Originally Posted by
DX-MAN
Yeah, you can do that; Ritchey makes the Tom Slick -- last time I checked, in 26x1.0 and 26x1.4. Maxxis makes the Xenith in 1.5, a true slick. There are others, too. Check Biketiresdirect.com
I'd be leery of going as far down as 26 x 1.0 on a commute that involved a lot of sidewalks. If you have to bail off the sidewalk onto the road you are likely to get pinch flats. I pretty much lost all ability to hop off a curb when I rode 26 x 1 & 1/8th Continental Gatorskins. Not something I regularly do, but it is nice to have the option and not feel trapped.
For nominally 26 x 1.5 inch tires I can recommend:
Vittoria Randonneur Pro: These are great, not too heavy, super durable, very flat resistant. I run them at about 90 PSI. Can't go wrong with these and Nashbar has them on sale regularly. I run these front and rear on my vintage MTB turned tourer, and as a rear tire on my commuter. I love these tires.
Panaracer T-Serv Pro-Tex: here's where the "nominally" comes into play, these tires run a little small so the 1.75" labelled one is actually about 1.5". I prefer these for a front tire as they are a softer more rubbery compound and are at about 75 PSI. This gives a touch of cushioning for my all rigid citi-fied MTB over the rough roads I travel on. Very good flat protection, not too heavy.
Schwalbe Marathons: I haven't tried any of the more extreme versions of this tire (Dureme, Supreme, whatever), but I found the plain Marathon to have excellent flat protection, and this is coming from a 280 pound Clyde on roads that gave me 1-2 flats a day before I switched to quality tires. Frankly I don't see any point in spending more money for the more expensive versions of this tire unless you get an equivalent amount more miles out of them or they are significantly lighter. I got about 3,000 miles out of mine on the rear of my commuter before it got a couple of flats and I noticed there were a fair number of little cuts in it so I rotated it out for a Vittoria Rando Pro I had handy. Probably has some life left in it, but in my experience when a tire looks cut up and starts getting flats, even if it looks like it has a lot of tread, I'm courting regular flats. The Marathon was pretty heavy in comparison with the Panaracer T-Serv Pro-Tex and the Vittoria Rando Pro.