Which Off-Road Tyres on a Hybrid?

[lemmingjames]

Hi people,

Long story short; girlfriend is looking to buy a new bike for commuting and is tempted by a hybrid (thats closer to MTB styke than roadie), however, shed like to come with me on XC/Woodland trails and the tyres ive seen, im not sure would be grippy enough as there not full fat MTB tyres. MTB tyres ont fit as the rear wheel sits to close to the frame/frame tapers in and would rub.

Therefore, has anyone got any suggestions on what tyres could be suitable for her needs?

The other option is a MTB with roadie tyres on

[richardxjr]

They'll be fine if not total slicks or very wet. I and my elder boy have ridden my old standard commuter Carrera Subway on SDW and Bedgbury trail centre. 40-odd psi.

[Kell]

I can't remember the name of the tyres, but you can get variants that have a central slick line - so ideal when upright in town - but that has treads to the sides so whenever you're in mud or cornering you get the benefit of tread blocks.

[lemmingjames]

I know the tyres your on about but would they stand up well to muddy trails?

[Kell]

lemmingjames said:

I know the tyres your on about but would they stand up well to muddy trails?

I'm guessing they'd be a compromise, but it's a question of which is more important. I've gone out with my missus before on a woodland trail which was dusty on my commuter which has slicks on it and been fine. But then I've also gone (or tried to go) across muddy grass and ended up having to get off.

[Jobbo]

I've got a Specialized Crosstrail which I've used various different tyres on. It's a more mountain-bike type of hybrid, and has 700C wheels so you can't use most mountain bike tyres. I've had it a few years and 29ers have become more common, so it *may* be possible to fit 29" mountain bike tyres to it now, but I haven't investigated that. Anyway, wheel size is fairly important.

The tyres it came on look like this:


They're surprisingly free-rolling but the converse of that is that they're rubbish off tarmac. The smooth centre bit means they just slide on wet grass, for instance. So I bought a set of Schwalbe Land Cruisers, because they're just about the only off-road-ish tyres I could find in the right size. They've been fine, did what I want and didn't cost too much. They have the continuous central piece which means they roll relatively well, but sufficient knobbly bits to grip in mud, on grass etc:


I also put on a set of skinny tyres which I had from my old Sirrus Sport, but surprisingly it didn't really roll any better than on the original tyres. The bike itself just doesn't roll freely like my roadie.

[Kell]

There are loads of options on this link:

http://www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussi...

[lemmingjames]

Thanks for the comments guys, just put 700c tyres into chain reaction and its thrown up lots of various tyres. I looked before hand but didnt put in 700c.

I think she should get an MTB but its her choice i guess.

[neilbauer]

I've got Schwalbe Smart Sam, nice off road with a centre rolling strip for on road.

[gazza285]

Land Cruisers are ok, if heavy. I'd go for Continental Twisters myself, I've used them on my cyclocross bike for 18 months, good puncture resistance and fantastic grip off-road. The wired versions are £10 a pop on eBay, and the lightweight versions aren't much more. Not too bad on-road either.

[nagsheadwarrior]

My Subway coped with 12 miles of deep rutted muddy towpath a couple of months back on Schwalbe Cityjets which are much slicker than the standard fit tyres, admittedly much time was spent sideways but it was quite fun!

[matt-ITR]

I think she would be better buying a 29er MTB hardtail and fitting a semi-offroad tyre to it.

A MTB would be much, much better off-road and with a fast rolling tyre (you can get slicks) it would be fine for road and commuting.
The only real world difference is the size of the gears, as they will be smaller on the MTB - which means you can't pedal much past 25mph or so.

Hybrids suck off-road. The angles are all wrong and the tyres are too thin.

[Jobbo]

gazza285 said:

Land Cruisers are ok, if heavy. I'd go for Continental Twisters myself, I've used them on my cyclocross bike for 18 months, good puncture resistance and fantastic grip off-road. The wired versions are £10 a pop on eBay, and the lightweight versions aren't much more. Not too bad on-road either.

That's interesting - on the basis of the tread pattern I wouldn't have gone for the Twisters, since they don't have a continuous central band but they do have flattened tread blocks in the centre which don't look much more effective than the standard tyres on my Crosstrail. I'll probably try them; cheap enough!

[TheLemming]

lemmingjames said:

Hi people,

Long story short; girlfriend is looking to buy a new bike for commuting and is tempted by a hybrid (thats closer to MTB styke than roadie), however, shed like to come with me on XC/Woodland trails and the tyres ive seen, im not sure would be grippy enough as there not full fat MTB tyres. MTB tyres ont fit as the rear wheel sits to close to the frame/frame tapers in and would rub.

Therefore, has anyone got any suggestions on what tyres could be suitable for her needs?

The other option is a MTB with roadie tyres on

The answer to most questions seems to be a cyclocross bike. It will run much wider tyres than most hybrids, mine copes well offroad and is still great on road (on slicks its my winter club ride bike, on nobblies through the summer its an occasional commuter and offroad / tracks etc)

[JMDWestley]

I brought a GT Transeo a few months back, it came with the Schwable Land Cruisers and so far so good. We have an old railway line thats muddy and gravely which is my frequent ride. I also do the odd road/tarmac and wheels turn with ease also done the downs (offroad) but am lacking the confidence at mo.

On my old mountain bike I had Continental Fighter 2's but wasnt that grippy on wet tarmac.