Originally Posted by
maartendc
Hello all,
I am looking for some better tires for my touring / gravel bike. The bike is a Trek Checkpoint ALR5. The previous owner put some WTB Resolute 42C tires on it, which are great for gravel, but not so great for pavement riding. Too much rolling resistance and not great cornering.
I will be using this bike primarily for touring on pavement. Occasionally there will be an unpaved section, forest trail, light gravel or sand. Usually the routes are 80-90% paved and 10-20% unpaved.
What would be a good tire for this? I am familiar with the Schwalbe Marathon, which I have on my city bike (35C). These roll quite well, and have amazing puncture resistance. I think these would cope reasonably well with unpaved sections as well. But I am wondering if there is another tire out there I should be considering?
You don't say if the unpaved sections will be wet or dry. As others have mentioned, I've been checking out the Panaracer Gravel King Slick+ and the Schwalbe G-1 Speed, because they are tubeless ready and I only ride tubeless now. Both are available in 35 and 38c, which will give you a bit of speed gains. The GKS+ is a little grippier on tarmac, but the G1S holds the dirt/gravel a little better. Neither are made for real gravel grip, especially in the wet. The G1S mounts tighter on my rims, so I only use 40ml of sealant, vs 80ml for the GKS+, which is also 110+g lighter than the G1S.
If you want good on road performance you could use the Marathon Supreme. But this tire only lasts me about 3000km touring, which is quite poor durability. It's too much to have to buy a new set of tires every single month.
Interesting, The Marathon Supreme 700-35c/40c TLE one stars are my touring/commute tire of choice and they last up to 5000 miles easily for me. Of course I ride mostly tarmac and the occasional hard dirt, and not too many curves. I've found them to be the best performance/value tire I've used for years, and really will miss them once my stash is gone.
Originally Posted by
gauvins
We ride on supreme if routes are paved, and almotion otherwise. 2.1" or so
I do the same on my tours, but only the onestar compounds, which has been replaced by the ADDIX compounds. Now that Marathon Supremes Onestar are no longer produced, I've been looking for a replacement 700-35c paved touring tires. The Almotion Onestar 700-38/50 TLE I still use for mixed terrain touring, like pavement, dirt/gravel, sand etc, because of the improved puncture protection from tubeless and sidewall protection, along with decent grip. Once my last 2 sets are gone, I'm going to be searching for a new tough tubeless ready touring tire that rolls like the Almotion Onestar, and I just don't see any out there. The ADDIX Tour compound is just slower than the Onestar, noticeably so.