help with tyres

[noodle]

new to this thin wheel thing and im struggling a bit to find a tyre that will be good on the road and work better than the giant tyres that came with the bike on gravel and mud. past experience with mtb's so im happy on roughish stuff and im not looking at anything remotely extreme just a commute that needs to take a few 'tractor' style routes. its quite disconcerting even going fairly slow over this stuff at 110 psi and sounds like the opening sequence of saving private ryan.......

cost id sooner shop at the lower end of the market for the moment as im not sure they will be right, unless you can convince me its a false economy and wont kill the bike (giant rapid 4 with 1930's style u rim brakes)
not sure it will matter but better and more info usually results in better recommendations so ive swapped some stuff
notably the short stumpy stem for a longer (6 inch 5deg rise) and pedals are flat touring ones in case i need to bail quickly (im torn between sticking proper flats on or using some old ritchey V2's i have (think they are v2's now i type it im unsure....)

so trye suitable for 700c wheels to work with whatever the caliper brakes are (tektro tk-r539) and cope with very mild off road hard packed earth, gravel and good on the road
full spec if it makes any difference http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/2014.giant.rapid.4/14978/66554/#specifications

 

[Fab Foodie]

Something like this maybe?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-ma...m_medium=base&utm_campaign=uk&kpid=5360539984
They have reasonable tread for light off-road duty, are tough and keenly priced. They'll feel heavier and slower than the Giant tyres however on Tarmac.

There is also the Marathon and Marathon plus.
What you pay for is lower weight and/or increased P*ncture protection for the more expensive versions.

 

[noodle]

hmm fairly cheap as well just, curious as to how good they are though being so slick and for ebikes

 

[John the Monkey]

You're not going to get a heavily treaded tyre in 25c (the size that was orignally on your Giant, if the spec is right). What you'll get is something like that Marathon, a "siped" tread. The Schwalbe Marathon HS368 is worth a look too. IME, Schwalbe make a decent tyre - I've not ridden the one Fab Foodie recommends, but I have ridden the HS368, and it's not bad, as well as the City Jet (jolly nice) and Stelvio (a favourite 25c road tyre, before they stopped making them)

 

[John the Monkey]

Oh, and there's the Panaracer Pasela, which I've also ridden in 25c - bloody lovely tyre, although I never took mine off road;

http://thecyclehub.net/long-term-review-panaracer-pasela-tour-guard-tyre/

 

[Diggs]

I know what you mean @noodle
I had the following originally on my Tricross (although these were a bit wider than the 25s on yours)
http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/productDetails.asp?productID=52152&gclid=CInhovnO9cACFagfwwod9o4AjA
and they were great for road and a little bit of trail/gravel/parks etc. When I needed to replace them I really struggled to find anything similar, so as I use it more often on road I ended up with these..
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/vittoria-randonneur-ii-tyre/
but I switch them for to cheap CST cultivator nobbly cross tyres on for when I do any gentle offroading.
Not quite sure why I didn't spot the Panaracers recommended by @John the Monkey at the time as they look pretty good

 

[John the Monkey]

Not quite sure why I didn't spot the Panaracers recommended by @John the Monkey at the time as they look pretty good

I think they're notorious for vulnerable sidewalls, which might make them a bit less attractive to people riding gravel &c - they're also more expensive than I remember them being. The set I had rolled beautifully though.

 

[samsbike]

I would echo the marathons as well, however, I seem to have suffered with 4 tires getting shot on the wired bead well before the tread had gone.

Vittoria are also supposed to be good.

 

[Dogtrousers]

If you happen to consider Durano Plus, I posted a picture here that shows that (a) it doesn't have much in the way of tread and (b) under the right circumstances it can resist attack from gurt big nails. That's a 28mm tyre in the pic, btw.

 

[noodle]

Looking online at wiggle leads me to this sort of thing
The decent lbs has proper cyclocross mud pluggers in which looked to be great for mud but not good on tarmac

 

[noodle]

helps if i put the link in i suppose

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/kenda-happy-medium-dtc-folding-cyclocross-bike-tyre/

any reason you wouldnt up the size from a 25 to a 32. i need more volume and a bit less pressure for the gravel (and now mud after the last two days rain)
im not super fast on the roads so ill happily sacrifice speed on tarmac for the speed i will gain on the loose stuff which is roughly one third of the distance
speed wise on the road im averaging 14 mph over the route on the rough stuff its more like 3 on the loose gravel and 6 on harder packed stuff

 

[Cyclist33]

Will 32mm semi-knobblies fit a Rapid frame?

 

[noodle]

Will 32mm semi-knobblies fit a Rapid frame?

looks like it they will be a 'bit' closer the the brakes it looks like.
but work is moving and the new place is an all tarmac route so maybe this has been futile