I use 32 mm 'cross tubulars on my repro '35 TdF bike, primarily because they're the only tubulars as wide as the ones that were actually used at that time and place. These particular tires have a fine (for 'cross tires, anyway) diamond tread that makes a little noise, but still seems to roll faster than most road clinchers, based on "freewheel races" with other cyclists. So the casing is apparently more important than the tread, where rolling resistance is concerned.

At any rate, no, 'cross tires aren't necessarily slow for road use. Of course, the more aggressive the knobs, the slower they will be. If speed is important to your commute, well, I'd avoid aggressive knobbies. Such tires also tend to "walk" under hard cornering on pavement, which can be disconcerting at first but entertaining once you're used to it. Whether that matters to your commute is, of course, up to you.

I had a similar experience.

On a day after a night shower where the roads were still slightly wet, the knobs slipped out from under me while cornering. I would have been perfectly comfortable doing this in a slick, and quickly switched to Marathon Supremes. No problems since.

When I first got my cross bike I used some 35mm Maxxis Raze cross racing tires for some moderately long (60ish miles, 3,000ish feet climbing) recreational road rides with friends. They're definitely slower, but it's probably not going to make or break most commutes. Being able to hop up and ride the parallel dirt path when I felt like it was fun.

I mostly don't like riding them on the road (aside from the higher rolling resistance) because I don't feel quite as confident cornering at speed on them, and because it really wears down the tread fast. Cross racing tires aren't cheap (and I actually used them for cross racing this season) and the worn tread really doesn't help off road.

I kid, but I actually have been doing a fair amount of riding on what are technically "cross" tires. Early in last year's riding season, I put on a set of 700x30 Kenda Kwick tires (I wanted the biggest tires I could fit on my road bike, and they were cheap.) I proceeded to ride Ragbrai, commute to work, and put in a 175-mile day on those tires. About 2400 miles later, much of the tread has worn away, so now they're a lot more smooth and comfortable than one would expect for the price.

My next set of tires will not be knobby, however!

- Scott

My new bike has schwalbe sammly slicks 700 x 35 how are those for commuting?

The tires that came stock on my Tricross Expert were 45's and I rode those for quite some time on my 25 mile commute. I forget their name but they were a Specialized brand tire that was nearly smooth in the middle portion and heavily lugged toward the edges....some cyclocross offering of theirs.

They were definitely slower, but it made the bike feel like I was riding on a cloud. They did make a difference in how long my commute took and took more effort to get/keep speed, but I got there in more comfort so it was a trade off. My big mistake was switching down to 25's and feeling like I was going to have my teeth shook out of my mouth. I ended up trying two other sets of tires before giving up as it just didn't want to give me a smooth enough ride unless I had wider cyclocross tires.

I also rode the same roads with a steel beater road bike and the same tires didn't have nearly the same issues.

Cross tyres generally wear out quicker than a commuter grade semi slick like Marathon.
Knobbles can rotate a bit under stress such as cornering.
Knobbles wont help on slick ice but do help in slushy snowy conditions. For ice you need studded tyres. I converted some knobblies to studs with self tapping screws but you need large knobbles to do this. Most CX treads are too fine.
I would save the knobbles for when you need them and get some regular road commuting rubber.
Spare tyres are always useful, eg if you slash your regular tyres.

Cyclocross tires for hardpack will do just fine on the road. My beef with them was little knobs on the sides. They picked up road grime and tossed it on my legs. And Specialized Boroughs are effin' magnet for glass and other debris.

Switched to 4-seasons and won't go back.

SF

Bare wet pavement, knobby tire tips are the only contact so, greatly reduced ..
easier to go down, crash, on corners , smaller contact patch surface.
.. and they move in rotation, and that tread squirm, takes away your energy.

now in winter and Ice , tungsten steel studs dig into the frozen water.
they come in A much heavier tire , then the steel studs add more weight..

they are a specialized tool , just adapt to their mass, and be happy
in the spring thaw, when you can take them off.

I don't understand why you're framing your question in extremes. A real cyclocross racing tire will have a supple casing, not much puncture resistance or wear long. So it's not good for commuting.

Multi-purpose cross tires with raised side lugs are obviously bad for hard cornering on asphalt and may or may not have a puncture resistant band. So that's not good for commuting where there's glass and you may not have the choice to not turn hard in an avoidance maneuver.

So basically it sounds like your trying to bargain why you shouldn't change to more optimum tires for commuting. If you don't want to buy more tires, that's good enough of a reason.

The tires I was using were 700x35. I admit that they were pretty aggressive. They were more of a sloppy conditions race tire than a high speed mixed surface tire, but I learned from the experiment. The issue of tread flex from center to side tread is not limited to the CX and MTB tires. I tried a pair of Conti City Rides in 700x32 and experienced the same thing. That was a great rolling tire in a straight line, but aggressive cornering is downright dangerous on that tire. I now roll on 700x32 Conti Top Contacts on my commuter and am VERY happy with them. They'll handle a gravel road just fine.

46 miles ended up being my happy place for commuting in 2009 and 2010. 75-85 minutes to the office and 95-125 minutes home (I don't mess around and I have a locker and shower). I found a route with some gravel that the CX tires would have been great on, but it bumped my commute up to 53 miles and close to three hours to get home..... that just seemed excessive. These days, I mostly work from home, so my commute is either 60-90 minutes on the trainer or 35-50 miles on the road bike in the morning. It's nice not to have to carry lunch and work clothes! I still occasionally ride to the office, but I rarely have reason to be there.

My first commuter (GT Vantara) had 35mm Ritchey Speedmax tires when I bought it, and I rode it the 7.5 miles to and from work for several months with them. After destroying the front tire (hit a bottle bottom) I replaced it with a Michelin City tire (38mm); the ride was much smoother, and I was consistently about 5 minutes faster on my commute. Then I replaced the rear tire with a City as well, which smoothed the ride further, but the bike was stolen only a week later so I didn't get a good measure of the increase in speed.

There is nothing wrong with them. There.

Now go buy some proper road tires.

I also have Ritchey Speedmax tires (700x32) that came on my new bike. The rolling resistance feels surprisingly low, and they smooth out the bumps well. I would agree with others that they don't corner as well on pavement as a smooth tire would. That's not a big issue for me, and I plan to run them at least until winter is over before putting on some 700x25 smooth tires that I already own. We'll see how that goes....

It all depends on your intended uses. If you plan to ride on trails and unpaved or shoddy roads, then CX tires might be ideal. However, appropriate road tires should faster, smoother, quieter, safer and more comfortable if riding on pavement all or most of the time. I had some CX tires (Ritchey Speedmax Pro 32s) on my Salsa Casseroll for a while last summer, and they rolled better than I expected but were noisy and felt sketchy while cornering.

In my younger days, I had a Honda 350 motocross motorcycle that was a joy to ride until I put knobby tires on it. Altho it was better on dirt, most of my riding was on roads and the knobbies took all the fun out of riding it. I was afraid to corner it and the tires were noisy. Knobbies just aren't safe, IMHO, if you are riding on roads with lots of twists and burns -- particular when wet. I often rode that cycle up to the mountains, it was very frustrating once I installed the knobbies due to the cornering effects. Same principles apply to a bicycle.

The knobby's on the sides makes for low tire contact, I am guessing it slipped.

Here's a more expensive solution. Buy another wheelset with road tires and use the current wheelset with cross tires for light off road ridding.

I'm guessing that if these tires came on the bike as original equipment, they aren't really high-end cross tires, unless it was a really high-end cross bike ($2,500+). So the compound won't be really all that soft. All the other issues have been pointed out. If they were mine, I'd run 'em till they were dead and figure out in the meantime what I wanted for the next set. Only reservation being, if the OP were considering trying their hand at cyclocross next season, why not save the tires for that, but otherwise. Burn 'em up and upgrade... and be careful diving into corners.

They wear out faster than tires designed for pavement. My husband had them on his cross bike, which he ended up using for most road rides when we moved to this city o'potholes. The knobs on the tread were worn down in a few months use. True cross tires are meant for softer surfaces.

the worst part of using cx tires thats ive found are most are made to be light weight and therefore have terrible flat protection if your commute goes though any urban areas, especially once theyre worn down a bit.

Some cross tires are very good on pavement. These are also one of the best four-season tires around. These are also as flat resistant and as durable as most hybrid tires.

Schwalbe Marathon Cross

^^^ Shouldn't the tread go the other way, and where are your brakes?

Jeff, Why would you take the time to post and then just make a wild guess?

Just curious. I figured I must be looking at the picture wrong.

A little late to reply here, but they were probably Specialized Borough XC's. My friend uses a 700x45 set with Stan's tubeless setup, and they feel nice and cushy, yet not as "slow" as one would expect from the size.

- Scott