jefnvk

OK, last question for a while, I promise!

I'm looking for recommendations for 26" (559) tires that compromise between pavement riding, and gravel/two track riding. As I'm starting to lay out a route, I am looking at somewhere around 450km total riding, with 100-150 of that being off pavement, anything from gravel to possibly loose dirt track. No actual offroading or MTB trail type stuff, everything will be somewhat maintained vehicle roads, so I'm not interested in outright knobbies. Flat protection is more of a consideration than easier rolling resistance or speed.

Three in particular I am looking at, in no particular order of preference, if you can offer any suggestions (or alternates), it would be most appreciated:

1) Schwalbe Sammy Slick. 2.1", ~$30. Schwalbe Sammy Slick MTB Tyre | Chain Reaction Cycles. Similar tread to my fiancee's Specialized Trigger Sports, which seem to roll well on pavement, can handle gravel fine, but only come in 700s. Diamond nubs in the center rolling area, more MTB-like knobs on the shoulder.

2) Schwalbe Marathon Mondial. 2.0", ~$30. Schwalbe Marathon Mondial 26" Tyre - RaceGuard | Chain Reaction Cycles. Inverted tread pattern with an aggressive shoulder, similar to the cheap Forte's the bike currently wears now and I'm generally happy with, seems to receive really good gravel touring recommendations.

3) Continential Tour Ride. 1.75", ~$18. Continental Tour Ride 26 x 1.75. Continuous center smooth surface, blocky shoulders, also seem to get quite good reviews on gravel road touring. The continuous center surface does make me wonder about its climbing in gravel abilities, though.

Also, as an add on, does anyone carry a spare folding tire? Thinking about tossing one of the Kevlar belted ones from Wal-Mart in the panniers as insurance.

fietsbob

Continental Travel Contact , that was the Niche the aimed at .. Riding on bike tours past the end of the Paved roads..

My last tour I carried a Spare Tire that was not a Folding tire , it was the 3rd of the same tire on the wheels.

pulling a stiff bead tire into an oval makes a shape that drapes well across the rear rack and panniers ..

a supple casing 700-35 steel bead tire rolls to 1/3 its diameter without bending the bead wire

How to is on .. the internet .. And past posts Here.




..

niknak

I'm not convinced tread patterns add any benefits for dirt roads and touring. It's unlikely that tourists are cornering hard enough to even engage the shoulder knobs. If it's muddy, the inverted tread patterns aren't much help either. And then when you happen to ride on the road you'll deal with the buzzing and less grip.

For all road touring I go wide and smooth. You can run lower pressures for a smoother ride and the extra width reduces pinch flats. If you're riding in thorn country, then tubeless is the best solution for puncture resistance.

jefnvk

For hard packed dirt v road, I'd agree. I do notice quite a bit of difference on gravel (and the odd time I get into wet clay), between my old slick commuter tires on the MTB and the treaded tires on there now. The tread has some give going over the gravel bits, whereas the slicks you felt much more, and the wheel skipped around a bit more getting up and on top of the rocks. Wet clay on one of my trails was dicey at best on the slicks, its at least tolerable now (most of the reason I made the switch).

And those TravelContacts look nice, and cheap as well from the UK places.

alan s 

Schwalbe Marathon Supreme

Spoonrobot 

Kenda Happy Medium is the best rolling 26" tire I've used. It rides about as close to a smooth tread tire on the road as you can get. Handles the occasional slick offroad section with aplomb. Reasonably cheap and light as well.

The Sammy Slick is probably just as good but I've no experience with that one.

Tourist in MSN

I think that the Mondial was intended to replace the Dureme and Extreme. I am still using the Dureme and Extreme and think they are excellent.

I used the Extreme, 57mm wide in Iceland, both front and rear. I thought it was an excellent compromise for mixed pavement and gravel. But I think you will not find any of those for sale anymore, so the replacement for it is probably the one I would buy.

The purpose of my photo was to show a bent spoke, but it is a good photo of my 57mm wide Extremes.

I also brought a spare to Iceland, but I do not recall which tire I brought. I think I brought my lightest weight 26 inch tire which I think was 1.75 width, but as a spare I did not plan on using it much so I focused on weight in my choice.

Jean_TX

I have the 700x32mm Conti Tour Ride tires on my "gravel bike" (an old sport tourer that I re-purposed). I wanted tires that would be as flat-proof as possible. I bought them based on someone's blog (https://christov10.wordpress.com/tag...tal-tour-ride/ ).

I've ridden them on granite trails, 1" gravel (some very sharp, some more rounded), sand, dirt, and grass. With the tread, protection belt, and rubber coated sidewalls, they have proven to be bullet proof. Traction has been adequate - the only time they spun out was on a very steep hard packed trail with fine granite that was really more suitable for an MTB. They are heavy, but you probably won't find anything better for the price.

jefnvk

How did you find it for puncture resistance? I did see the Happy Mediums when originally looking, I do like the tread pattern. I've used other Kendas in the past without issue, but the fit and finish were never on the level of other tires in a similar price ranges, a fact which never inspired much confidence. I'd have no issue giving them a go if I weren't headed to a remote area, but for the same price as other tires which are well regarded, I am just shying away.

I'm not familiar with the tire, if they are the same as the Extremes, but they were marketed as a replacement for the Marathon XRs. I will say, they are the direction that I am leaning right now, although I do like the looks of the Contis mentioned above too.

tyrion

Schwalbe Mondial (folders) are my favorite all around (road+trail) tire. Of course it's a compromise, but for me the best compromise I've found. I've heard they have poor traction on wet roads, but that doesn't concern me much.

I'm not a fan of those dual purpose tires with center ridges - sometimes the center ridge can be "steered" a little bit by cracks in the road.

mstateglfr 

Panaracer TServ PT.

bikemig has em in 26" 42mm for a drop bar MTB Road bike and loves em. They are a light tread, good weight, and roll well.

indyfabz

I am pretty sure that's what my ex's 2011 Surly LHT (26") came with. She's ridden them gravel/rock/dirt both loaded and unloaded with great success.


I have been adding more and more "gravel" to my tours and have had great success with the Conti Touring II 700cx37c. For 26" they make them in 1.75 " only.

jefnvk

How are the sidewalls compared to other Panaracers? I have Paselas on a couple of my road bikes, I generally like them, but the sidewalls aren't the strongest looking and don't really inspire me to take them to a remote rocky place. I originally considered the 26" Paselas before nixing them for that reason.

jeffpoulin

I have several tire sets for my 26" bike, two of which are on your list: Mondial Performance line 26x2.0 and Sammy Slick 26x2.1 (folding). Both are great for road, gravel, and hardpack. The Sammy Slicks are a little better in loose stuff and shed mud easily. The Mondials will cake up in mud, but are definitely stronger and more durable overall.

Don't believe the listed weights on Schwalbe's site. Schwalbe lists the weight of the Mondials at 720g, but mine are 820g (each!). My Sammy Slicks weigh 505g which is close to the 490g listed weight. The Slicks accelerate and climb faster, but have more rolling resistance so my Mondials are slightly faster on flat terrain.

Never had a flat with either model, but on a tour, I'd take the Mondials every time. Once you mount them, you can pretty much forget about them. With my Sammy Slicks, I never felt comfortable without a flat repair kit. However, for short rides on gravel roads near home, the Slicks are really great.

mstateglfr 

We rode in a 65mi gravel race together and they were perfectly fine for that. Probably 60mi of it was on varying types of gravel.
Thats all I can say for 1st hand...and it isnt actually 1st hand, more just witness.

I know the feeling on Paselas.

motorapido

Consider the Panaracer t-serv Protex, which comes in your size and has a folding Kevlar bead. I have ridden the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal entire route several times on this tire, and have also covered great distances on paved roads, on self-supported tours.The tire grips pretty darn well on hard packed dirt, mud, small and medium gravel and rolls very smoothly on pavement. Forget that they market it as an urban messenger tire. I am baffled why they limit their marketing scope for this tire so much. I also like the Vittoria Voyager Hyper. It is a super smooth roller, and despite being almost entirely slick has served me quite well on gravel and dirt, in addition to pavement.

jefnvk

Cool, I'll have to see if I can take a look at them anywhere locally. I do like the Paselas, I've never been in anything that felt unstable with them, if I felt the sidewall were a bit more robust I'd have no issues buying the T-Serv, as it seems to be otherwise similarly constructed.

Thanks for the side by side comparison, it helps. If you've never had a flat, what about the Slick makes you more worried?

I don't really care about weight, I'm far from being a gram counter! All I care about is staying below a 60lb packed weight.

BlarneyHammer

I've used the Schwalbe Marathon Deluxe for this purpose, and it works well.

The Schwalbe Marathon Mondial, Marathon Plus Tour, and Marathon Cross also look like good choices.
I love that these guys have an entire line of touring tires, rather than just one, treated as an afterthought.

The choice comes down to where you put your priorities. Would you rather make sure the worst surface isn't as bad? Or would you rather make the majority of your ride a little better?

Erick L

I still have some XRs and I doubt I'll ever ride enough gravel to wear them out. These things are tough! They're stiff and the folding version is easier to put on and off. I believe the Mondial replaced the XRs after the "original" replacements weren't quite as durable.

jeffpoulin

Two reasons:

1) the Slicks are much thinner, and unlike the Mondials, do not have a lot of puncture resistance.

2) My 700c commuter bike also has Mondials in the performance line. I've ridden them thousands of KM over the past 4 years over all kinds of debris and never had a flat with these either. They're very reliable. I also have a set of 8 year old Marathon XRs (now discontinued) on another bike and have also never had a flat. The Mondials were the successors to the XRs, so from my experience, they're very trustworthy tires. They're also very hard to wear out!

52telecaster

Continental tour rides get my vote. My son bought some city rides and I liked em so I got the tour rides in 700x32. I was amazed at the price and durability.

Got at least a 1000 miles on em and they still look good.

djb

Those 2inch Mondials at $30 US each ($36.49 Ca.) are a great price. The schwalbe site says the folding is 740g and the wire bead is 720g, which doesnt make sense, might be a typo and is 820g, but nevertheless, they are lighter than the marathon plus and marathon touring plus tires which are closer to a kg each.
Ive seriously considered these tires if I were to be doing more gravel stuff on tour, and at $30 each (site says list is $47) they certainly seem like a reasonable price for surely a very good tire that has a proven touring record.

As a reference, my many year old regular marathons, 26x1.5 must have close to 10,000km on them, mostly commuting, and still have lots of life in them, although me being light and with only a small percentage of touring miles on them is a large factor, but still shows that Schwalbe do make good products.
I have been using 2in Supremes for a while also, but not really what you need for your trip.

staehpj1

Just me, but...

I tend to go straight from skinny slicks to real knobs, low and many, but actual knobs. Inverted tread doesn't seem to do much.

So once I choose to ride something other than fairly narrow slicks I go to something like the Kenda Slant Six with lots of low knobs. They roll fairly well on pavement and are good on even technical single track.

I tend to not worry too much about a real high level of puncture resistance until I am riding where tubeless starts to make sense. So I usually use 25 mm Gatorskins for paved road or paved road with a bit of dirt or gravel roads or easy trails. I don't see fixing a flat once in a while to be a huge hardship. So unless off pavement in thorn country where flats are super frequent, something like gatorskins are enough flat protection.

On a tour like you describe with a good portion of the ride being on dirt, I was happy with 26" Kenda Slant Sixes, but I think that the tubeless setup on my 29er (Stans No Tube Ravens) would work very well. They would be great in goat head thorn country if riding enough gravel and dirt to justify going with fat tires.

jefnvk

I'm not really convinced that any will be "better" on pavement, was more wondering if any in particular stood out as obviously better in any of the considerations. Seems that all are well regarded, though, with few complaints about any.

Yeah, I looked at them, they seemed to be mentioned quite a bit on the CX forums. I don't think I have room for the 2.35 or 2.5 and fenders, and the skinnier ones are all seemingly well more than I can get the touring Contis and Schwlabes for. I'm not really interested in tubeless at this point, either.

bikemig 

I am impressed with them. They only weigh 470 grams in 26 x 42c which isn't bad. Some of the tires the OP is looking at weigh 2x as much and are really designed for serious expeditions tours where tire survival is important. Plus they have a kevlar bead and make a good spare to take along as well. You can take advantage of jet com which gives you 15% off your first 3 orders and buy 3 of them for right around $100. That's less than 2 of the schwalbe marathon supremes which are excellent as well and reasonably light.