My commute is about to change, giving me the opportunity to introduce nice wee bit of off road riding as a digestif to the road part. What 26″ tyres would be recommended for such a journey.

Depends on what kind of off-road? To some that would be their local railway path. But then you might want to take in the local downhill run?

Furious fred, racing ralph?

Yeah, was a bit vague, it’ll be through the woods with some loam and some trail centre type armoured surfaces, red/black grades.
Being a tight was these appeal, are they any good?
Vee Rubber Speed-R

You need all round ones

Over here in Jersey we have to ride a lot on road to get to the trails, I always used to rate Schwalbe HD, Trailstar front, Pacestar rear, switch to something faster rolling in the rear in the summer – Rock Razor.. However a few months ago I tried the Bonty XR4 Team Issue on a recommendation of a friend, and its brilliant, rolls really well but is also very grippy. And lighter than the HD too!

Currently using Continental Race Kings for all round use. Light, high volume, just enough grip yet still roll pretty well. Not scientific but on a downhill stretch on road last week I caught up with a road bike with both of us coasting down the hill…

Conti Race Kings.

You will destroy knobbly rear tyres commuting on the road so either the cheapest ones yo can find or something semi slick/hybrid esque.

In summer i do easy offroad on slicks, carefully.

Yeah bontrager xr4 are a good compromise, not great in mud though.

Commuter tyres with a continuous central ridge or something with a file pattern tread.

Any old tyres you have lying around ? Maxxis do some decent hybrids fairly cheap and ime quite puncture proof, ones I’ve got a bit more road orientated so quite slippy in mud but there is a lot of choice

Conti double fighter 3.

13 quid in halfrauds each.

Just crap in the gooey stuff.

Race Kings with the Black Chilli compound. Roll well and very durable.

Alternatively maybe Sammy Slicks.

Geax mezcals 2.3 semi slicks £8 off on one. I’m waiting for some, ordered last night

If it’s not muddy, Rapid Rob from Scwinn but there are more expensive & lighter tyres out there.

I use them on my CX.

Race kings as well.

In summer i do easy offroad on slicks, carefully.

Yeah, it’s surprising how well they can handle it…in the dry. Completely different story when it’s wet and muddy. As long as you have something with decent volume.

I asked the same question a while ago and a lot of people pointed me towards the schwalbe black jack. It has a continuous tread in the middle for on road and more normal mtb tread on the sides for off-road. Cheap as chips too. I never got around to trying them though and started using my commuter more and only took the mtb on days when I wanted to go the off-road way home.

Maxxis Crossmark are the only choice!

Thanks to all, good information and pointer’s, surprising how little you can actually get a tyre for, I’ll probably start with the cheapest option and see how I get on.

Don’t leave us guessing? Which one are you going for?

race kings are good. I had them on my old orange that I use for commuting on road and the odd local trail ride when I cant be bothered with the full-sussers. I have some no-name tyres on at the moment that someone donated to me, but when they wear out, I’ll buy race kings again probably.