if the route was maybe 10 miles, along a mixture of road, park, canal toepath, forrest trails and bridleways?

ive never ridden plus tyres, but i definitely would not fancy it on a full fatty.

My mate does – NN’s 3″ f 2.8 rear

But there again his commute is only 2 miles each way 😉

If you think it’d be fine on fatty tyres plus tyres will only be less draggy. From what you describe doesn’t seem you’d miss the cushioning or grip

sorry missed the word ‘not’ out of the op 😀

basically im in the market for rigid mtb, but many seem to be 275+ atm.

I’d have no issue, I was using 4.0″ Jumbo Jims for commuting on the road, ~9 mile round trip. I’m currently using my FatNotFat wheel with 40c Marathon Cross and they are not that much quicker, 20min36secs coming home uphill versus 23mins53secs, 17min35secs into work versus 18min46secs.

Still more time influence from having green traffic lights, than the extra rubber! 😀

For me the main concern would be long term tyre economics. The road miles will quickly take the edges off the tyres so I’d look to get a separate pair of cheap wheels for commuting. Then new tyres can go on one set of wheels for attacking trails at the weekend and when they get a bit worn shift over to the commuter wheels and get as many miles as I can out of them.

i’ve done nearly 600 miles on a set of 2.8NN’s now and constantly amazed by just how well they roll.

they don’t look like they should or sound like they should roll but they do.

the sidewalls however are made of dairylea…

I commute on 29 plus & 27.5 plus & a fatbike entirely on tarmac even though i have a road bike

Trailblazers roll just great. I wouldn’t want to use them for a ride that was exclusively road, but for a mixed surface commute they’ll be just fine.

I altered my commute (21Km) from 2/3 road and 1/3 canal towpath on a CX bike to 80% canal towpath on MTB with 27.5+ tyres. The extra bit of towpath is quite rough and “interesting” on a CX. Didn’t notice it being any more taxing.

Depends on the tyre. Something like a WTB Trailblazer or a Schwalbe Rocket Ron rolls pretty quick, the Rekon+ out back less so, but still okay. But yeah, on quick tyres, why not. I’d rather use my cross bike though.

Any tyre can have a small contact patch if you pump it up hard enough. Soft compound rudder tread with stay soft and drag however for any size tyre fat to skinny.

Bigger (ie heavier) tyres will take more effort to accelerate up to speed but hold more momentum.

I live in a pretty rural area with a rough, poorly surfaced foad, and my 2.8 NNs drag horribly on the road, they’re really slow. Fire roads, trails, smooth surfaces are all fine, but would hate to commute.

29+ Chronicles over a similar route and like for like against the same bike with some cross/adventure tires time is about the same – quicker on the canal/bridleway bit slower marginally on the road bit. run the + tyres with 2 more psi in for the commute

in terms of tyre economics the biggest waste of cash were the adventure/cross type boots as i have no purpose for them anymore

Might make negotiating the tram tracks easier….

I live in a pretty rural area with a rough, poorly surfaced foad, and my 2.8 NNs drag horribly on the road, they’re really slow. Fire roads, trails, smooth surfaces are all fine, but would hate to commute.

Trailblazer rear with something grippier up front runs pretty quick on tarmac, I guess the NN’s huge knobs don’t help. The TB is a pretty sketchy everywhere mind and quite flimsy too. The Rocket Ron is less sketchy, comparably fast rolling and also quite flimsy…

No I wouldn’t…

Did it once and it rolls fine etc but 3″ tyre means a lot of spray, got to work with a soaking wet arse. Stuck with taking the mudguard commuter road bike since

10 miles of tarmac and path on a plus tyre would get boring very quickly; what you have described is perfect for a grrravel bike, it’s the job it’s designed to do. If the gearing allows you could get some really cheap road wheels and some land cruisers to chuck into your mountain bike