While I like slicks for going fast I temper my enthusiasm by having at least some minimal tread for cornering in the wetter/colder months. I have leaned into a corner more than once and had the tire slide out from under me; once famously as a courier in Calgary traffic where I pancaked across the intersection in front of the cars that were (thankfully) stopped there.

During the summer I was running these Cuidad's 26x1.50. Very minimal tread (almost a slick) and fast, but not too robust for sustained gravel I felt.



For winter I swapped them out for these all rounder's 26x1.75. Good tread for cornering and a bit larger to absorb road shock but still amazingly fast because they mainly run on the solid center bead for road use. I keep my tires highly inflated so they do this. You see these all the time on older commeter type mtb's but they are usually 26x2.00 and larger. Too big for my taste in touring but the 1.75 is a good compromise between speed and robustness IMO. If I were looking for one mixed terrain tire I would probably go with this design.



Another tire I use for touring is a "marathon" type tread, these being 26x1.75. Beefy enough to absorb road shock but still pretty darn fast when highly inflated. Again, they mostly run on the center but have some tread for cornering.