Slicks on a MTB

sparrowlegs78

I am hopefully ( if my health allows) going to be riding my MTB more, but sadly mainly on the roads as I can't get to any off road trails as I can't drive, So i'm wondering how much difference does putting slicks on make to speed and pedalling ease?
I run Panaracer Cinders mainly and sometimes they feel like pedalling through glue on the road :oops: plus the road work rips the rear tyre up for fun.
Anyone ridden on slicks on their MTB?
Caz xxx

nicklouse

the difference.

night and day.

do it.

sparrowlegs78

Ta Nick, i'll go and see what my local LBS has to offer
Caz xx

CraigXXL

A big difference with a lot less drag, even more noticable when freewheeling.

scottgeniusltd2005

if you can stretch to go for a tyre with puncture protection something like marathons or marathon pluses or i have some unused touring passelas with brown sidewalls and punture protection 1.9 width i'm only at rossendale

nax-ian

Have a gander at Maxxis Detonators, but you will need thin tubes to go with'em

scottgeniusltd2005

oh i have the tubes as well £30 for lot

sgray100474

I use Swalbe City Jets with no major problems, tho they are not puncture proof so I use slime in the tubes.

Kiblams

I use 26x1.5 Vittoria Randonneur tyres from Decathlon, cost £9.99 each and have used for commuting through the centre of a city for well over 6months without a hint of a p***ture The blurb mentions something about having kevlar particles in the rubber :?

Northwind

I use whatever Schwalbe Marathons I can find at the time, they come in about 40 different flavours it seems. The difference is ridiculous... My Soul in rigid form is actually a fair bit lighter than my commuter bike but when I was commuting on the Soul during the snow, it added about 25% onto my commute time and meant I arrived at the end a broken man

davewalsh

I've got a set of Continental Sport Contact (currently £34 a pair at Merlin) which I use for road riding / commuting. They are a lot less draggy than my knobblies (I also run cinders and they are draggy as hell). My commute is quite hilly and I find that I can carry a lot more speed / momentum up the hills with the slicks.

butcher of bakersfield

Anyone know roughly what average speed they're gaining from using slicks?

davewalsh

I would say about 15%

glennpro09

I bought some Continental Gator Skins on Monday from Merlin. I went out wednesday and as Nicklouse said night and day, Get some and keep riding m8.

gcwebbyuk

any love for panaracer ribmo?

I want some light/puncture proof.

What width are best for slicks for commute style work?

Northwind - are the schwalbe's any good on hard packed gravel type paths rather than just tarmac?

gcwebbyuk

those gator skins look good!

May have to get some of those for purely on road use. hmmmmm

Raymondavalon

I use Schwalbe Big Apples (semi slick) on my "commuter" MTB hardtail with rigid forks
They are not skinny at 2.3 but they absorb the bumps nicely.
The biggest difference I noticed at first was road noise, they're almost silent compared to running knobbly tyres.
I believe the 15% more efficiency fiugre over knobbly tires is about right, they do make a massive difference when climbing asphalt hills.

One thing you need to be aware of once changing from knobblies to slicks are not taking evasive action or shortcuts over damp/wet grass or mud patches.. :¬P

bomberesque

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

Anyone know roughly what average speed they're gaining from using slicks?

really depends what tyres you're going from and to. I put 25mm topslicks on my cannondale a few years back and immediately ran out of gears.....

I'd say 15% is the *minimum* you'll get unless you're already running semis at high pressure

to the OP, as nick says; night and day. get ready to order up a bigger large chainring .. you're gonna need it :-)

JayKingFunk

According to my speedo I used to get around 7 to 8mph extra on average when I used to commute on my bike.

I had 2.1 schwalbe city jets and the difference was amazing! When I put the high rollers back on it felt like I was riding with the breaks on!

Never had a puncture either and they only cost 20 quid for the pair brand new from an ebay power seller.

Unfortunately I live to far from my work now so I can't commute on the bike anymore, its rubbish because I was so much fitter and slimmer when I used a bike!

J

butcher of bakersfield

JayKingFunk wrote:

According to my speedo I used to get around 7 to 8mph extra on average when I used to commute on my bike.

That's a lot!

Thinking more about semi slicks myself as I'm not much of a road rider, but want something fast on the commute/long rides out.

JayKingFunk

The city jets are almost completely slick, just a few zig zag type grooves from what I remember and I used to pump them up to near bursting point then let a tiny bit of air out!

I was very fit when I used to commute too, I used to jump up 2 steps at a time in train stations with my bike over my shoulder and with a rucksack on my back!

Nowhere near that fit now though! I really miss commuting on a bike!

J

Northwind

gcwebbyuk wrote:

Northwind - are the schwalbe's any good on hard packed gravel type paths rather than just tarmac?

Canal paths and the like? No bother. TBH most slicks will, not much good for steep stuff, roots etc but just fine on a semi-decent dirt surface. Not good with standing mud or wet grass though, or that horrible really loose gravel they sometimes use to surface footpaths.

bluehelmet

I got a pair of these:

http://www.parker-international.co.uk/9 ... Tyre-.html

Bargain.

Never used any others so can't rate the performance but I'm happy with them.

cheehee

Have you thought about getting a roadbike? Seriously.........

The difference between a MTB on slicks and a proper road bike is night and day. A road bike is so much faster on the road.

If you are gonna be riding mostly on the road, I would definately think about it.

<Cheehee runs and hides behing his sofa>

rocketraz1982

I use Specialized all condition pro.. fastest most reliable MTB road tyre ive ever used in the 4 years i used them i have had only a handful of punctures and thats commuting in east london before these i was using Specialized armourdillo but the rolling resistants is night and day i know live in the Caribbean and the roads are SH!T and still no problems!!!!

alfablue

rocketraz1982 wrote:

I use Specialized all condition pro.. fastest most reliable MTB road tyre ive ever used in the 4 years i used them i have had only a handful of punctures and thats commuting in east london before these i was using Specialized armourdillo but the rolling resistants is night and day i know live in the Caribbean and the roads are SH!T and still no problems!!!!

I had exactly the same experience with Spesh AC Pro's 26x1.0 - 4 years and no punctures! I tried others (for example, Hutchinson, fairly, Continental - multiple punctures and wore out in 4 months) and the Spesh are the best.

sparrowlegs78

cheehee wrote:

Have you thought about getting a roadbike? Seriously.........

The difference between a MTB on slicks and a proper road bike is night and day. A road bike is so much faster on the road.

If you are gonna be riding mostly on the road, I would definately think about it.

<Cheehee runs and hides behing his sofa>

I have a roadbike, but I hate it with a passion, I've not got the figure for lycra and I don't walk like a duck when off the bike so I don't really meet roadie standards
Caz xx

solarflash

I've been using conti ultra gator skins on my mtb, the difference is amazing, freewheeling you carry momentum for ages. Just got stans 355 on pro 2s so not sure if the contis will fit anymore they were already super tight to get on my skinny rimmed oem wheels. :?

Don't dispute the road bike comment, however with the gator skins I was able to keep up with my brother inlaw with relative ease on his road bike and lycra on the commute :P

mkf

road tires on mtb a must .
I use 1.5s pumped up hard 60psi on my hardtail when on the road.
Speed & acceleration is amazing you'll really notice the differrance when your climbing
but man dont give the mud up. Get a map find the local bridleways link them up and make a circular from your house its very rewarding,

gcwebbyuk

Silly question, but how do you choose the width of the tyre to go on your rim.

Most of the slicks seems to be very thin, which I can understand, but can they be too thin for a certain rim?

I have XR4.2D rims - what size slick should I be looking for?

sparrowlegs78

mkf wrote:

road tires on mtb a must .
I use 1.5s pumped up hard 60psi on my hardtail when on the road.
Speed & acceleration is amazing you'll really notice the differrance when your climbing
but man dont give the mud up. Get a map find the local bridleways link them up and make a circular from your house its very rewarding,

I'm not going to give the mud up ever , just going to do more on road during the week and offroad when the hubby is back and can take me out places, it'll no take me long to switch tyres over at weekends
Caz xx