road tyres for a mtb

What are a good quality road tyre for a mtb? I’m looking for 26×1.5 that’ll give a good amount of grip and roll well. I’m currently running Specialized Nimbus but the older one is several years old and is showing cracks on the sidewall, plus I’ve never found them particularly great in corners, or the wet, unless it’s just my bad driving.

Continental SportContact.

Michelin Wild Grip’R,

Surprisingly grippy, roll very well indeed, and cheap as chips too, obviously dependent on local conditions but I’ve had approx 1 puncture per 1000 miles, used for commuting, and general load lugging with trailer, so have been pretty reliable too.

Specialised Roll-X I think they were called.

WTB Slickasaurus comes in 1.3 too, if you want to be able to see the edge of the rim from above!

Schwalbe Kojak is very good imo- light, fast, grippy, decent amount of puncture protection too. Not the cheapest mind

If you have a few £ to spend then perhaps the compass 26″ tyres will be suitable.

I have the 38mm barlow pass 700c tyres set up tubeless, fantastic levels of grip, very fast and so smooth on rough roads so i wouldn’t hesitate in buying the 26″ compass tyres.

While not expensive, I’ve always found Schwalbe City Jet to be a good on-road mtb tyre; 1.5 or 1.8. I always used 1.5, they wore well, gripped fine & I didn’t puncture very often.

^ Compass Barlows is what replaced the Wild Grip’R’s (along with a bike swap), so the 26in options would be well worth a look.

They are indeed made of magic :-)

okay thanks guys and gals, plenty to be looking at from that little lot.

I have 2 inch big apples. I think that the wider tyre helps keep the wheel radius high and the geometry near what was intended

Compass Cayuse Pass look very interesting for a racey tyre. 184g for a 26mm tyre with an alleged excellent durability. What’s the catch?!

the price? although on a par with other decent clinchers, pretty sure the cayuse are only 700c though.

I’ve been thinking about trying some but not until I can find one in the flesh to check it will clear my frame, which is already tight with 25s in it :-s

What’s most important to you: Fast, comfortable, puncture resistant, cheap? Obviously it’ll be nice to have all of the above but life’s a bitch, hey? :-)

Schwalbe kojak, even though there slicks I ran them for 2 years commuting in all weathers, never really felt loss of grip and never had a puncture.
Absolutely ace tyres, fast!!!

Big fan of the Schwalbe Kojak here too. Fast, great grip in both wet and dry and good puncture resistance (but not marathon-level invulnerability). They come in 1.3″ and 2.0″ flavours, I had the 1.3″.

The main reason why I stopped using them is that now I’m a poor student I’ve started to look for something longer lasting.

Currently using Continental Gatorskins 1 1/8″. They last longer, still very fast, not as much grip, a little less comfortable. Seem to get roughly the same amount of punctures.

Another Compass fan here. Barlow Pass 38c on the London Rd. I’ll happily spend out on the Cayuse Pass if I can convince myself that the road bike isn’t now redundant. Which will be tough. 38s are fast, resilient and sublime thanks to low pressure & easy tubeless.

Ah har. I just remembered, I have a pair of 26er kojaks from my old commuter in the garage- it got written off when a mate borrowed it and mangled a wheel, wasn’t economic to fix and I went all 700ey. Drop me a line if interested ;)