Road tyres for MTB

bluey1883

Hi,

Am just getting back into biking after about 15 years out of any kind of saddle (Kids and stuff became a distraction), have previously predominantly been off road, but am now looking to move to road biking, but before I go and splash out for a Road bike I want to make sure its still for me.

Have been knocking off about 15 miles in a hour, but on my nobbley Tyres on my old MTB: now seems sensible to move to some road tyres, if anything to reduce rolling resistance and up my pace a bit. Currently have 26 inch wheels with a tyre width of 1.95, can anybody suggest a road tyre, worth looking at ? guess I can reduce the tyre width a bit as well ?

Don't want to spend a fortune if I am going to move to a proper road bike.

Thanks Andy

bendertherobot

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-city-j ... lar-guard/

Moonbiker

I'd go for

's

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tyres/26-x- ... -inch-559/

debeli

I have a set of Conti SportContact on a pair of MTB wheels for a fast urban commuter. They are absolutely whizzbang.

I believe they may now be sold as Conti Ultra Gatorskin, but the profile and the ride are the same.

On an MTB it may also be worth putting a tighter (higher geared) cassette on the wheel. If you're going to be riding on tarmac you don't need to ride up the side of a house....

My son, who uses an MTB for a delivery job, has some other Conti 26" tyres on his work bike.... not unlike the Ultra, but they have a thin strip of thicker tread on the shoulder and a fairly slick contact patch for riding upright. He loves them.

The main thing is to get tyres that have very little (or no) tread and will ride nicely with 80 psi.

Also, you might want to horse about with saddle position and bar height/stem length to go that little bit faster.

Have fun.

cooldad

Most MTB cassettes have 11 as the smallest cog, so you can't really go higher.

Bigger chainrings maybe, but that depends

debeli

cooldad wrote:

Most MTB cassettes have 11 as the smallest cog, so you can't really go higher.

Bigger chainrings maybe, but that depends

That's why I said tighter, with 'higher' in parentheses.

I have 'roadified' a few MTBs over the years and one of the bugbears, once faster tyres are fitted, is the off-road bias of the gaps between gears on an MTB cassette. Trust me, slapping a 'tighter' road cassette on an MTB hub makes a palpable difference when you're clicking up and down the block.

Chain rings are also a possible area for quick 'n' easy raising of gearing, but there is the question of re-positioning the mech' and all that malarkey.... so I usually just ignore the granny gear and ride it as a double.

But the tighter cassette does make a difference to the feel and 'roadiness' of the thing. Trust me.

cooldad

Er ok. But higher still means higher. What you mean is closer ratios.

bungle73

Moonbiker wrote:

I'd go for

's

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tyres/26-x- ... -inch-559/

That's what I put on my MTB before I bought a road bike, and they felt super fast to me. However, BicycleRollingResistance.com tested them, and they reckoned they are not as fast as they are cracked up to be, and are steering people towards other options, so I have no idea what is going on.

http://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com ... kojak-2017

itboffin

Well when you put slicks on remember NOT to ride across a wet grass field on them, two broken ribs was my lesson learned.

cyberknight

bendertherobot wrote:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-city-jet-active-line-26-tyre-with-kevlar-guard/

I use the same tyres on my winter commuter , roll very nice, certainly i can taz along at 19 - 20 mph on the flat once up to speed , bearing in mind i am talking 20 kg fully laden commuter set up .
Did a drop bar conversion on a subway ...