Recommendations on Cross tyres that aren't made from bog roll?

My one month old cross bike has the princely sum of 142 miles on it. In that time I’ve had 3 snake bites and 4 thorn punctures on the rear wheel. 🙄

Snake bites is probably down to too low pressure (been running around 50psi) and rock hard ground, but I’ve now got rather bored of repairing punctures.

Tyres are Spesh Tracer Pro which appear to have the durability of rice paper.

This is a N +1 bike so not worried about road performance but would like some tyres with better protection and ideally, 35c or larger.

Any recommendations?

Vittoria XG pro tnt have been good, even not set up tubeless.

Tubeless would be my suggestion. On mtbs it’s good. On CX with skinny tyres and rocks (if that’s the sort of thing you ride) it’s a godsend.

I’ve enjoyed a pucture-free experience with Kenda Small Block 8 (r) and Slant 6 (f)

+1 for Small Block 8s, not clever enough for tubeless although I see that’s the way to go. I ride fire roads and towpaths on my cross.

My other half commutes on Schwalbe CX Comp and has been relatively puncture free for a few years ( I should know as she’s no inclination to fix them herself )

+1 Vittoria tubeless. There are/were some in the classifieds.

Currently running these

http://www.conti-online.com/www/bicycle_de_en/themes/cross/cyclocross_race_en.html

Gravel paths, woody single track and mentle rooty descents…they seem to cope. Plus I’m no feather weight and haven’t suffered snake bites.

Roll well on road too, but like most decent cross tyres, they are softer rubber and do tend to wear more quickly on tarmac.

It’s not tarmac. It’s Gnarmac 😉

OnOne Gravel Roads, did about 2000 miles before they started puncturing. Replaced them after 2750 miles with Challenge GravelRacers as they were out of stock at OO. Back in stock now, 120tpi folders for 20 quid, in 33 and 40c.

Just go tubeless. Spesh Triggers are good strong light and cheap and went up a treat with the Airshot. Run sub 50psi. Or WTB Nano Race 40cs

Cheers folks

Bike came with KSB8s but didn’t look that good a tread so I’ve not actually ridden them.

Not tried tubeless on my MTBs as it looks like a recipe for a cackhandedspanneringdisaster! I think I’ll stay away for the time being.

Will have a look at the Vittoria and OnOne / Challenge options

Proper CX or PoncyCX?

Clement Xplors MSO 40’s are pretty darn good but the treads quite close and not realy knobblies.. Have a google, see what you think..

I’m on Small Block 8s for summer, and they are a big improvement speed and puncture wise than the Kenda Kwickers they replaced. Plenty of grip and surprisingly good on road.

Those who have tried to tubeless the SB8s – did you have a compressor etc. ?
It’s on my list to try but 2/3 failures might put me off bothering.

I found the original SB8s good on my Arkrose – wear quite quickly and that was when they seemed to pick up punctures

Now using Sammy Slicks, mainly for towpath type commuting, but quite capable in anything but “proper” mud. Seem to get about 1500 miles out of the rear, and again it then tends to find thorns and glass. Front one was cut to ribbons but hadn’t punctured. Recently replaced them with a pair from Merlin for £20 each, but they were listed under road tyres not CX tyres.

bikebouy

Proper CX or PoncyCX?

Err not sure of the difference? If proper CX = having your legs ripped off and shoved down your throat in a CX race then I’ll be firmly in the poncyCX camp 😆

Cycling things I have no desire to try (too much like hard work imho)
1 CX race
2 Road race
3 Use a turbo

😆

Then try the Xplors, they make them in 35mm and 40mm variety, damn fine tyres. I use mine on the CX’er for long distance NCN route adventures, mix of road/gravel with about 55spi in them.
Somafunk put me onto them and he’s been using these as well as others..

Take a look in the tripster thread, loads of suggestions and tips in there..>>

Proper CX or PoncyCX?

Gnarmac, of course. (=the latter, truth be known 🙂 )

[rant]Ladies, gents, please get your terminology correct here.

CX = short, hard, off road rides/races which ideally involve mud and pain. The bike will have drop bars, knobbly tyres, no rack/guard mounts, 1 bottle mount and will be light as possible. It will have steep angles and will be a bit unforgiving.

Gnarmac/gravel = Just riding your road based bike in a few, more diverse routes, likely involving some light off road. You may well have guards on the bike too, along with 2 bottle mounts and drop bars.

Hybrid = Like gnarmac but with flat bars. Designed for those without the skills or flexibility to handle drops.

Me? I ride gnarmac, I do it on a bike that is in no way shape or form a CX bike.

Thank you. [/rant]

Erm..you forgot..

PoncyCX
CommuterCX
PootleCX
PavementCX
GetCX
BeenCX
AlwaysCX
MoodyCX
BouncyCX
ALittleCX
NotCXbutsomethingelseCX
BitlikeCX
BitlikeRoadCX
GutterCX
UrbanCX
RidingbikeCX
MTBCX
OldskoolCX
NewskoolCX
WobbleCX
GetwayfromitallCX

😉

No, no, no.

RaceCX = actually CX.
Everything else = Not CX.

We need to accept that we’re all now riding around on touring bikes and just move on.

Surely the term for poncing about off road was invented decades ago. Roughstuff.

@BB

Those Xplors look to have quite a dense tread pattern. Are they these ones? – http://clementcycling.com/xplor-mso

And SJS and Probikekit appear to be the only stockists?

Yeah, thems the ones.. not good for you that? I do use them on NCN road60%/gravel40% type routes… I did get mine from Probikekit..
Are you looking for something with more knobblies? I’d suggest something else but really they’re race orientated (Challenge Almanzos) or Challenge do a Gravel Tyre like the Almanzos but black sidewalls (on their site) I use but it’s a bit bigger, not sure how long they’d last for you because I don’t know your terrain. I’ve just stuck Almanzos on my CX’er but I’m in Race/HardHack mode and looking for lightness and grip on hardpack ATM.

As always it depends on terrain and how much you want to spend, my Almanzos were £54 ea.

The point about terminology is actually relevant here.
Cyclocross is about going across muddy fields and as such cyclocross tyres are made of ‘bog roll’ as you put it because they need to be supple to maintain traction. There are almost no rocks and roots so snakebite protection isn’t something to worry about.

You want a gravel/off road touring tyre.

Another thread we have running is the “show us your gravel bike” it’s on the front page at the mo’, has lots of tips about tyres in there too..

HTH

@BB again

Typical terrain is ncn / bridleway / SDW stuff so if you’re rating the xplors for such routes, they should be good enough for me!

That said I am a big gear, out of the saddle grinder so do prefer rear tyres with more tread.

@TD

We used to run a London League X race and our course was either dusty and rock hard with rooty copse sections or the Somme with slippery rooty copse sections! I never raced them (far too much effort)

I use shwalbe cx comps for my gnarmaccing efforts.
Very cheap and far less punctures than the others I tried…Slant six being one..

I did SDW twice on my Xplors. First time I had them on and thought “eeek, they’re rubbish” had them pumped to 55psi and whilst grippy on the hard chalk and flowy singletrack up near Beacon Hill and the run to Stenying the climbs were proper gravel run offs and yes they slipped, but that was to be expected. The second time it was dryer and harder and they were blooming excellent, dropped psi to 45 F&R. Wide enough to be comfortable on the stutter ruts and limestone/flint and puncture proof enough not to worry about hacking hard over the top of it all.
I did choose them specifically for NCN routes & New Forest gravel (lumps of hard stone and flint) type rides and that horrible grey stuff they chuck down down here, ended up using them for the Wessex Way 2 day’er I did. But have to say that was wet and slippy and I really could/should have put the griffos back on for that, once on the poor lane road surface they really rolled along.

I’m intending doing the Camino de Santiago and I will probably use these for it as most of the route is similar to SDW/Gravel/rubbish Lanes and such. Somafunk needs thanking hugely because I think they’re a really good tyre (I think he uses the 35mm ones on his tripster)

HTH 8)

My Gnaaaarmac bike came with Continental Speedride tyres. 42c with punctureproofing as they are classed as a ‘commuter/cross’ tyre. Basically a larger and tougher version of the Cyclocross Speed[/url].

My Gnarmacccccing is mainly commuter, gravel and hardpack dirt trails rather than mud so the grip is fine and they roll well at relatively low (45-50) psi.