I've ridden long stretches on both a cross bike with 700/32s with semi-knobby tread, and on a mountain bike. Mostly they both worked fine, although I did come close to losing it a few times on some muddy spots with the cross bike. I prefer the mountain bike though mainly because of how beat-up I felt on the cross bike. I think I lost a couple of teeth just before hitting the Paw Paw tunnel... (bring lights for that BTW.)