Poll: What Kind of Tires

angotja

What kind of tires do you ride? Do you recommend them or not? What kind of riding do you do and how well do your tires handle the conditions?

angotja

I ride IRC Serac XC's. They are great tires, but do not fit my applications very well. I am a daily commuter who rides 60/40 pavement/gravel. I occasionally venture into mud and hardpack, in which cases performance is excellent.

rek

My overruling factor is whatever is on special at the time I need to buy tyres Right now that gives Continental the nod.

The Continental Explorer Pro tyres are great for general XC type riding, so long as it's not too muddy. I've had a chat with my LBS people about them and they love them too, by varying the pressure they're quite adaptable to even mud.

The semislick I'm using at the moment is the Continental Double Fighter Pro, which is fine, does everything you'd expect a semislick to do (both good and bad)

Next [off road] tyres I'm looking at trying out are the Nokian Bozobeana (sp?), IRC Mythos XC or Maxxis High Roller eXCeption.

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Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra

Trekker2017

My tires depend on my mood and and road conditions. I've pretty much stopped off-road cycling and now-a-days stay to the blue highways on Rand McNally's maps. I've cycled from Connecticut to Key West, FL; to New Orleans, LA; and Los Angeles, CA. When cycle-touring, I've used both the Ritchie and the Performance slicks. Of the two I prefer the Ritchie. I also carry a folding Michelin and an extra tube in one of my panniers for emergencies.

ibike73

Depends on the conditions. I use varies makes for varies conditions. And what is on-sale has some input to what I am riding also.

Ron

Banatean

Continental TravelContact and we love them,my bike came with Bontrager something knobby...and my GF's bike came with Specialized something knobby so off they went (with about only 150 kilometres on them ! 26") because we hardly go offroad we opted for something more narrow with less rolling resistance.This Contis actually can work very well even on light offroad as we already tried them.A tad expensive thou at $ 34~$40 US a piece X4 adds up.
Dan.

scottiebaird

I use Panaracer Fire XC Pro (front)
Bontrager Jones rear version (rear of course).

Stans no tubes and away you go.

This is for full offroad I must add. Prolly no help to you, and very expensive for on road.
On road I use irc metro.

why not have two sets of tyres. Some of my mates change their tyres every weekend for dirt weekend, road to work week.
Not recommended if using tubeless or no tubes of course.

R's
Scott.

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Stay upright, unless otherwise required.

SomeGuy

I use a GEAX (evolution) and a Specialized (rockster).

I only just got the GEAX today to replace my Dead irc slick.

As to what I think of them... well, they both seem fine :P. Haven't had any problems with em.

angotja

How practical is it to change tires? Is it feasable to change back and forth once or twice a week with no perceivable loss of performance? Is it easier to buy new wheels and just swap out the whole suasage roast every time? Or should I break out the old tire levers and horse my stuff around every 4 or 5 days?

scottiebaird

I myself have two sets of rims. If you have disk brakes obviously the rotors need to be the same, if you have V brakes, you need to make sure the rims are as close to the same width as possible. mine are about half a mm different, this equates to turning the lever cable adjuster to its full adjustment (almost). So anything more than a mm difference would mean you have to actually pull the cable through a little more each time at the brake end (almost). I say almost as you will get away with it, however the lever will not be at the same position when the brake begins to bite, it will be closer to the bar. You might be ok with this.

Like I said some of my mates change their tyres every weekend. they use tubed tyres and have not performance issues. Once the bead has stretched (sleel), it shouldn't stretch any more, kevlar of course wont stretch.
Keep in mind that a new set of rims and cassette is quite expensive, well it can be depending on quality. But I find the convenience well worth it. I was lucky buying my rims, I called a few bike shops and found one that had a set from a new bike that they buyer didn't want as he had his own hand built ones.
You may have similar luck.

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Stay upright, unless otherwise required.

SomeGuy

Yeah I'd advise you to get too sets of wheels if you wanted to change tyres really often.

cachehiker

Once or twice a week means you have too much time on your hands.

I have two sets of wheels and four pair of tires. I generally run 1.8 Panaracer Fire XC Pros on my X517's and 2.1 Ritchey Excavader Front and Elevader Rear on my extremely cheap but well built ZAC19's. The Panaracers rule narrow singletrack and the Ritchey's are the bomb on loose over hardpack 4WD roads. These conditions dominate the areas where I ride most.

I will occasionally swap the 1.9 WTB Racing Raptors for the road or slickrock and the old 2.1 Velociraptors for sand and slop. Both of these sets have seen better days and are beginning to split from dry rot. They will be replaced soon enough. As tires for special conditions, they get swapped in for two or three weeks at a time once or twice per riding season.

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Bri
1,000,000 bicycles = 2 megacycles

angotja

My bike = My xportation.

I was riding home tonight in a sudden thunderstorm (Texas)... wet pavement -- laid the bike down on the street as I was making a turn...

I really need to change out these tires...

I think I'll try 2 sets tires for 1 set wheels... See how it goes (for now)...

Still haven't decided on a semi-slick vs. str8 MTB slick... I wanna try Maxxis Hookworms... but am thinking they will prove insufficient in that gravel...

Super Otaku

I have Specialized Enduro 26"x2.00". They are not that good on street, especially on 180o(sorry, don't know how to type the degree sign) endos, and trackstands especially you're waiting on the pedestrian crossing.