Tyre choice for 800km tour

ac2kp5

Hi all

First time poster here. I just wanted to get people's opinions on tyres.

I'm doing a charity cycle that will average out at 100km per day over 8 straight days. Despite commuting by bike for 20 years I've never really considered myself a cyclist and consequently now when I want to choose some tyres for this event I'm bewildered by the choice out there.

I'll almost certainly be using my trek 7.5fx hybrid bike though I have had some offers of lends of road bikes by people who think I'm mad for considering doing those distances on a hybrid. It currently has the 700x32 Maxxis somethings (supplied with the bike) which are brilliant for puncture resistance but too wide and too slick. I'm thinking I should go down to 28s or possibly 25s?

The event is in june in central europe so it'll be warm! There's a choice of routes: one is tarmac only, the other is mixed gravel tracks and tarmac roads. I'm most likely to be on the mixed surface one so some level of tread would be useful i'd imagine.

Any thoughts on suitable brands/models/sizes to look at?

Cheers

IM0

if your going to do the mixed gravel route then what you have now will be fine 32's but if you want to reduce rolling resistance (will be hard to tell the difference aparrt from less comfort than what you have now) then 28's is ideal.

This is trhe way it is, having a wider tyre will be more comfortable on those gravel roads, likewise morethread, its a trade off with using more slick tyres for the road, swings and roundabouts really, so its hard to advise you on what to get. There are tyres that have a slick middle and threads on the edges, continental make them I think, which will give you more bite on the off road stuff.

keenan110

I changed from 32's to 28's on my bike last year and i can honestly say they have been a really big improvement, not really sure how good they'd be on a mixed surface, but i'd say they are probably fine!

blorg

If you are doing mixed surfaces I would go wider, 700x35c at least. I have used Schwalbe Marathons in 700x35c doing the Camino on mixed tarmac/off road and I think they were pretty much perfect as a choice. Let the pressure down slightly off road and pumped it up on road. You would get away with a narrower tyre if you are not carrying luggage but to be honest a decent 35 is not significantly slower, certainly not on a hybrid. I have 28s on my tourer currently but would put on 35s if there was going to be an off-road component. I have experience using 700x25c on white roads in Italy and it just wasn't enough IMO, especially not loaded.

ac2kp5

thanks for the thoughts everyone. I think I'll try some 28s anyway to see what the difference is on the road and then decide whether they feel ok overall.

Civilian_Target

For gravel, you're going to want at least 32s, ideally 35 if you doing any sort of distance on it.

I have Schwalbe Marathon Plus 32s, they're slick, bomb-proof and they're fine for a few km a week on gravel on top of what I do... but if I was going for more than 15 minutes or 20 minutes on the gravel, I think I would want something a bit comfier.