IchbinJay

Does anyone have experience or suggestions regarding the best road tire for a long distance rando? I'll be doing 75 miles on dirt roads and hills. I can not go any wider than a 25c. Thanks!

colinmcnamara

Are you suggesting doing a 600k on dirt roads on a 25c's? I run 25c's and while they are extremely comfortable running on pavement, the lack of tread would providing challenging on dirt roads of any length.

barturtle

Unless you are extremely light (like under 130) AND have lots of experience riding dirt, I'd suggest getting a bike that can handle wider tires. Like 32's. 35's if you're over 175. 38's if you're over 225.

LesterOfPuppets

Well, I hope they're nice dirt roads, at least. 25 for sure. If either the front or back can accommodate 28s, go for it. I'm running a 26 on my Pinarello right now, so that might be worth a look, not much tread, though.

Homeyba

It depends on the dirt road. I have to ride 2 1/2 miles of dirt just to get to a paved road from my house and use 23's on my current road bike with no problems. If you can run 25's I'd stick with them. Sounds like quite the adventure.

barturtle

I'll add to my earlier suggestion to get a bike that can handle wider tires:

These are dirt roads, with a very skinny tire with little to no tread, if there is the least amount of moisture, you're screwed. 25's just won't go through mud.

Get a bike that is at least somewhat suited to the conditions you're going to ride in. You can get a pretty cheap cross bike online that would be fine. You can pick up a used hybrid or rigid mtb for even less.

robertkat

If you can't go wider than 25, Gatorskins are popular. If you plan on adding some dirt/gravel roads to that, So far they are my favorite tires. Panaracer Pasela TG is a good tire. They hold up up quite well and have enough of a tread to help with soft dirt, but they do ride quite nice on the pavement.

Homeyba

They'll go through mud, I do it every year when it rains here. It certainly isn't pretty and doing it for 75 miles would be quite a challenge but it could probably be done. Like I said above, it really depends on the type of dirt road it is.

Richard Cranium

I decided to get all jiggy and ride 23s on a double century. We had to stupidly ride through some broke pavement at 20mph+ and of course- I had to hit a rock, and immediately "pinch flatted."

I'm always telling people to ride the big tires unless they are racing, losing that time to the flat was hardly made up by riding 23s over 25s, not to mention being pizzed off. Why even ask questions about using road bikes off road? I mean what's the point - you're special?

clasher

I made a wrong turn and ended up doing 7-10km on a dirt/gravel country road and it was fun sliding around where the rocks were deeper but it certainly was a lot more work than needed... I was on 23 or 25s, can't recall... this was on my first 100k and I think it would have made my ride more pleasant had I not worked so hard on that stretch. I could ride a balloon tire cruiser for a 100k but I don't think it'd make for as pleasurable a ride.

I'd find a stretch of dirt road and do a few miles up and down it to see how you do before you take any of our suggestions. I'd try it in the rain too.

IchbinJay

It's actually a pretty cool ride. Here's a clip of the terrain I'll be encountering. The other people seem to be riding road bikes, although they may have larger tires and clearance. A few cross bikes too.

https://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AriTnslC4Tg