road/trail tire combo

[bills]

I'm getting tired of driving my bike, on my car, from home to the trail each time I want to ride. The trail I ride most often is about 5 miles from my house. So I'm thinking about skipping the car part. Anybody ride from their house to the trail for this distance have any recommendations on tires?

The ride will end up being 10 miles on the road and about 14 miles on trail, round trip. I have used explorers (current tire), nevegals and mutanoraptors but feel that over time these tires will make the road part of the ride a burden.

Should I just stick with what I like on the trail and deal with it on the road?
Is there an in between tire that will work alright or is worth trying?

If it makes a difference, the trail I'll be riding to is Loch Raven. If you haven't ridden here it's a combination of singletrack and fireroad, mostly hardpack, some rocky and rooty sections.

[blacknell]

Good question. I look forward to hearing the answers.

Myself, I've just come to accept the (sometimes very) accelerated wear and inefficiency of a dirt tire on the road (I say this, but I just posted about driving, instead of riding, to the Fort Dupont ride for this very reason). In the end, I'll take the annoyance on pavement over the uncertainty in the dirt.

[saxman]

I ride much shorter distances to the trailhead, but I'd just go with the trail tires. I'm fairly happy with my Panaracer Fire XC pros in the dual purpose role.

I've done side by side comparisons, same bike, same trail, one with a pure slick and one with the knobbies. You lose about 1 mph off your average speed, which tranlates to an efficiency loss of less than 10% by riding knobbies. To me, it's a small price to pay to have the confidence in riding on dirt.

If you do want an "all in one" tire, you may want to check out semi-slicks. I have a friend that rides on them and he does okay in dirt and they are more efficient on pavement.

[punga]

One idea: use your tire of choice, but pump the pressure up to 60-65 psi before leaving for the trail head and drop the pressure when you get there. Of course, you'll need to refill them before heading home, but the higher pressure will roll with much less resistance on the road.

p!

[riderx]

The ride will end up being 10 miles on the road and about 14 miles on trail, round trip. I have used explorers (current tire), nevegals and mutanoraptors but feel that over time these tires will make the road part of the ride a burden.

--------

If it makes a difference, the trail I'll be riding to is Loch Raven. If you haven't ridden here it's a combination of singletrack and fireroad, mostly hardpack, some rocky and rooty sections.I'm very familiar with Loch Raven, here's my $.02

I'm not a huge fan of the Mutanoraptors for dirt, but I used them on my dirt commuter (75% singletrack/25% pavement) for a while and they roll pretty decent on pavement and do OK in the dirt. I've since switched to Kenda Karmas which are low profile but wider spaced knobs and have a little wider casing. I timed the route a few times after the switch and nothing changed except my off road tire performance, so I stuck with them. For materials nerds they've got the duel tread compound: harder in the center to roll faster, softer on the sides for cornering grip. Another option would be a semi-slick like the Short Tracker, but that would be best in dry, hard pack conditions. Insert usual disclaimer about Kenda being a sponsor, take all recommendations with that in mind..

Nevegals are slow on the road, I've ridden them 6 miles to the trailhead and definitely prefer something else when doing that.

[g_barr]

If you do want an "all in one" tire, you may want to check out semi-slicks. I have a friend that rides on them and he does okay in dirt and they are more efficient on pavement.
I ran the old-pattern Specialized Crossroad tires with decent success. Essentially, they are a 25mm skinny tire down the center of a knobby. They stink in mud and on slick roots/rocks but they are great on pavement or the C&O towpath. The new Crossroad is more like a Kenda K-Rad. My Rocksters run well on pavement but Specialized also cancelled this pattern years ago.

I think wear 'speed' has more to do with the rubber - a soft compound tread isn't a good idea. A costly ($50/tire, fast wear on the road) option is to get "hardpack" trail tires like the Kenda Small Block Eight or WTB Exiwolf. Don't bother considering a Specialized low knob tire - it's bad enough to pay $50 for a new tire with half its tread left! A set of $20 tires with similar treads might be better....pump the pressure up to 60-65 psi before leaving for the trail head and drop the pressure when you get there.
Punga speaks the truth. I ran 70-75 psi in the Crossroads on the street, 35-40 on the trail (mainly because I didn't want to pinch flat the 1.95 tube). Off-road traction was vastly improved with less air. Although my neighbor has my Crossroads on his MTB and he did Wakefield fairly well at 50+ psi. He only spun out in after one stream crossing.


* Disclaimer: I own four sets of Specialized tires. I am not sponsored nor do I sell Spec'd stuff. But I pimp them a lot.

[BikerMiker]

Try the WTB Prowler MX 2.1. Good rolling, good off-road. Put a lot of air in on before heading to the trail and just suck it up on the way home...

Any tire that spouts about xc racing should be good for riding on the road. Something with a center ridge. Races like the SM100 require this type of tire as there is a ton of sketchy singletrack descending and a ton of fire road stuff...

I'm also a huge fan of the Schwalbe Racing Ralphs but no long-term data yet. Exiwolf from WTB and the new Wolverine from WTB should be rad.

Disclaimer: dcmtb.com is sponsored by WTB but I've been riding their tires since 1996. I asked them to sponsor us cuz I love their tires and others on the team love their saddles...

mike

[silly_yak]

I have used Kenda K-Rads with some success on both paved and unpaved, they are my current commuter tire and I have done a couple Lake FFX/CCT loops on them as well.

[scoop]

I'm getting tired of driving my bike, on my car, from home to the trail each time I want to ride. The trail I ride most often is about 5 miles from my house. So I'm thinking about skipping the car part. Anybody ride from their house to the trail for this distance have any recommendations on tires?

The ride will end up being 10 miles on the road and about 14 miles on trail, round trip. I have used explorers (current tire), nevegals and mutanoraptors but feel that over time these tires will make the road part of the ride a burden.

Should I just stick with what I like on the trail and deal with it on the road?
Is there an in between tire that will work alright or is worth trying?

If it makes a difference, the trail I'll be riding to is Loch Raven. If you haven't ridden here it's a combination of singletrack and fireroad, mostly hardpack, some rocky and rooty sections.


I wouldn't worry about changing tires. I regularly ride 3-5 miles of road to do mountain bike rides as a warm-up and a way to avoid loading up in a car to go such a short distance. Rather than a burden, I see it as a great way to limber up before the technical riding begins. To me, a few miles doesn't seem far enough to warrant changing tires and potentially compromising trail performance.

[allencb]

For that short a distance, I wouldn't worry about the tire, just enjoy the ride.

That said, I've done road rides as long as 35 miles on Panaracer's 1.8" FireXC Pro. I've also done a good amount of offroading with them. If I had to have a tire for both activities, this would be the one.

Not sure if they're still available though. I got mine for $1.50 each when the Performance in Manassas closed. I should've bought 10 pair.

Chris

[bills]

Guess I have a lot to look into. I will give it a try on my current Conti Explorers with 60psi. They have about 400 miles on them from last season. I usually run my tires around 40psi on the trail (if the rain ever stops), in the winter I have it a little lower. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Explorers seem to be pretty "hard" tires and given that they are already somewhat worn they serve well as a test. I know nothing about tire compound. I hate to waste money on tires that will be trashed from riding on the road after a few rides. I'll watch to see how these hold up.

*I need a sponsor.


I am running a combination of a 2.4 mutanoraptor on the front and nevegals on the back on my full suspension and I'm quite happy with them, but the only road they'll see is between trails along the Patapsco River. :D

[eroc]

I run these on my 'road' bike, which sees plenty of gravel roads & easy singletrack

http://www.schwalbetires.com/node/1351

fast & plush, but they can drift a bit...