Best fast tyres for MTB under £25-£30?

[itaa]

Hello everyone, I'm in need of new tyres for my mtb ( the old knobby ones are worn to bits and the rubber is cracking, about 9years old I think based on when I bought the bike).

My main goal is to get speed improvement and ease of driving,I can deal with a bit less grip- I think the lowest rolling resistance would be the keyword? my use would be like 50% forest paths (hardly ever muddy or slippery),50% tarmac, but still need something a bit more tough to drive up a kerb and not fall over if I ever encounter some crazy mud?

I'm totally new to all this bike stuff ( well I ride the bike but that's all I do with it ) so really have no idea what's good /what's the best/ and whats not so good.

I want to spend as little as possible( who doesn't... ) , and I have found that at a lot of places the schwalbe city jets are pretty popular , can get them for 18pounds on fleabay, but If there's something much better I don't mind paying a bit more. However I got no idea what's good and what's not.

my wheel size is 26 and I think I want probably 1.5 wide tyres ( my current are 1.95) if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance!

 

[NorthernDave]

Schwalbe Land Cruisers. Expect to pay under £15 each.

 

[DCLane]

Land Cruisers are solid but a little slow imo.

Try Schwalbe Hurricane's - cheap and fast:http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/..._dc|pcrid|161846550664|pkw||pmt||prd|425483UK

 

[itaa]

Well I started to do research about the land cruisers and was almost set on them, until you posted that the hurricanes are better
What kind of speed difference really are we talking about here between the City jets vs Land cruisers VS Hurricanes?

Also I think the hurricanes only comes in 2.0 thickness? The land cruisers comes in 1.75 as well , even with the extra thickness for the hurricanes they are faster?

 

[vickster]

Speed will be mostly down to you not the tyres. Buy the ones with good puncture protection especially if using for commuting on urban roads and rough stuff.
If you really want to go faster on roads, save for a roadbike

 

[Drago]

I ran Cityjets for a while and they do roll very nicely indeed. They're ok off road in the hardback, but w hint of moisture in the dirt and you can forget it.

 

[I like Skol]

Don't get distracted by the 'thin is fast' argument. A full size tyre at the right pressure is often undistinguishable from the same tyre in a narrower size in term of speed and effort in the real world. However, the reward in comfort and robustness more than makes up for any theoretical disadvantages. Crashing up kerbs and down steps is more practical on 2" tyres as opposed to anything 1.5" or less. Trust me, I know about this kind of misbehavior

 

[itaa]

Speed will be mostly down to you not the tyres. Buy the ones with good puncture protection especially if using for commuting on urban roads and rough stuff.
If you really want to go faster on roads, save for a roadbike

Yup I quite realize that I am the biggest factor myself in the speed I can get Actually it's not the speed as per say I want to max out, but rather ease of driving/lower rolling resistance I want to get. It's a bit of a chore to drive a bike with the knobby mtb tyres, I have borrowed a roadbike from a friend and I fell in love with that thing and ease of driving it. However don't have the money to get something decent now and I'm sticking more to paths anyway away from cars so the speed really isn't the biggest factor, so I want to at least upgrade my current bike to get a bit more juice out of it


I think I have to cross out the cityjets (because I don't just stick to tarmac roads).

What do you guys think about the Schwalbe Marathon ( GREENGUARD) vs the Schwalbe Hurricane , the greenguards supposedly are cheaper than the regular more expensive marathons yet they give slightly better rolling resistance?

If only there were some kind of actual wattage data where you could compare rolling resistance of a true slick such as the city jet VS something with a bit more thread such as the hurricane/greenguard...

 

[vickster]

I certainly wouldn't go for Marathon Plus if riding on potentially slippery surfaces. I wouldn't go for them full stop actually as they are heavy and sluggish on roads (and slippery)!

They are puncture resistant though (just as well as they are a b*tch to get on and off)!

 

[itaa]

I just found this list where they have rolling resistance data of the 3 tyres I was looking at ( the city jets/ Hurricanes/ Marathon tyre- although I'm not sure which marathons as there are like 5 of them and some aren't that good with rolling resistance)
http://www.helsinki.fi/~tlinden/rolling.html

So seems like the Hurricanes has almost the same rolling resistance as the City jets but with the added more grip bonus?
the Marathons seem to have a really huge proportional rolling resistance based on that table compared to city jets for example- but than again I'm not sure which marathons are they talking about?

If the Marathon Greenguards (those who have one of the lowest rolling resistance) would have the same rolling resistance as the Hurricanes than its a clear choice because the greenguards are better protected and doesn't costs that much more?

 

[potsy]

I doubt you'd notice any real world difference between the three you mention, any nobbly mtb tyre will be harder work on smooth tarmac than a smooth tyre.
I would go for the one with the better puncture protection.

 

[NorthernDave]

I've tried the Marathons and absolutely hated them.
Heavy, dead and slow on road and no grip off road.
They might have good puncture resistance, but I'd replaced them with Land Cruisers within a fortnight.

 

[itaa]

I've tried the Marathons and absolutely hated them.
Heavy, dead and slow on road and no grip off road.
They might have good puncture resistance, but I'd replaced them with Land Cruisers within a fortnight.

Which Marathons exactly they were? It gets a bit confusing since there are like 6-7differnent models for them, each a bit different

Someone suggested me the land cruisers as well, but than someone told me the hurricanes are much better with lower rolling resistance on road and nearly as good as the land-cruisers off-road.

Damn really there are toooo many different tyres and choices on the market, so hard to choose from when there are no exact data/research provided

Maybe I should buy one of each and try them all out that is if I had an unicycle for which I don't need to buy 2 tyres

 

[vickster]

Maybe you're overthinking this ...just sayin!

 

[itaa]

I am... I think I have spent some good 3hours already reading/researching about all kind of tyres but I have yet to decide which one to go for.