26" slicks

SimonAH

Hi guys (and gals o'course)

We've done tyres to death over the years - but always in the 700C varietal.

I built up an MTB from an old Giant frame for a colleague a while ago and he's getting into riding now - and has come to realise that knobblies may look tough but aren't a lot of use on tarmac.

So, recommendations please for 26" slicks or semi slicks that tick as many of the good boxes as possible without breaking the bank.

Cheers!

zx6man

I used city jets from schwalbe, 20 quid a pair and were fine, but a few off road excursions made me change to semi Schwalbe land cruisers, again sourced them for 20 quid a pair. 2000 miles and still ok and puncture free.

mudcow007

marathon pluses?

i use to run them on my hard tail mtb before i seen the light of lycra an silly curvy handlebars

roger_merriman

if he/she is attempting to be quick mean cycling macine maybe some 26inch Gatorskins?

The Marathon's are a good bet, though do give that rather dull hard ride.

What pressures is he/she running at? if they are running on the road could knock the pressures up?

nicklouse

Kojaks.

Wheelspinner

I like Conti Sport Contacts, almost a slick, fast rolling, good grip. Cheap-ish too. Worth a look for sure

jds_1981

I used fatboys for a while ages ago. Seem to recall they were okay.

Dellsinho

Yeah, +1 for Spesh Fatboys.

I used to run them on my old hardtail for my road commute. Sticky as hell in the dry, fair in the wet, and predictably terrible on ice.

BelgianBeerGeek

I've used Conti DoubleFighters before (including for touring). Tough and cost about £12 from Halfords.

itboffin

Yep contis gatorskins all the way, they even do some pretty thin ones as well, makes a hell of a difference.

EKE_38BPM

A mate recently bought 26" Gatorskins on my recommendation as he wanted something faster than the el cheapo knobblies he was using.
A few days ago he complained that "Some git has slashed my front tyre!"' It turns out there were two TINY slivers of glass in the tyre and quite a few cuts (of the normal wear and tear type).
He is hardly a keen cyclist (double bouncer BSO) and I had to teach him how to fix a flat (he's 24 FFS!), so I wouldn't be surprised if he blithely rode through a patch of broken glass and then blamed vandals.

nich

I've recently fitted conti gatorskins to my MTB (running Mavic 317 disc wheels I think)

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/con ... 6-ec001746

Fast tyres and no punctures yet

I did have a moment on a wet drain cover though the other week :oops:

Pufftmw

http://www.durotire.com/Tires/tabid/186 ... fault.aspx

Those in 26*1.75 size but without the reflective bitz ( :? )

Fast rollers, pretty puncture proof.

t4tomo

zx6man wrote:

I used city jets from schwalbe, 20 quid a pair and were fine, but a few off road excursions made me change to semi Schwalbe land cruisers, again sourced them for 20 quid a pair. 2000 miles and still ok and puncture free.

I put a pair of Land crusiers on an old MTB I use as station hack and my daughter occasionally uses for a bit of light trail stuff. They are surprising good on the road as the contact point is a continuous band of rubber, but they also have decent grip on the wet and muddy stuff as the grips on the sides come into play.

SimonAH

Thankyou all! Forwarded the thread in it's entirety to said colleague.

mtb-idle

schwalbe city jets 26 x 1.5 for me on one of my MTB's that my youngest rides to work.

Howeved i then sourced some 700c wheels with disc ready hubs and swapped them over so that i can use 'proper' road tyres and he much prefers these.

jonnyboy77

Schwalbe Big Apples worked very well for me on my MTB commuter, and as above I also found that 700c disc rims worked very well provided the tyres were not too tall (clearing the fork bridge!).

- Jon

Big_Paul

Been using my MTB for commuting this week and I'm running 2.0 Kojaks, great for city riding.

Ouija

roger merriman wrote:

if he/she is attempting to be quick mean cycling macine maybe some 26inch Gatorskins?

The Marathon's are a good bet, though do give that rather dull hard ride.

What pressures is he/she running at? if they are running on the road could knock the pressures up?

+1

The Gatorskins are the lightest and fastest, with excellent puncture protection. The Kojaks tend flat top no matter how hard you pump them up (not overly puncture proof either). The Conti Sport Contacts are reasonably good puncture wise put also tend to be a little bouncy, weather you get the 1.6 or 1.3 versions and pump them up really hard, giving slightly more rolling resistance. The Schwalbe Marathons are indestructible, with low rolling resistance... but are seriously heavy.....

Tried em all...

Initialised

Gatorskin at 120psi at the front, Sport Contact at 100psi at the back. I like the extra grip and comfort of a wider tyre at the back. Only pain is that they need different sized tubes so I tend to carry both.

I ran Double Fighter IIs for a year or so, pretty good on both trails and tarmac but side lugs mean you can climb in mud but can't corner so hard/fast on the road. I used to run them 45-60psi for trails and 75psi for the road.

Having said all this I am enjoying my winter tyres (Snow Studs) a little too much right now, and felt held back by my brakes on a downhill section of flood damaged trail I treated myself to today. Totally changes the character of the bike, but makes me want to take the off road paths rather than feeling slow on the road.