slicks for MTB

[fausto99]

I’ve been using Continental Contact Speed 47-559 as mentioned before here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=148290&p=1646080#p1646080
On my third winter now and still very happy with them. Not too heavy, roll well. Very comfy as I run the front at 25 and the rear at 30 psi; I’m around 65kg. I think only 2 p*#!$ in that time - could be worse.

[robing]

I use wiggle commuter 26" tyres.

Not the lightest but certainly cheap and so far puncture resistant.....

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-essen ... er-26-tyre

Cheers James

Wow, those look great and currently only a tenner each! 535g isn't heavy either.
I returned the hefty Wilko ones and got some Vittoria Randonneur 26x1.5 from Decathlon.
I'll see how I get on but if I'm not happy with them I might try those wiggle ones

[robing]

Those Vittoria tyres were rubbish and kept puncturing.
Got some Schwalbe City Jets from Halfords only £12 each on offer. Much better.
I also got a new bike - a Schwinn Hybrid

[Garry Booth]

I was riding City Jets on my Orange C16 MTB and they were OK. But when I repurposed it with racks front and rear for heavy duty touring the rear kept puncturing. An LBS suggested Marathon 'Racers' and they have worked well heavily laden.
Maybe I have been lucky and maybe he suggested them because that's what he had plenty of - but they survived tough road and gravel riding with camping gear etc onboard.

[Nearholmer]

For the Redways, Continental Contact Plus, or Schwalbe Marathon Plus survive very well indeed.

I’m a near-daily rider on the Redways (MK cycle paths for those who don’t know) and my most recent two punctures have been in January 2020, and last week, both monster hawthorns, and both on the canal towpath, rather than Redways.

If you want something with a knobblier tread, better for bridleways outside the city, Schwalbe Marathon 365 seem good.

If you want to get a puncture every day, which seems unlikely, run soft-compound “tubeless ready” tyres, with tubes, on the Redways and canal paths.

PS: the OP will probably never see this; I just realised how ancient the thread is!

[robing]

I have seen it - I revived this thread today

The tyres on the Schwinn hybrid are awesome on the Redways. Some American make. I know where the broken glass lies and avoid those areas - usually the underpasses .

[Nearholmer]

Excellent.

For when they wear out, I’d recommend the Continental contact plus. They have a slightly lower puncture proofing rating than the Schwalbe I think, although I never had any problem with them, and crucially they are less draggy than the Schwalbe, which I find to be a rather slow tyre.

[robing]

I had my eye on them too. I like continental gatorskins on my road bikes .

[Nearholmer]

I’ve got Schwalbe Marathon Plus on my posh bike at the moment, and don’t really like them except in terms of puncture-proofness. It seems to me that they need to be pumped-up pretty hard (70psi on 38mm tyres) to get the rolling resistance down, which makes for a rough old ride on anything except really smooth surfaces.

I was using Continental contact plus 35mm on my previous posh bike, now given to my BiL, and At 60psi they were not too harsh on bumpy ground, yet still reasonably free-rolling on smooth tarmac. They also seem to feel better on cornering if you go a bit daring, because the tread pattern has no edge to it.

But, I did briefly have tubeless (perished and too knobbly for me) when I first got the current bike new-secondhand, and they were a revelation. Running at 50psi they were very comfy and sure-footed off-road, and surprisingly low-resistance on tarmac, so I shall probably take the plunge and swap to those once I find a tread pattern that I like.