just got my first cross bike and was wondering what tires people recommend for fire roads. I'd describe it as gravelly and loose dirt. I plan on riding from my house to the trails so the tire needs to work well on roads too. Not much mud where I ride (San Francisco/Marin area). Thanks!

I personally like the Ritchey SpeedMax, Bontrager CX Jones, & the Maxxiss Mimo Larsen (not in any particular order) as I have used them all.

Michelin CycloSport Pro!

WTB Cross Wolf sticks like glue to the fire roads in the Marin Headlands. I was also impressed with the traction when my mountain bike was temporarily out of commission and I went down to Skegg's Point and rode the single track with a bunch of mountain bikers.

+1 for the Cross Wolf.

+2 for the Cross Wolf's ran them all CX season and still look new

this season i raced on ritchey excavaders. kind of like a more aggressive speedmax. i definately feel that these tires gave me the edge in certain conditions like wet grass, or loose stuff, and mud, but are a tad slower on paved sections. also, they corner extremely well in grass, but so do the speedmax.

You've described the kind of terrain I rode for years in Southern California, and I think for fire roads a wider touring or commuting tire is plenty enough. One of my bikes has very round and very smooth Avocets on them, and I ride them on fire trails everyday as fast as I can, and they actually hold their own in mud, thin snow, frozen soil, and of course the road. I experimented with knobbies for that kind of riding, swapped tires to test, and I'd argue that knobbies are appropriate for more aggressive trails. 32-37 mm Avocets, Panaracer Paselas, Vittoria Randonneurs, and some of the Schwalbe tires really excel at this mix. The trick is to run them at a relatively low pressure compared to road-only tires, and they grip well.

Once the trails become much more rocky, with steep fast declines and tight corners, I prefer knobbies.

Hope this helps.

Conti Twister Pros. If it's still available in the now defunct Supergo, on sale for 12-15.00 bucks. I grabbed half a dozen.

check out the club roost cross terra. connected center line, and nice corner knobs.

My favorite for that type of surface is Ritchey Speedmax Cross 700X32. You can usually find them pretty cheap too.