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Summer is approaching (or so they say), so I am looking at some summer tyres. I use my MTB also for some road touring and do not like to change tyres so I have been looking at options that minimise replacing tyres. I'm thinking of getting another front wheel with a specific road tyre, so that I can switch between an mtb tyre and a road tyre and leave the rear wheel on with some sort of hybrid tyre that can be used for both circumstances. problem is, which tyre especially for the rear.
I have read good reviews of the Schwalbe Marathon Extreme. Basically and on-road tyre for expeditions that seems to have quite some grip offroad, but am also tempted by the Kenda Small Block Eight. Do either of you have experience (with the Marathon Extreme offroad and the Kenda On Road)? Or do you have other suggestions?
Have you looked at the Marathon XR?
I'm trying a Continental Travel Contact 26x1.75 for bridleways, road and cycle path use. Will give some feedback when I finally get out.
have used the travel contact - a good tyre. Its road biased with a bit of offroad ability. 75% road
Specialized crossroads is another one I have used although the pattern I had don't seem to be made any more 50 /50 ish
If you want something biased more to the off-road end of the spectrum, Racing Ralph. Surprisingly quick on road. Though if you're touring only on tarmac, I don't see what the big deal is about 5 minutes to change a tyre compared to the amount of time you'll spend riding (over a 4 or 5 hour day you should easily make that difference back with a pure road tyre compared to anything with off-road ability).
erm something like a specialized nimbus run at 30 psi would do everything.
It would do anything well, just everything in an average way.
A Specialized crossmark might suit
Rides really quite well offroad, just lacking in mud/wet or grip under heavy braking, but not bad on the road. Just pump them up a bit
I did the road/railway path C2C + from whitehaven - sunderland on them (2.1" 70as). Okay so probably overkill for that, but its what I thought most suitable of what I had, but seemed plenty quick enough on the road
Small Blocks would be my choice, they're very fast, grip brilliantly on harder stuff, rocks, hardpack trails, etc, cope adequately enough on most mud, and they roll decently fast on tarmac. Not like slicks naturally but not so terribly far off, definately faster than racing ralphs.
Oh, and they come in nice big sizes without giving away too much weight penalty, and they last forever. I love the 2.35s, I'm never sure if they're faster or slower than the 2.1s, that could go either way but they're very comfy to ride on and they hook up on surfaced trails (trail centres, footpaths, old railway lines etc) like velcro. Ace.