…rolls fast on tarmac, towpaths and smooth railway line type trails, but also offers a moderate level of grip if I take a detour onto a bit of singletrack! Oh, and doesn’t wear out in 4 ride and not too heavy!

And I’m not sure wether fat and semi-slick is better than skinny and semi slick.

Ta!
😀

not helpful but you’re asking for a lot

Schwalbe marathon

was thinking the same schwalbe marathon maybe the marathon cross?

Been pondering this myself lately, so far conti travel contact is winning over the schwalb in the reviews I’ve tracked down.

But both seem heavy.

I’ve got the Marathon race, they’re quite a bit lighter.

I like Intense System 3s. Very fast on tarmac and dry off-road (pretty lethal in the wet though). 580g but rolled much better than light Kenda Small Block 8s that felt much more grippy/draggy.

WTB Nano Raptor

WTB Nano Raptor up front, WTB Vulpine rear.

i toured on the conti travel contacts
really great tyre, superb puncture protection,
pulled bits of glass and small metal pin out of the tyre but never suffered a puncture.
rolls great aswell

the side grip is only really ok on hard pack stuff nothing loose,
definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable taking it offroad properly.

but would definitely recommend it

Geax Barro Race? 380g per tyre in the folding version, super quick on road even compared to my fast rolling Crossmarks, and OK offroad as lng as it’s bone dry hardpack.

Kenda Small Block 8, choice of sizes and ticks all the boxes.
Have the 2.35’s on my singlespeed (26″) and just put some 2″ on my 29er tonight and they seem great too.

Pretty light and roll almost as well as my slicks on tarmac.

Cheers folks, plenty to look at there!

maxxis hollyroller 2.4

weigh a ton, but soooooooooo fast

fat and light. You don’t need much tread at all to grip if it’s not muddy
I’d say a pliable carcass makes the biggest difference

get some furious fred in 2.2 they are the fastest things known to man.

Kenda Short Tracker in 2.1 have served me well for the past couple of years. Wear really well and cope with a surprising amount off road.

Conti Double Fighter 2s ? 1.95″ fast tread in middle but knobblies on the edge for the mud and rocks.

I would say try the Geax Suguaro or Hutchinson Python.

Both fast, light and pretty grippy.

I’d go for the pythons given the choice of the two.

I like the conti double fighters. Very fast.

I would add that the Kends Small Block 8 and the WTB Nano Raptor are genuine off-road tyres. The WTB Nano Raptor rolls particularly fast because of the near-continuous centre tread, and would be my choice if I wanted reasonable rolling resistance and decent performance on dry/loose off-road trails.

I had some Double Fighters when they first came out a few years ago, they were all right on the road until you leaned into a corner too far and reached the knobs on the edge of the tread, next thing you where lying on the tarmac 😕

I got some Conti Travel Contacts after asking a similar question, no punctures yet but they do have protection, which I guess makes them heavy – 670g I read somewhere?

Roll fast – you can put 80psi in these! I have a couple of miles of a gravel/brick/stoney loose surface to do on my commute and a short bit on grass and they are fine, not used in the wet yet though, but most of it is road which is why I wanted something like these.

Good price at merlin last time I looked?

Not actually a semi-slick, but I put a set of Tioga red phoenix tyres on my 4x bike as the track was wet… They rolled noticably faster than the ritchey semi-slicks that were on there before (both sets of tyres run at 60psi), and have a reasonable amount of grip offroad too.