It seems a ~40+mm tyre would be a good compromise for mixed routes round me (tarmac to mellow river-side walking paths).

What works ok at a reasonable price? My 29er/700c rims are ancient so I don’t need tubeless, I might be swapping them round a bit anyways.

WTB Nano.

The Nano is impressive. Also just received a set of gravel kings today, for the new build which look good – Merlin have them at £32 each at the moment https://www.merlincycles.com/panaracer-gravel-king-sk-tlc-folding-tyre-700c-90671.html

Another vote for the Nano.

I just got some Nanos after advice on here. So far they’ve been great – good on the road and surprisingly grippy in wet mud.

My commute sounds like the sort of stuff you describe. I went for 40s as well, and I think that’s the right choice.
DON’T get Schwalbe hurricanes or WTB Riddlers unless you fancy mending a puncture every 5km.

CX Comp

Cheap, robust and not bad as an all rounded 700*38s have ERTRO 40mm

Nano is brilliant. But the Resolute is where it’s at now. I had Nanos a few years back for “off season” (read summer) on the CX bike and they were smashing. The Resolute is lighter, faster on tarmac, quieter and more predictable in loose stuff. Mud? neither are that great (although i don’t remember a lot of mud with the Nano)

Sendero is another option not ridden that, but looks a bit more ‘chunky’.

Tubeless set up was painless.

Nano seems awfully toothy for tarmac and towpaths.

I’ve been running Vittoria Terreno Drys for everything except deliberately sought out CX mud, they’re probably no better than any other semi-slick, slight ‘scales’ in the middle which I refuse to believe are anything but cosmetic.

Reliable and fun off road, painless on the tarmac, can’t ask for much more. Certainly less painful to fit and inflate than the WTBs I’ve owned in the past!

Closer to a slick than the above options is the schwalbe G one all round. They’re obviously not for mud but I’ve found them good for my riding which includes a lot of tarmac but also a fair lot of forest trails and some summer field boundary type bridleways, towpaths and such.

Then this winter I’ve replaced them with (£££) Rene Herse Steilacooms which have been fantastic – obvs an off road tyre and great in the kind of mud etc this bike hits but surprisingly acceptable on tarmac too. They’re not an answer to your brief but I can’t help but mention them because they’re amazing things and seem good even at some things they’re not really for.

Smart Sam are also quite good if you’re not doing too much road or if the roads are rubbish pot-holed & muck covered like here

Thanks all. Continental AT CITY looked ok, not heavy and well priced so I went for them.

Also looked at some transmission spares…jeez there’s nothing around!

Gravel king sk here. Less puncture resistant now the back us worn down but still they that have been great and coped with loads off road more grips than slicks. But still roll well

second the panaracer gravelking range
I had oem WTB Byway which i rode half a dozen times.. ending up with a puncture twice?
according to strava.. the gravelkings are no slower (and possibly quicker) on my 9.5 99% road commute but a whole world more confidence inspiring and actually usable off road

Those astonishingly expensive Rene Herse tyres (I had to Google) look a lot like a WTB Resolute – which is the king of the WTB range, bizarrely fast on tarmac yet good in mud etc. If you have room for 42s, they are brilliant.

Check the reviews, they are very well liked.

Do Resolutes work with tubes, or are they tubeless only?

I cant see why you couldn’t put a tube in a tubeless tyre?

I’ve certainly done it a few times with other tyres.

I use Nanos but they don’t last that long sadly. Am looking for something that can withstand flinty tracks without splitting all the time. I seem to get through a tyre every 3-400 miles.

I had a pair of specialized (can’t remember the name) that were promising on tarmac but both split on their maiden offroad section…at the same time. Couldn’t find the object that caused it either.

Loving my nanos but CX comps are well cheap and if you don’t need tubeless very good for the price.

I think it all depends on how much road vs off-road you do and how much extra drag you are prepared to accept on the road sections. I tend to run gravelking slick tyres in the summer. They are pretty much as fast as a road tyre and cope fine with the rocky and/or sandy off-road that we get up here in the NE of Scotland. I’ve thought about things that are better for off-road but can’t really face being slower on the road as that makes up around 80% of most of my “gravel” rides.

I tend GravelKings (not the SK) and they were impressively fast on road, and good on dry/damp canal paths. However, they seemed fragile as anything. I’m on a Byway rear now and send pretty decent.

I’m a fan of Hutchinson Touaregs for anything other than mud. Very quick and robust enough for South Downs riding. Last pretty well and are fairly cheap.

Things may have moved on, but Rock’n’Road 43mm were considered pretty good all-rounders from reviews I saw, there’s a few left at PX for ~£30 each last time I looked.

Others in the mix for me would be G One variants, Gravel King and Gravel King SK variants. Depends so much on your expected mix of tarmac and trails and the state you expect them to be in.

I’ve tried:
700×35 CX Comp
700×40 CX Comp
700×47 Smart Sam
700×47 and 700×47 Spesh Trigger Sport
and for past 15mths/ 5k kilometres using Clement XPlor MSO 700×50 (now rebadged as Donnelly it seems?).

Before these I used 700×47/42 Spesh Trigger Sports most of the year, swapping on a 700×57 Smart Sam on the front for muddier winter stuff, but this year just left on the Xplor MSOs all year. Depends just on what sort of trails you expect to use them on. Mine are a mix of surfaced trail, trailcentre and natural mud, very little tarmac. Crap in deep mud but superb for everything else I’ve found.

I had a pair of Nano’s on my On-one Inbred in 2005. Are they much different?

I’ve only used these at 38mm but have quite liked them.

Schwalbe g-one bite evolution
They’re pretty fast, have a nice profile and are surprisingly decent in the slop (less good on clay type mud) and can drift a bit on loose trails. Decent, 3 out 5.

Vittoria Terreno mixed
These are cracking tyres, they work well on pretty much all surfaces that I tried them on. They roll decent too. 4 out 5 (almost 5 out of 5 but they wear quite quickly)

I really liked the Panaracer GK’s I had and would buy them again. I’m a lump but never had a problem with them. Decent off road too.

These MSC Gravel are ace, the centre knobs are pretty close together so the roll really well on hard surfaces.

They are tubeless, but there’s absolutely no issue running them with tubes.