Another noob question on tyres - very mixed terrain

barongreenback

Hi all

I've recently acquired a Grand Canyon 7 to ride a real mix of terrain. I live in Belgium and a typical ride will take me on a mix of gravel, light or slippy mud farm roads, forest trails, normal tarmac bike lanes and cobbles. I've found that in particular that the cobbles even when damp are absolutely lethal - the tyres just slip from underneath me and I end up looking like a 5 year old on a balance bike with my seat fully dropped trying stay upright (think more Paris Roubaix than the nicely maintained cobbles of Flanders - these are proper country roads with heavy cambers where cars have deformed the roads over years). I can't get to the fantastic local woods without a few stretches of cobbles and taking the bike in the back of the car is a pain (parking is always limited and it seems crazy to drive barely more than 8km). Stock tyres on the bike are Rapid Rob and Tough Tom. Rims are tubeless compatible and converting is no issue for me.

I don't do any particularly technical riding i.e. slamming it fast downhill but I do want to feel more planted on the bike in a variety of conditions to be able to go a bit faster on this mix of surfaces - I'm a road cyclist by nature but the shocking roads where I live round here means that the road bike has been fitted with 35mm tyres but best used in less wet conditions.

Does such a goldilocks tyre / tyre combination exist?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

whyamihere

Rapid Robs and Tough Toms are both in Schwalbe's cheap range, with useless plasticky compounds. I'm not surprised you have no grip. I would go for a set of nice XC tyres, something like a Schwalbe Racing Ralph/Racing Ray combo with an Addix compound, Maxxis Ikon 3C or Continental X King Black Chilli. You may have to play around with pressures a bit, which going tubeless will help with.

The tyres mentioned are probably around €30-50 per tyre (not sure of prices in Belgium), but are worth it.

steve_sordy

I can second the Continental X-King tyres and I doubly agree that they MUST have the black chilli compound. If it doesn't say they are black chilli then they are not. They will never be wire bead either. The BC tyres only come from one factory and they don't do wire bead there.
But my preference for mixed riding on an analogue bike is the Continental Trail King, again black chilli compound is a must. On my 27.5" tyres I found the Conti TKs at 2.2" wide on 30mm rims to be perfect. I didn't expect them to be as good in mud as they turned out to be. I just kept riding the bike as Winter approached and never found a reason to fit my mud tyres. There is no doubt that specialist mud tyres are better in the mud than the TKs, but what trails do you ride that are muddy all the way round? Mud tyres ping off rocks and roots and they feel unstable to me on hard corners. I was never tempted to fit the 2.4" wide versions. I had all the grip I needed.
The only downside to the black chilli compound is that they are not suitable for riding on rock the whole time as they wear out quickly. But I was getting 3600 miles out of each tyre on mixed forest (70%) and rocks (20%) and roads (10%). Percentages estimated just now, not measured.

PMark

Another vote for the Continental, although I prefer Protection version. For a knobbly tyre, they roll fairly well on the road. As like you, I cycle a few miles along roads to get to the forests.

barongreenback

Thanks all, really appreciated. Not so fussed about wear if they do the job well. Will have a look at the usual online suspects and see what deals are to be had.

steve_sordy

markdurdle said:

Another vote for the Continental, although I prefer Protection version. For a knobbly tyre, they roll fairly well on the road. As like you, I cycle a few miles along roads to get to the forests.

You can get the Protection version on all the Continental tyres, it's a tyre wall lining. I had it on my Conti TKs.

steve_sordy

barongreenback said:

Thanks all, really appreciated. Not so fussed about wear if they do the job well. Will have a look at the usual online suspects and see what deals are to be had.

Conti is a German brand. I found that the German websites had better prices even if you include postage. Their web address ends with .de

If you just Google the tyre you want and use the shopping option, the German websites that sell in to the UK will be there.

barongreenback

I’m in Belgium so we share a border . Prices are pretty good from the likes of bikester and bike24. Shwalbe combo recommended above are coming in at the best price - might give them a go.