MTB Tyres

jeffk

https://www.cyclesuperstore.ie/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=100958

Currently cycling the above bike with 29” version of the tyres that come stock. Had the brother in law over saying change the tyres for road ones.

I am still in early stages of back to cycling and do maybe 40 minutes of a round trip, mostly cycle paths (love to do canal, the park etc. but not on my own) I’m around 6ft and 21 stone and like the idea of chunky bike/tyres so I don’t have to be stopping for bumps etc.

Would spending money on road tyres really make much difference?

Lemming

Why did your brother-in-law suggest that you swap your tyres for road tyres?

jeffk

Lemming wrote:

Why did your brother-in-law suggest that you swap your tyres for road tyres?

He was saying be more resistance with the tyres and I'll find it harder. My cousin who owns a bike shop said the same.

I had a much less quality bike with anti puncture slick tyres and found it much harder to cycle than this one. So I personally think the tyres might be a tiny factor in cycling

Lemming

jeffk wrote: »

He was saying be more resistance with the tyres and I'll find it harder. My cousin who owns a bike shop said the same.

I had a much less quality bike with anti puncture slick tyres and found it much harder to cycle than this one. So I personally think the tyres might be a tiny factor in cycling

Whilst technically correct, they're over-selling it. Yes, 'slicks' on tarmac will be faster than knoblies for any given cyclist, but that's not the be all and end all of leisure cycling. And you aren't sticking to tarmac, and there's other considerations to take too, such as tyre pressure/grip, how confident you feel, how comfortable you feel, etc. It also depends greatly on what sort of off-road cycling you would like to do, or aim to do at some point. Tyres with lower rolling resistance tend to have poorer, or more ambiguous, 'bite' points when it comes to cornering, among other trade-offs.

You can get semi-slicks for mountain bikes, and you can get knoblies which are designed with lower rolling resistance in mind, such as the Continental Race Kings. Yes, they aren't slicks, and no they wont be "as fast as", but they are a compromise (much like all tyres are really anyway I suppose ... )

At the end of the day, in preaching road tyres to you, it seems that nobody has bothered to ask you what YOU would like to do with your cycling? What kind of conditions do you find yourself encountering off-road?

Edit: I have conti race kings on my hard-tail as I use it for quite a bit of commuting as well as mountain biking: decent tyres but they struggle in messy mud conditions and the cornering can sometimes be ... "interesting" when I push it.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I'd stick with the knobbly tyres. I have a 29er also and even though it's used 95% of the time on the road (albeit back country roads with poorer potholed surfaces) having the knobbly tyres means I can go pretty much anywhere I please when I want. With Road tyres your limiting yourself to road only. The puncture resistance will be greater with the knobbly tyres also.

I'm using Schwalbe Rapid Ron/tough Tom combo and rolling resistance is pretty low with them and puncture resistance is very good.

jeffk

Thanks for all the information and replies, makes me confident in my choice of bike etc. I mainly wanted something you can be ruff with and will take someone my size doing just that.

I have 60 on the back and 40 on the front, one of the lads I cycled with, said helps with punctures and helps turning/gripping.

As you both said it leaves some scope to where I can go and cycle path paths aren’t usually maintained or well-planned so don’t want to limit my routes or speed because of this.

beauf

I have Puncture resistance slicks on my MTB makes a huge difference on road when commuting. No problems on trails, canal. But its unusable on grass or mud, especially if wet. I'll just spin the back wheel and not move.

railer201

The best tyre I've used to date are Continental Double-Fighter III 1.9's, semi-slick type tyres - keeping tyres right up on pressure helps immensely with keeping rolling resistance down, mine are always at minimum 3 bar.

beauf

My slicks are at 80psi I bought a good track pump with a gauge and decent tubes specifically so I could run at higher pressure.