RatedZ

My wife and I just got brand new Mountain Bikes and obviously they both have knobby tires. We all know knobby tires are not great for the street, and will wear down quickly with street use. They're also not the easiest to pedal along with on asphalt.

Where can we find reasonably priced wheels (under $100 per set) for our bikes? I've been "out of the loop" for 22 years, and I've never owned a 26in. bike, so I don't know any of this stuff.

jzsoup

Do you mean tires? I've picked up cheap sets of slick tires for mountain bike wheels at nashbar.com, performancebike.com, and jensonusa.com. Jenson has the fastest shipping of the three and the one I prefer to use.

My favorite has been the Ritchey Tom Slicks. 26" x 1". They're the same width as my road bike tires and make you feel really fast compared to the old knobbies. You do have to switch to smaller tubes to use them though.

RatedZ

I figured wheels/tires would be easier to purchase, just because swapping tires every time we decided on a different type of riding would become a nuisance.

Both of our bikes are 2010 GT Avalanches. Rachel got the 3.0 Disc and I got the 1.0 Disc. They each have the "quick-disconnect" wheel system.

I'll check the links you provided. Thanks for sharing!

jzsoup

Wheels can get expensive. Plus you then have to switch the cassettes as well, or purchase extra cassettes to go with the extra wheels. So tires, wheels, and cassette will be well north of $100 per bike.

What will happen is the sickness will overtake you and you'll next purchase a pair of road bikes.

When my wife says, "how many more bikes do you need?" The answer is always "one more." I presently have 5.

RatedZ

YIKES!

My "newfound" hobby is quickly adding up to the price of a new car. Would it beneficial to grab a Walli-World Special for the asphalt?

Svr

Sounds like you want a dual purpose tire, like the Continental Town and Country or the Nashbar Elevator. They have a nearly unbroken center strip that gives a smooth ride on pavement, but they still have some knobs on the side for dirt. They're either the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds, depending on the type of riding you do most.

RatedZ

We're going to be doing a lot of asphalt riding as compared to mountain biking, so this tire may be a good choice. Is tire still useable once it's been removed from a rim, or does this break the "seal" and deem the tire useless? I figure it'll be nice to have extra sets of tires when we do hit the trails...

JiveTurkey

People tend to underestimate how well street tires can handle dirt paths and gravel roads. There are many tires that will handle road as well as trail well; no need to swap out.

RatedZ

Okay. What can I expect to pay for a dual-purpose tire like these?

Svr

I think the Nashbar tires are on sale for $15 each right now. You may want to run a web search on the Continentals to see what deals are out there.


Edit: you can use the same tubes you have now -- there's no seal to break on tubed tires, so you can always swap back to the OEM knobbies if you like.

RatedZ

Good to know! I think I'll check for the Nashbar tires. Have you used them? If so, can you give a quick review?

jgedwa

+1. I might go so far as to say unless you are a fairly serious rider dealing with fairly serious terrain, slicks are just fine. Certainly fine for gravel. Actually, they are better for gravel than knobbies.

jim

RatedZ

Neither my wife nor I are hardcore riders, and we're just getting into it, actually. I can't see myself ever becoming a die-hard mountain biker; someone into rock pits and 10 foot drops. We're probably going to be more of the "recreational" type of mountain biker.

Basically, we want to ride some trails, but nothing overly daring or dangerous; just some dirt with roots as obstacles, and stuff like that. I'm more of a "screw-off," which is basically left over from my days as a 14 year old 22 years ago (I haven't been on a bike in 22 years). I still have a little bit of that "BMX bug" left in me, and it's not going to disappear anytime soon. While my wife might take those trails slowly, I might take those trails as a faster and harder pace, hence the reason I got a GT Avalanche 1.0 Disc and she got a 3.0 Disc.