Maybe slightly-- but not a huge noticeable difference. And no road buzz in my experience.

I was surprised by the Serfas Drifters too. I had the 1.5 on my commuter and didn't flat for three years with those tires. I put tons of miles on those things and they just kept on going.

Can Frank get just a little thinner? My 800 Sport maxes at 2.1 (frame rub at lowish pressures).

I got a pair of these on a bike today, that must be pretty old, but don’t seem to be dry-rotted. 🤔 I’m gonna run them for now, but carefully, lol. 😁😉 I’ve hit a few bumps with them already, and they’re nice & cushy, in the 26” x 1.9” flavor. 👍

Not a clue. Check Amazon.

For cheaper quality tires I really like the Panracer Soar I go a pair shipped to my door in less than a week for under $50 from Walmart, Turns out Walmart is actually about the best place to buy tires online right now free good shipping and they offer nearly fulll lines of Conti's, Panracers and Kenda's at about the best prices you will find shipped.

We like tires that roll fast on pavement & can also handle riding hard sand on the beach at low tide. Kenda K-841 receives 5 stars *****. Got them on all four beach bikes now.

I would say beware if you are going to "upgrade" to the best and biggest if you are using say, a lowly Pasela Tserve 559 x 1.25 upgrading to a Natchez Pass 559 x 1.8". The better tire has twice the air volume. This caused some problems for me. The radius was increased by 12 mm, forcing the fenders to be moved away from the axle by that much. Not such a big problem, but revising fender lines is always a challenge. I had to change brakes from Paul MiniMotos to Paul low-profile cantilevers (what I had as a complete set in my Brake Bits Box), adding cable housing hangers, revising Ergopower cable routings, repeating the adjustments on front and rear derailleurs. This is always a challenge on her Athena 3x11. The MiniMotos were fit to the tandem frame.

Then I inflated the tires to the Berto values, 45 to 50 psi. The NPs are so supple that with pressure per the Berto chart the tire ctually dragged on the ground slowing the speed at which the fork could be turned, even after the headset adjustment was optimized. At low speeds the bike was very hard to keep in a straight line or to feel stable except at high speeds. The solution seems to be to run the 44 mm tires near their max pressure of 75 psi but the real test is for her to ride her bike. In a brief test ride I like this configuration, but my wife needs to like it. We'll see.

I don’t agree. The sport of mountain biking was built on vintage MTBs. They were more than touring bikes. They weren’t the marvels of technology we have today but many people pioneered those marvels on old rigid mountain bikes. And, by the time the Homegrowns had come along, they were “real” mountain bikes with race geometries and pedigrees. My Dean and Moots are from 1999 and 1998 respectively. My Moots is what I use for bikepacking...not touring which is a different endeavor altogether.

2020-01-26 16:51:13 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

I’ve also done “bikepacking” before it was a thing on a vintage MTB. Here that bike is in 1986 before suspension was even glimmer in some engineer’s eye.

Rollins Pass, 8/10/85 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

The Moots does it better

Not from the bikes in this thread. The bikes pictured may never have been used a mountain bikes but every one of them is capable of mountain bikery.

This thread has taken a curious turn. 🤔😁 Funny you should mention old MTBs and 1986 in the same post, lol, here’s my ‘86 High Sierra, just bought it yesterday. Obviously another garage queen, but I can fix that. 😁😉

Awesome pictures. I need to get out to the mountains and do some of that.

And regarding slicks, let's agree to disagree! I think fat slick tires can be used on 95% of the surfaces that people will ride on and you don't need to fight the rolling resistance of knobs. Come over to the dark side and try out some supple 26" slicks. You know you wanna.

I crash enough without slicks. I have a lot of other bikes if I want to go fast and smooth.

Just doing some research and thought I'd offer-up the Panaracer Comet Hardpack. I have them on one of my mtn bikes..very nice tire on road or trail/gravel. Obviously not for trails where an aggressive lugged tire is needed. I picked up the Comets as I didn't want to spend the money on a pair of small block eights. The Comets are close.

One more option..I'm currently looking for a pair of these at a reasonable price + shipping..no luck so far

Michelin Country Rock

Then there's this!

I really had no idea that there were so many totally different '26-inch' bicycle tires! I grew up riding 26x1-3/8 - which I now know was the 'non-Schwinn' ISO 590 E.A.3 size, not to be confused with the 26x1-3/8 ISO 597 Schwinn S-6 size, or the ISO 559 decimal size used on MTB and Cruisers... Lately, there has been a resurgence of ISO 584 650B which is also known as 26x1-1/2 or "27.5"...

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/26.html

Tire sizing is a mess. We really shouldn’t refer to bicycle tires by their outside diameter. We should refer to the ISO bead seat diameter which would ensure that we are getting the proper tire. 29er tires have confused things even more since they are ISO 622 tires that just happen to be wide.

Just linking a few similar threads together fr those that research such things:

Looking for 26" road tires, 1.75 - 2.0

26" road tire decisions,please help.

Bringing up the other part of the thread title, is anyone familiar with Bicycle Wheel Warehouse? Out of L.A., they build their own wheels at prices that won't make you faint. Here are their 26" wheels, with both rim and disc brake options. Anyone know of other suppliers?

I purchased two sets of road bike (700c) wheels from BWW last winter..I got their Black Set Race models. So far both sets are holding up very well.
The owners worked with me to get the hubs/rims.spokes/hubs I wanted. I received a coupon from BF for 30% off. I ended up paying $250 a set for wheels that are running $400 now. I like them. Haven't picked up any 26 inch wheels from them.

As an interesting note most Panaracers and Michillin tires are made buy Kenda aka Hau-Sing..Note most of these tire have k-XXX model number so pretty much the same tires at 3 different prices depending on the label.

Same tires
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Panaracer...Tire/177126610

I can't speak to Michelin since I don't use any Michelin-branded tires, but I'm fairly certain that this is untrue for Panaracer. It seems like they'd get sued to oblivion, since the molds for even fairly affordable tires like non-PT Paselas explicitly claim that they're manufactured in Japan; Kenda is a Taiwanese company.

Kenda Small Block 8 and Panaracer Comet Hardpack are not the same tire, even at a glance it's clear that their tread patterns have different knob shapes.

My 26" tire experiences in the past couple of years:

I was most impressed with Ritchey Tom Slicks. They made my old Trek 930 super zippy for riding around town. They come in folding and wirebead versions, the latter being super affordable. I have the 1.5" version, but a 1.0" exists as well. Although they are light, I never had a flat with them.

My GT Karakoram city bike currently has Schwalbe Kojak in the 2.0" wirebead version. I can't complain about those either. They feel a little wooden in terms of zippiness and suppleness compared to high end XC tires of similar volume, but performance is good for the price.

Continental Race King in the version with BlackChili compound (they change the name every fortnight) in 2.0 on my XC racer roll seriously fast. The only drawback is limited puncture protection. I've had flats just riding next to a blackberry patch. They're probably best, when they're ridden tubeless. I haven't comitted to that, yet.

I really, really want to try the new Gravelking SK that just got released in 26". I wish Panaracer gave us the slick version as well, but I'm sure they're currently testing the waters for the 26" market. I currently see them on every other recent dropbar conversion, just like the Maxxis DTH which the obligatory 26" dropbar tire last year. I've also set sights on the new Schwalbe Billy Bonkers. It may be an affordable alternative to the Gravelkings, at least on my continent.

Good rollin'!

Info for above mentioned new schwalbe micro knobbly 54-559, claimed 490g,
https://www.schwalbe.com/en/mtb-reader/billy-bonkers
https://www.bike-components.de/en/Sc...g-Tyre-p76581/

Here are some rim brake 559 rims to search out if needed;

Ryde Zac 19, 36h, single eyelet
Ryde Zac 2000, 32/36h, double eyelet
DT Swiss 535, 32/36h, single eyelet
Araya TM 840 F, 32/36h, double eyelet, maybe discontinued? still available at soma fab and some japan based shops
Velo Orange Diagonale, 36h, single eyelet, discontinued, still available in velo orange online store
Sun Ringle cr-18/rhyno lite/rhyno lite xl, 32/36h, single eyelet

There are some heavier rims made by Ryde and Exal I have not listed.

I've ridden Tioga City Slickers in 26 x 1.95 for 1000km. They were fine but I didnt have anything to compare. 1 puncture of a piece of wire. Not especially fast or light. Kind of forgettable to be honest.