Slicks/Semi slicks for a mountain bike

sharbie

Hi all,

I've just ordered a Trek X-Caliber 9 and I'm looking to purchase some tyres more suitable for the road - all my work friends have road bikes with slicks so I'm just looking for something I can put on the bike for rides with them that might make it a little easier to keep up, I coped fine of a hybrid but looking for something potentially a little smoother? Now here's my problem... I'm a female that knows nothing about bikes so I don't even know where to start looking!

The bike has 29'' wheels, and the rims are 2.00 on the front and 2.2 on the back... I think? Do I need tyres with those exact specifications? I'm so confused! Please could someone point me in the right direction?

Also, aside from helmet, lights, lock... what else should I be buying that would be classed as essential, or at least wise?

roger_merriman

sharbie wrote:

Hi all,

I've just ordered a Trek X-Caliber 9 and I'm looking to purchase some tyres more suitable for the road - all my work friends have road bikes with slicks so I'm just looking for something I can put on the bike for rides with them that might make it a little easier to keep up, I coped fine of a hybrid but looking for something potentially a little smoother? Now here's my problem... I'm a female that knows nothing about bikes so I don't even know where to start looking!

The bike has 29'' wheels, and the rims are 2.00 on the front and 2.2 on the back... I think? Do I need tyres with those exact specifications? I'm so confused! Please could someone point me in the right direction?

Also, aside from helmet, lights, lock... what else should I be buying that would be classed as essential, or at least wise?

The tyres that you can fit will be from quite narrow stuff up to fairly wide stuff, the limit will be the frame clearance so and 29er 1.5-2.3 ish.

Are you likely to take the bike off road? If not something like schwalbe big one in tests can humble road race tyres.

I think knowing what your likely to do with the bike? would help for advice?

sharbie

Thanks for your reply roger - well my plan was just to switch the tyres when I'd be planning on only road riding - I only go out with the work people once or twice a month - the majority of the time I'll probably be pretty much constantly off road so some 'in between' tyres probably wouldn't cope very well and it'd be easier just to change the tyres round for road riding as the road bikes aren't going to be going off road, or am I completely wrong?

sharbie

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/continental-spe ... -mtb-tyre/

Could someone tell me if these would fit on my bike? they're 2.2 so would that fit on a 2?

doomanic

These would probably be OK and at 2" width they definitely fit; http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schw ... -prod36216

N0bodyOfTheGoat

A few different tyres to consider, depending on what you want for the money you part with.;)

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY/v ... lding-tyre have been raved about all summer by some, roll very well and pretty light, can be marginally fairy weak.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYWTBNAN/wtb-nano-tcs-tyre are a good tyre for mixed surfaces.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYSCSMSAW/ ... wired-tyre are decent all-rounders at the cheap end of the market, a little heavy due to wire bead.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYSCBA/sch ... wired-tyre roll well, but are quite weighty.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... TB-29/1881 is a good all-rounder, marginally vulnerable over time.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... TB-29/1897 are decent all-rounders, currently on my skinny wheelset.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... MTB-29/236 are decent all-rounders and at least in the 26" version, perform much better than their weight might suggest.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... D-700/1891 are out-and-out tarmac tyres, very comparable to the Vittoria Hyper Voyagers.

For strictly road, I would be looking at the Hypers or Kojaks.
For mixed, I would shortlist to Marathon Cross, Nano TCS and G-One.

You can use http://www.schwalbe.com/en/road.html to look through their range and choose different properties, as a guide for the road and tour rubber.

sharbie

NitrousOxide wrote:

A few different tyres to consider, depending on what you want for the money you part with.;)

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY/v ... lding-tyre have been raved about all summer by some, roll very well and pretty light, can be marginally fairy weak.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYWTBNAN/wtb-nano-tcs-tyre are a good tyre for mixed surfaces.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYSCSMSAW/ ... wired-tyre are decent all-rounders at the cheap end of the market, a little heavy due to wire bead.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYSCBA/sch ... wired-tyre roll well, but are quite weighty.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... TB-29/1881 is a good all-rounder, marginally vulnerable over time.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... TB-29/1897 are decent all-rounders, currently on my skinny wheelset.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... MTB-29/236 are decent all-rounders and at least in the 26" version, perform much better than their weight might suggest.

http://nextdaytyres.co.uk/details.aspx/ ... D-700/1891 are out-and-out tarmac tyres, very comparable to the Vittoria Hyper Voyagers.

For strictly road, I would be looking at the Hypers or Kojaks.
For mixed, I would shortlist to Marathon Cross, Nano TCS and G-One.

You can use http://www.schwalbe.com/en/road.html to look through their range and choose different properties, as a guide for the road and tour rubber.

Thank you! I'm again confused though - So even though the spec on the bike says 2.0/2.2 they can still take tyres that are smaller than that? Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but it's the first bike I've bought as an adult!

N0bodyOfTheGoat

sharbie wrote:

Thank you! I'm again confused though - So even though the spec on the bike says 2.0/2.2 they can still take tyres that are smaller than that? Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but it's the first bike I've bought as an adult!

Those numbers are almost certainly the tyre width, not the rim width, the rim width of my default fatbike tyre is ~80mm.;)

The internal rim width, typically ~19-25mm, decides the safe range of tyre widths you can fit on them. Without looking up tables, I would guesstimate ~25/28mm minimum tyre width and ~2.2/2.3" as a minimum (horrid change of units, I've not long been up ).