Most versatile cyclocross commuting tire
 

What cyclocross tires have the best flat prevention, rolling, cornering for commuting and century's. Or should I put on different tires all together? I won't be doing muc offroad commuting, but the option would be nice. All weather preferably. I was checking out schwalbes and was wondering if better options are out there. I've been commuting with a road bike on armadillos, and don't know much about cyclocross bikes. Size of tires are 700 x 36.

Knobby Cross tires suck on the pavement, slick tires slip on the Muddy Cross Course.

Not Racing, I rode WTB Alterainasaurus, 32/32 , a compromise tire, for a while .
put a slick Jack Brown 33.3 wide one on and rolling resistance was significantly better.

a Continental Travel contact is slick in the center, has a row of knobs on the edges,
its their Adventure touring tire for paved and un paved roads..
the 622-37 may suit.?

Most cyclocross tires are designed for racing off-road in grass, mud or sand. They have no need for puncture protection in this environment, and so, most don't have it. I haven't done a comprehensive survey, but I'd be very surprised to find one with puncture protection in the neighborhood of an Armadillo, Gatorskin or Marathon.

I choose my tires by the surface I expect to be riding, not by the style of frame. I use 28mm road tires with good puncture protection on the road. I use 38mm studded snow tires in the winter. And I use my 34mm cyclocross tires for off-road and dirt road. All those tires go on the same bike.

You want a commuting/century tyre to fit a CX bike, eg middle width 700c rim..
A general purpose, slick 28-32mm should be OK. There re several good ones including Schwalbe Marathon Supreme/Racer, Vittoria Randonneur, Continental Sport Contact.
Some people prefer to commute on a lighter tyre, eg 25mm, others prefer heavier tread such as plain Marathon.

You shouldnt really use a CX tyre for this, the rubber is too soft, the tread is too thick. Keep your CX tyre for off road play or sport.

Schwalbe Marathon Supreme is a good all-surface tire with decent puncture protection and low rolling resistance on pavement. If you're looking for a more aggressive tread pattern, Vittoria Randonneur Cross is pretty good, but a bit heavier and slower.

I've had good luck with my Schwalbe Marathon Cross tires, 700x38. Pavement, gravel, sand, mud, etc. Reflective sidewalls are a plus as well.

Loving my 32mm Vittoria Randonneur Pros for nearly all road, but some gravel, and very light off road. I wouldn't want to ride them in mud, though. The Randonneur Cross, or Cross Pro look interesting.

The marathon extremes would be a good compromise between low rolling resistance road and good traction off-road riding. It's hard to find real cross tires > 33mm wide since that is the UCI width limit for cyclocross racing. The extremes come in 37 or 42mm wide in 700c.

Vittoria Randonneur Cross tires seem to have better flat protection than Gatorskins. I was kind of disappointed with the Gators after being so thrilled with the Randos. They grip well, roll pretty well on pavement, very well on dirt, perform admirably in gravel, etc. But they're very heavy.

SF - I have had just the opposite experience. The Vittoria Randonneur's that I had were very flat prone on the roads that I ride - and not only that I think the rear tire lasted < 1k miles. I replaced wiht a set of Gatorskins, and have had one flat in the last 2k miles - and that was a pinch flat from hitting a deep pothole when I wasn't paying attention.

I do agree with you that the Rando's grip well. I wonder why I had such a different experience than you? Is t here more than one model of Rando?

I just put a pair of 25c Gatorskins on my son's bike for urban use. Tire lasted about 25 miles before it got damaged and needed to be replaced. He's not a maniac on the bike at all - there was a spot on the sidewall that looked like it got some abrasion, and that's where it failed. I just threw them both away - they were an absolute bear to mount on the rim.

I suppose there is no such thing as "better" at flat protection for all types of flats. Seems like everytime someone has a tire they swear is great, someone else has the opposite experience. Leads me to believe that none of them are all that great.

J.

I just ride some cheapo $10 tires figuring I'll just replace them when they go bad and get many for cheaper than the marathons or whatever. Sure, it could bite me in the butt at some point, but I'm rarely that far from home or work as I only have a 5 mile commute. I know deep in my heart I should go with something more durable, but there's a big part of me that wants a new bike and can't see dropping another $100 on tires after I've already put way more in than the bike is worth on other parts and upgrades.

Vittoria Randonneur Hypers and Panaracer Pasela TGs are lighter than Schwalb's and many other options, if you don't need much tread. If you will be riding some offroad, the Ritchie Crossmax Pro is supposed to be a good compromise with more tread.

They make a Pro version of the Randos and the Rando Cross, which is folding, and lighter. They only make a few sizes in the Pro version though.

The Marathon Supreme, near as I can tell, is almost a road slick that is manageable off road, barely. Which, by the way, is exactly what I want, and those are the tires I'm looking to buy for my bike when I get paid again.

My profile is riding on poorly maintained roads that may be wet, and occasionally and with significant frequency going off into mud and sticks for a mile or two. As I have 700c x 32 rims with 700c x 35 mounted tires, I'll probably get the 700c x 35 and reverse-mount the front tire (that means mount it opposite its perceived direction of rotation).

I do this because it matters not on the road; but off road, the front wheel being the major supplier of braking force and no supplier of any kind of drive force, its forward traction doesn't matter and its reverse traction is extremely important. Be mindful of matched mountain bike wheels, as the front wheel may be intended to mount in an orientation that provides superior braking traction (i.e. its marked direction of turn is already "backwards"); but generic tires for back wheel use can be reversed up front.

I wonder if I can find these with a wire bead... I have no need to fold tires, so I don't need a kevlar bead. They're about $14 cheaper with a wire bead.

There are Rando Pros and Rando Cross tires; we might have been using different ones? Or, it could be different road conditions and stuff like that.

Vittoria Randonneur are fantastic tires. They came on my 2010 Jamis 2 Commuter. I think there kind of spendy, but when they wear out I'm going to order the same tire. I have found no faults with them yet. 300 miles and no flats so far. It's wet and muddy up here in the Pacific Northwest, and although I don't ride purposely through the mud I do occasional have to go through some light mud, and large gravel. They have performed great.

Conti 4-seasons 700x28 on tricross comp. Flat-resistant, long-wearing, blah-blah-blah....

Stupendous wet grip.

Ritchey Speedmax cross tires. Continental also makes one similar. I can't bring myself to emasculate my Cross bike by putting Marathons or some other Fredly tires on it.

If you have the frame clearance, I really like these (especially if you can find the armadillo version): http://salemcycle.com/product/specia...0c-50165-1.htm. Best combo of on/off road I have used.

This is an old thread, but I thought I would throw my 2 cents in about the Randonneurs. My wife uses them on her daily commuter in 28mm (actually 25 if you measure). She loves them. We recently rode over 75 miles of very rocky roads including 9000+ total vertical feet over two days in the Cino Heroica and she didn't flat once. My vintage IRC Road Winner IIs were another story...

I got a set of Forte Gotham 700x32 city tires for my commuter cross bike. They are $14/ea at Performance Bike. Nashbar has a similiar tire for the same price. So far I have had no flats with them.

I commute on my road bike (30 miles round trip) using Cont. Gatorskin Hardshell 700X25 with Vittoria Rubino Pro 700X23 (used as liners with their beads cut off). Less internal volume means the tubes are thicker too. So far absolutely bulletproof on Guam's glass filled roads.

I have been commuting by MTB on Vittoria Randonneur Cross 26 x 1.75's (mostly urban bike paths) and they have been great. Not light tyres, but I've only had 2 "flats", both times due to breaking the valve stem when inflating (doh!). This is after almost 4 yrs (not sure how many kms - but definitely more than 8,000), including some rides on nasty, rocky trails. The rear tyre is however starting to look like it will soon need replacing.

Continental Travel Contacts are my very most fav 700c tire out there. Fast, smooth, very puncture resistant, great on pavement, great on gravel, let some air out and run them on the trails, nice ride. Get the ones with reflective sidewalls.
700X37
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=306282

I just finished my commuter/cross bike and put Vittoria Randonneur Cross tires on. Just this morning I took it out for a 16 mile ride that consisted of road, fire road and mountain terrain. This tires are awesome as far as versatility goes, the had no problems in any of the terrain. Now they are not as ggod as a mountain tire but not once did I feel like the tire was not doing its job in the dirt, keep in mind that I am running 60psi in these not 30 -35 like I would on my mountain bike. I cant speak for the flat protection but as far as performance goes I would give it an A+.

+1

Those are my tire of choice when my LHT is doing commuter duty. I run the 26x1.75 flavor and they are awesome.

Completely counter-intuitive and defying general cycling wisdom, but based on this Schwalbe test report any way you cut it a 700x42 slick (or fatter) like the Specialized Borough @ 80psi will have lower rolling resistance than anything narrower, bar none!

From the graph of energy input to perform the same amount of work, this equates to 20-30% more effort (or calories burned!!) to go the same distance. And that differential gets bigger if you let narrower treads run under maximum pressure.

What Schwalbe say is the optimum footprint is a circle, ie the diameter in the plane of rotation (the rim) is the smallest (for the same applied load). Therefore as narrower tires flatten out along the rim, not more evenly across it like fat tires, their rolling resistance is much higher.

Narrower tires will inherently suffer more wall damage caused by this kind of longitudinal flexing, much more so if habitually under inflated, or their cross-section is too small for the weight carried,

My experience with Borough is they're light, fast and very tough.

For flat-free commuting (and I've done thousands of miles without a flat stopping me getting to my destination) you must put in Slime strips or Mr Tuffy and load up (Schrader valve) tubes with Goop or Slime.

If you're over 160lbs/75kg (or carry heavy loads) and want a fast ride, the Borough tire which inflates to 80psi is best way to get it.

It goes without saying you should have (preferably) 622x19 rims, although 17.5mm width would do. And depending on your weight and the loads, double wall, double eyelets and heavy spokes to match.

I'm gonna a go ahead and reinvigorate this old thread. I used 35mm Conti Cyclo cross tires. They puncture too easily on tarmac but they roll surprisingly well (the tiny knobs are were very close together). When I said the they puncture too easily, what I meant was that they REALLY SUCK for punctures.

So I changed to Schwalbe Marathon 35mm and while I haven't ridden the bike enough to review the puncture resistance, the way they roll leads me to believe the other reviewers who say they are bomb proof. And when I say "the way they roll", they are the slowest tires I've ever ridden. For cyclo cross bikes used with commuting in mind, I was quite impressed with specialised Burroughs tires which came standard on my 2009 tricross in 32mm. If you want a comfortable ride, reasonable roll and ride quality, see if you can seek these out.

I will continue using the schwalbe for a while but if in get sick of them (or I'm not strong enough since I'm out ta shape these days), I will get the burroughs.

My wife rolls the specialized boroughs on her cross country touring cannondale, also her in-city distance bike. Tires continue to serve her very well. Couple of thousand miles, no flats at all, no probs at all.

However, still prefer the continental travel contacts w/ reflective sidewalls, 700X37's. What I run on my Origin8 CX700 commuter. Nearly perfect tire, IMO.

Also, wider rims are better for commuting purposes, or when durability is key.
Just moved my Origin8 Aero Speed wheelset to my old univega road bike in order to drop 24mm Velocity Dyads on my CX700.
Less sidewall curvature, better ride, stronger wheels w/ 36 spokes instead of 20 aeroblade spokes.