After reading numerous rave reviews of G-Ones, I fitted a set to my Dirty Disco crosser. I have to say I’m a little disappointed, they’re plenty quick on the road and hardpack for sure, but anything remotely muddy or grassy has them feeling horribly insecure and teetery, not so different from riding the same stuff on Open Paves.

My normal all-round CX-ish tyre of choice is the Bontrager CX0, a sort of fast, semi-slickish thing that’s not as quick on the road as the Schwalbe, but feels a hell of a lot more secure on anything that’s not bone dry.

Maybe I’m just expecting too much . I guess if things were drier at the moment, I might feel differently. Am I missing something here?

Good in the dry.. Used one on the back in dry fast conditions… Probably wouldn’t use it as a front tyre. Had mine setup tubeless and low pressure..
What pressure have you tried?

Not the sort of rubber I’d use on grass or mud. Road and gravel yes.
I’m yet to find something that will be fast and grippy on road, mud, gravel and grass. I personally thinking that too much to ask. Compromises will have to be made.

Hutchinson black mambas are pretty good in the rough but probably not better that the bontragers.

Yeah, ‘G’ravel not ‘G’rass, and certainly not ‘G’mud.
Sounds like you really want the newly released X-One

What pressure have you tried?

I’m running about 50psi, my next step is to lower it a little, but it’s quite rocky round here, even on the easy off-road, and I quite like my rims to be roughy circular.

I like the Bontragers a lot. Once the tread wears off the centre of the rear tyre, they roll really fast and still grip surprisingly well off road.

Yeah, ‘G’ravel not ‘G’rass, and certainly not ‘G’mud.
Sounds like you really want the newly released X-One

Yeah, maybe I do. Or maybe I’ll just stick with the CX0 since they mostly seem to do what I want. Thanks for all the input 🙂

I just posted this in the tubeless thread:

I think road tubeless is very different to MTB – probs due to the lighter thinner tyres involved. I have just replaced my Schwable One tubeless with some Schwable One pro tubless after 18 months and c3,500 miles. In that time I must have had 5 or 6 punctures / issues. These were the first generation ‘Ones’ and were a lovely soft grippy rubber but I think they have proven to be too soft. They were covered in little cuts and are in a completely shagged state prompting the investment in a new set. That said many of these cuts and general damage has sealed during use and the performance was generally better than tubes in all departments. Since I bought them the tubeless version has acquired the ‘pro’ tag and they are a completely different tyre. Much harder more plasticy feel to them so I’m hoping for more durability on these. Will update at some point.

I think much of the ‘Ones’ reputation comes from the supper sticky compound that the original tyres were made from. I assume they have had durability issues and have toughened them up to the extent they are now very hard and therefore possibly less good in the wet and/or cold.

I’ve been looking for an all-round 29er tyre in recent weeks, something I could use for tarmac and lighter off-road stuff, not that I tend to do such off-road out of habit (but I hope to change that with more frequent visits to Lordswood/ Bassett Sports trail after last Monday’s visit).

I really fancied a pair of 700x38c G-Ones, but ~£80 put me off, I spent that amount on a “bargain” pair of Jumbo Jim snakeskins!

DFS had some 40c Marathon Mondials at £21, but while procrastinating, they went. They still have Sammy Slicks, but they went from £13 to £21 yesterday. They have 29×2.0/2.25 WTB Ninelines at £13 last time I looked (but not sure how they do tarmac in terms of wear, supposed to be very Ikon-like off-road), plus hidden away, they have 40c Nanos for £21 which are supposed to be decent.

But I only spotted the Nanos yesterday afternoon, having seen the price rises on the others bits I’d been looking at, so I have a pair of 38c Marathon Cross arriving this lunchtime from Nextdaytyres for just under £40 delivered. Never tried them, but their spec looks decent for a do-it-all, albeit perhaps a little heavy.

http://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/marathon-cross.html

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/SCHWALBE-MARATHON-CROSS-MTB-29/1897

Awesome gravel tyres, fast on hardpack, tarmac and gravel. But CX tyres they are not, mud is not what they were designed for or what they’re good at.

Sell them to me cheap

To be fair, I’m not talking about proper mud. I’m thinking the sort of light skim of the stuff you get in the Peak after heavy rain. I wouldn’t expect G-Ones to cope with real mud, I’m just taken aback by just how insecure they feel even on that ‘lightly-mudded’ stuff. The CX0s are in my experience, a lot better despite not exactly being a heavily treaded tyre.

And to be fair to the G-Ones, they are pretty quick on hardback and tarmac, which I guess is the idea.

I ran a g one as a back tyre (had a wtb nano race on the front) for battle on the beach this year at about 25 psi.. Couldn’t really fault it but there were only a few muddy sections. Probably best run tubeless as a back tyre at sub 30psi

I like Schwalbe CX Comps, 700×30 for a mix of road, gravel and light offroading – forest paths, bit of single-track etc.

Fast on road, don’t feel dodgy off road

Can get them for £6 each online too

Yes they’re heavy but found the Landcruisers difficult to argue with. Also quite like the Cyclo x kings black chili version.

Yep, loved my 26″ Landcruisers on my old Saracen Pylon8, they rolled pretty well considering their weight. Did think about trying a 29er pair, but I fancied trying something new.

The 700×38 Marathon Cross pair arrived, ~1.2Kg for the pair, nice raised central “shield” section to roll on and slightly larger side knobs for off-road at lower pressure.
Going to let my late pub lunch settle a bit and then try and fit them to the FatNotFat wheels… It’s been 5+ years since I last tried to fit any Marathon model, wish me luck! 😈