight...I'm 6ft 5 and 225. I alternate a pair of 28mm Schwalbe Marathon Supremes and some 35mm Racing Ralphs. You'd need to be pretty heavy to start choosing specific tires due to weight.

Don't stress about weight...I'm 6ft 5 and 225. I alternate a pair of 28mm Schwalbe Marathon Supremes and some 35mm Racing Ralphs. You'd need to be pretty heavy to start choosing specific tires due to weight.
While I agree that you shouldn't stress about tire weight, you should know that unusually heavy tire/wheel combinations cause you to have to work a little harder to accelerate. It takes more force to spin up a heavy wheel than a light wheel, like a heavy flywheel on an engine as opposed to a lightened flywheel. If you are used to lightweight wheels and tires, you will notice the difference when moving to something heavier. This also means that once the heavier wheels are up to speed, they have more momentum than lighter wheels.

Added weight on other parts of the bike have a much smaller impact on your ride than heavier wheels or tires, because of the flywheel effect realized by spinning wheels. Most of the tires mentioned above are reasonable in their weight, so you shouldn't have any issues. I have an old set of Innova tires that have rather thick tread on them, and the difference in weight with them is enough to feel when spinning up the wheels. Those tires stay on the shelf for that reason.

A friend who has a Schwalaby Marathon 32 on his tourer has over 20k miles on the tire. It spent 17 to 18k miles on the front.

It now has 21,300 miles with No Flats

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh187/10wheels/Roys%20750%20Mile%20Tour/750RoysIndpdTour070.jpg

A friend who has a Schwalaby Marathon 32 on his tourer has over 20k miles on the tire. It spent 17 to 18k miles on the front.

Here he is 8/5/11.

The rear tire on the Green bike.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh187/10wheels/LaurenandRoy.jpg

I'm stressing about the weight of the 700x28 Marathon Plus tires in my cart at almost 2 pounds apiece...

I agree with Lex that the rider's weight shouldn't be a concern. The load will influence ideal inflation pressure, but I haven't heard of any tires with weight limits or any that are particularly well suited for heavier riders.

Generally a tire designed for touring will be more durable than one designed for racing.

I guess I need Schwalbe Marathon Supremes, but can't find a source. Schwalbe is sold out of 28s.

Here he is 8/5/11.

The rear tire on the Green bike.


All I see is blue. :D

It now has 21,300 miles with No Flats

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh187/10wheels/Roys%20750%20Mile%20Tour/750RoysIndpdTour070.jpg

What size is that?

Is it a road tire or more of an all terrain design?

Why do you have only one of them? What's on the front?

All I see is blue. :D
There're bikes in the picture?

What's on the front?

That looks to me like it is the front.

While I agree that you shouldn't stress about tire weight, you should know that unusually heavy tire/wheel combinations cause you to have to work a little harder to accelerate.

Agree, but I'm pretty sure the poster was referring to HIS weight...not the weight of the tire...

Agree, but I'm pretty sure the poster was referring to HIS weight...not the weight of the tire...
Lexi01, You are right that the poster was referring to HIS weight. I was attempting to add another point of view in response to your post earlier in the thread:

Don't stress about weight...I'm 6ft 5 and 225. I alternate a pair of 28mm Schwalbe Marathon Supremes and some 35mm Racing Ralphs. You'd need to be pretty heavy to start choosing specific tires due to weight.

The reason for my post was because some people were recommending Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, which are heavy enough to cause some cyclists to think they make a bike sluggish. They are notably heavier than most tires, so the tradeoff to get the durability of the Marathon Plus is that the tire is quite a bit heavier than most other tires. Marathon Plus tires can be as much as twice as heavy as the Marathon Supreme or the Racing Ralphs, depending on size. Since Marathon Plus tires can weigh as much as two pounds, they can take more work to spin up to speed than the Marathon Supreme, or most other tires mentioned in this thread.

I wasn't trying to make anything more difficult for the OP, so I hope my earlier response didn't cause any confusion for the OP.

I found this chart (http://www.rivbike.com/images/static/upload/rivbike_pick_a_tire.pdf) that recommends tire size and inflation pressure based on weight and terrain.

I appreciate your post, Scooby, and I had noticed the weight (of the tires) and was stressing about it before you posted. Unfortunately the 28c Supremes seem to be sold out.

Because of my experience I don't want to purchase Vittoria. Sorry I don't know which model I had. I tried to find out from Bikepedia, but it seems my bike was supposed to come with Hutchinson tires.

In the meantime, the vendor I was planning to buy the Marathon Plus from has sold out of all 700c sizes.

I have Rivendell Roly Poly tires on one of my bikes. 250 mile so far including about 50 off road without a single flat! Haha, I don't ride that bike much...

I'm think about getting the Rivendell Ruffy Tuffy (http://www.rivbike.com/products/show/ruffy-tuffy-700-x-27-kevlar/10-043) which is the Roly Poly with thicker rubber and a kevlar belt.

Qmsdc15, it sounds like you have good reasoning for what tires to get. I don't blame you for staying away from the Vittoria brand after your experience. It's a shame you can't get the 28c Supremes right now, as they would be ideal for what you need. If there was a local shop in my area selling Schwalbe tires, I am confident they would sell well. As it stands, not only does one usually have to order the tires, but they are frequently out of stock in the size one needs. That's what happened to me when I needed a set of 26x1.6 Supremes.