Slicks - what a difference..

The Big Cheese

Fitted some new semi-slicks to my Marin today and took it out for a test-run - the difference is amazing. I worked out that most of the riding I did was road (on this bike) so, ditched the 2.2's and stuck some 1.9s semis on. The acceleration/speed/low rolling resistance is phenomenal and cornering is OK being a semi and not full slick!

Was going to go totally slick but still wanted to keep my bike looking like a MTB and not a racer, but wanted some grip for towpaths, light xc. I can highly recommend the tyres 'Conti Top Contact' - excellent but a little pricey!

soy_sauce

after read this, i can't wait to put on mine. lol
got it last friday but don't think i will put them on until this sunday as i will be going off-road this weekend.
cait wait for next week commuting now.

The Big Cheese

You will be amazed, I have had commuter tyres on before (Schwalbe Marathons) and they were great, but these are amazing!!!!

Eventually when funds allow (I have four bikes that are constantly being fettled with) I shall buy another set of rims with XC tyres on, but for now I shall leave it as is.....

hope you enjoy the ride with them on (I did!!)

girv73

I converted a low end MTB for pure commuting by fitting rigid forks and Conti Gatorskin 26x1.25 @ 90psi slicks. It made a world of a difference to the speed, easily 2-3mph extra on the flat for the same effort, but a much harsher ride.

Here's what I did:
http://www.rainmiles.com/archives/conve ... chine.html
http://www.rainmiles.com/archives/mount ... arned.html

KnightofCydonia

awesome. I've just got back from a ride, did about 1hour 20mins over roads & some farmland and really could use something with more speed in, annoying as hell, but still getting to grips with the bike overall.

paul_GY

girv73 is right about the harsher ride, I recently fitted Continental Travel Contact tyres to my hardtail. They are much faster on the road, but you feel every bump and my arms and back were very sore after a 20 mile ride on Sunday. I didn't realize how much my panaracer fire xc's cushioned the ride.

geordiefreerider

Yeah I had a panaracer 2.4 fr on the front and a nokian gazzaloddi 2.3 on the back of my kona dawg matic and i put my pair of continental speed kings 2.1 on for training rides and what a difference the bike absolutely flies but you do feel every bump as they run at high pressure and the bike didnt feel as confident on the off road bits so i compromised and left the continental on the back and stuck the gazzalodi on the front and think i found a decent combination for summer riding, its definately a tricky business choosing the right tyres for your riding !!

big_tex_uk

I have just built up a rigid bike for training on and fitted some Maxxis Wormdrive 1.9's.
They are awesome, so fast. Cant belive the diffrence it makes going from my 33lb Commencal Meta 5 to my 23lb rigid bike with semi slicks. Its like going back 15yrs...

big_tex_uk

Pic of my rigid ride

ride_whenever

Ditch the gears and make a singlespeed xc bike. I've got an inbred, and it weighs not a lot even though it has coil u-turn toras on, absolutely flys already and i'm going to put slicker tyres onto it soon.

toasty

I couldn't say slicks would make your MTB look like a road bike. You still have a fat frame, big forks, short upright seating position. It's more like a builder with ballet shoes on.

I stuck some on an '07 Avalanche I had a while back for a bit while I was commuting.

papasmurf.

Yeah some of the conti slick\semi are great I use 1.7s for my commute

projectsome

I can vouch for the panaracer's. they're excellent on road and pretty decent on trails. As I use my bike to commute to work mon-fri and hit the trails on weekends I needed something that does both. Although I did find the grip on the tyres did wear down after around 10 months but I guess that's normal. I now have som bontrager tyres (not sure which model)

BoardinBob

The slick tyres seem to weigh so much more than normal MTB tyres.

Does the decrease in rolling resistance cancel out the increase in weight when it comes to acceleration?

toasty

big_tex_uk wrote:

Pic of my rigid ride

What's the fork just out of interest? I'm after similar for my Stumpy.

ride_whenever

with the tyres, the slickness means less rolling resistance, the increased weight means slower accelleration.

I've had some fun with really fast acceleration and low top speeds and vice versa, now i've got a ss road bike with slicks, now thats both.

aphex2k

1.5" Schwalbe City Jets. So quick, so silent.

big_tex_uk

Toasty - the forks are Salsa Cro-moto about £50 from wiggle. Very happy with them. [/quote]

lesz42

sport contact 1.3, on my aspect, for when i am going to work , and back


at 85 psi, weighing 350grams or so, each, nice hard ride, fast as a very fast thing


love them, use them on the oem wheels, that i got with the bike, got another wheelset, for offroad use/trails