The hard case tires I'm refering to are made by Bontrager. They are thicker and tougher than what I have. Unless I'm mistaken they come standard on the Trek 520. As for now I'm using a mountain bike for all of my riding. (I wanted to get back into riding and had no idea what I really wanted so I bought a Trek 3500 Mtn bike. Now that I've been riding for a while I realize what I really want to do is tour)