Just curious what others that are doing mostly pavement riding are using for tires. I would imagine there are those that have no problem with the noise and vibration from some gnarly knoby hardcore off road tires on pavement but I'm more interested in the more smooth and quiet options.
For pavement I am on 29's that are at least 2" wide. I started out with some Maxxis typical mountain bike tires with what I consider fairly mild and small knobs. Noise from the tires was for sure the loudest part of the bike. Many times pedestrians could hear me coming which saved me the effort of ringing the bell. Since I was mostly on pavement I started asking around and more than one person said if you can have just a pavement bike or set of wheels go with the Schwalbe Big Apples. They are smooth and quiet for sure and I now have around 1000 miles on them. Great tire. Looks to be discontinued or at least super low priority to be manufactured, maybe replaced by the Big Ben? https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_t...ires/big_apple
Leaning into curves and wet or sandy roads I don't have a lot of confidence in the Big Apples. Even wet grass can be a little slippery because they are basically slicks running at moderate pressures. I am also seeing some wear now so that got me starting to look for other options. I wanted something that was fairly smooth down the middle so I would still get that quite smooth easy rolling on pavement but that then had some tread on the sides for when you get into places that are not clear dry pavement. There are quite a few options like that in a 700 x 30-45 ish but not as much in the 29 x 2-3 range. After a lot of online searching of even out of stock everywhere products I found the Surly Extra Terrestrial in a 29x2.5 and I even found them in stock locally. They were not actually in my store but were in stock at Surly HQ which is also local for me. https://surlybikes.com/parts/extraterrestrial
I did about 30 miles on them last night on pavement and so far I really like em. Had them on my rigid steel Surly Pugsley with Surly Rabbit Hole 29 rims at about 30 psi. I would say the Big Apples which were 2.35 vs the 2.5 of the ETs were slightly softer and quieter ride but only slightly. WIth the Apples the BBSHD and chain makes more noise than the tires, the ET's are closer to the noise level of the rest of the bike. Still much quieter and smoother than anything with knobs. I did some moderate speed curves and was actually comfortable leaning into them a bit which I never really did on the Apples. I have not tried any non paved stuff with them yet but I don't fear it like I did the Apples.
I started out with the Pug with 2 wheel sets but fairly quickly built another bike so I could have a fat trail bike and a 29 street bike. If I expect to be off road I would usually take the fat bike. Originally I had Surly Nate tires on that which were very grippy but also felt very slow and had quite a bit of vibration on pavement so I really did not enjoy the pavement part of the ride getting to the park but this spring I got an assortment of other tires for that and found a combo that seems to work reasonably well on the green and blue trails and isn't too annoying on the streets. For those that are curious I'm currently running a Surly Knard on the rear and a Surly Larry on the front.
Short term I needed 2 street bikes is why I put the 29's and the new ET's on the Pug but at some point I will likely put the ET's on my Schwinn Axum which is the BBSHD 29er street bike. I think that will give me really good options. If its mostly pavement I will take the Schwinn but should then be no problem if I hit a construction detour or maybe a shortcut through the woods. If its mostly going to be off road I take the Surly but with its current tire combo no problem if the trails are a little further away or I feel like taking the long way home from the park.
Almost sounds like I work for Surly, I wish. It would great not to have to pay full retail for bikes and bike parts. I had not had the 29's on my Pug since I bought the Schwinn last fall. Man do I like a steel frame. I do like the Schwinn but aluminum has a really different feel plus the walmart suspension fork I think adds its own interesting dynamic to the ride. I can maybe see if you were not on an E bike where there could be performance advantages to aluminum and carbon but on an e bike a little flex and weight just ads to the comfort which is what many of us are after.
For pavement I am on 29's that are at least 2" wide. I started out with some Maxxis typical mountain bike tires with what I consider fairly mild and small knobs. Noise from the tires was for sure the loudest part of the bike. Many times pedestrians could hear me coming which saved me the effort of ringing the bell. Since I was mostly on pavement I started asking around and more than one person said if you can have just a pavement bike or set of wheels go with the Schwalbe Big Apples. They are smooth and quiet for sure and I now have around 1000 miles on them. Great tire. Looks to be discontinued or at least super low priority to be manufactured, maybe replaced by the Big Ben? https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_t...ires/big_apple
Leaning into curves and wet or sandy roads I don't have a lot of confidence in the Big Apples. Even wet grass can be a little slippery because they are basically slicks running at moderate pressures. I am also seeing some wear now so that got me starting to look for other options. I wanted something that was fairly smooth down the middle so I would still get that quite smooth easy rolling on pavement but that then had some tread on the sides for when you get into places that are not clear dry pavement. There are quite a few options like that in a 700 x 30-45 ish but not as much in the 29 x 2-3 range. After a lot of online searching of even out of stock everywhere products I found the Surly Extra Terrestrial in a 29x2.5 and I even found them in stock locally. They were not actually in my store but were in stock at Surly HQ which is also local for me. https://surlybikes.com/parts/extraterrestrial
I did about 30 miles on them last night on pavement and so far I really like em. Had them on my rigid steel Surly Pugsley with Surly Rabbit Hole 29 rims at about 30 psi. I would say the Big Apples which were 2.35 vs the 2.5 of the ETs were slightly softer and quieter ride but only slightly. WIth the Apples the BBSHD and chain makes more noise than the tires, the ET's are closer to the noise level of the rest of the bike. Still much quieter and smoother than anything with knobs. I did some moderate speed curves and was actually comfortable leaning into them a bit which I never really did on the Apples. I have not tried any non paved stuff with them yet but I don't fear it like I did the Apples.
I started out with the Pug with 2 wheel sets but fairly quickly built another bike so I could have a fat trail bike and a 29 street bike. If I expect to be off road I would usually take the fat bike. Originally I had Surly Nate tires on that which were very grippy but also felt very slow and had quite a bit of vibration on pavement so I really did not enjoy the pavement part of the ride getting to the park but this spring I got an assortment of other tires for that and found a combo that seems to work reasonably well on the green and blue trails and isn't too annoying on the streets. For those that are curious I'm currently running a Surly Knard on the rear and a Surly Larry on the front.
Short term I needed 2 street bikes is why I put the 29's and the new ET's on the Pug but at some point I will likely put the ET's on my Schwinn Axum which is the BBSHD 29er street bike. I think that will give me really good options. If its mostly pavement I will take the Schwinn but should then be no problem if I hit a construction detour or maybe a shortcut through the woods. If its mostly going to be off road I take the Surly but with its current tire combo no problem if the trails are a little further away or I feel like taking the long way home from the park.
Almost sounds like I work for Surly, I wish. It would great not to have to pay full retail for bikes and bike parts. I had not had the 29's on my Pug since I bought the Schwinn last fall. Man do I like a steel frame. I do like the Schwinn but aluminum has a really different feel plus the walmart suspension fork I think adds its own interesting dynamic to the ride. I can maybe see if you were not on an E bike where there could be performance advantages to aluminum and carbon but on an e bike a little flex and weight just ads to the comfort which is what many of us are after.
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