29er slick tyres for first triathlon

Burggraaf82

Been looking to buy some slick tyres for my 29er MTB, so I can at least have some speed for my first triathlon. I'm a bit lost with what sizes etc to buy.

I have this bike (Specialized Carve Pro 29er):

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBC ... e=Mountain

Would something like this work?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Continental-Spo ... 226&sr=8-9

Any other suggestions for road racing tyres?

Long_Time_Lurker

The tyres you have there are road bike tyres - no good for your 29er.
Looking around, you are a bit restricted on choice, most semi-slick/slick tyres for 29ers are commuting tyres (not race tyres).

Maybe something like a Schawlbe Furious Fred? Pretty light.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Cate ... goryID=798
Not slicks per se, but won't be as sticky/heavy as what you have on there now.

IShaggy

29er wheels are the same rim diameter as road wheels - 622mm. So road tyres will fit.

However, the rim width may restrict how narrow you can go as you ideally want the rim width to be slightly less than the tyre width. The Carve comes as standard with reasonably wide tyres (2.0"). And so I would imagine that the rim is too wide to fit 23mm or 25mm road tyres. You may get away with 28mm tyres, which would still roll very well. Or you may have to step up to some slick 30-35mm CX tyres. Measuring the rim width is your starting point.

Burggraaf82

Thanks for replies guys. I have been looking at the furious fred but they seem a bit expensive and also still quite grippy.

It seems the rim width is about 32 but it's hard to measure without taking the tyres off and I dont want to do that before I get new ones..def over 3cm. Do you know any good ones I could use for this bike? It doesn't seem very easy to find what sizes I need to look for so if you dont have a preference it would be great if you could tell me what to look for...

IShaggy

Above 30mm you should be looking at CX tyres or City tyres -

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cyclocross-tyres/
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/city-tyres/

Basically anything that ranges from 700x30mm to 700x35mm (700 is the diameter of the wheel + tyre, so 622mm + tyre).

I guess that you're not going to be doing many triathlons on the MTB. Most do one, and then either tick triathlon off the list or get the bug and buy a road/TT bike. So you might want to compromise on the tyres and go for some semi-slick CX tyres that you can use in the summer on the hard-pack.

I use Schwalbe Sammy Slick 35mm tyres on my single-cross, and I've so far been very impressed with them. Very hard-wearing on my commute which is a mix of towpath and road, great puncture resistance, and they role reasonably well, although nothing like as well as a good 23mm road tyres - but horses for courses I suppose.

Burggraaf82

Great, thanks for the help and yes my thoughts as well - to do it once on the MTB. I still have 9 months to go so I might get weak and buy a Tri Bike, but at least for training this will work well.

Something like this would work?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/continental-spo ... -tube-set/

In 700 x 32mm ?

Long_Time_Lurker

I have them on my commuter MTB. One thing - you sacrifice weight for tyre protection.
They are puncture protected, so weigh more. Is that an issue? (Depends if you are doing triathlons for fun, or trying to set new personal bests.)

blablablacksheep

i wouldnt buy a tri bike for the sake of speed to be honest.

Unless you going to do doing a LOT of tri races it just isnt worth it, it far better to invest in a new set of specific wheels+tyres or if need be a new road bike.

You do make up a lot of speed on the bike during the Tri but if you get a good swim and run you can still beat those carbon lot with a normal road bike.