Tyre recommendation UK roads

[Alex1982]

What tyres would you stand by for commuting on roads in the UK

Ideally for a gravel bike but something more suitable for road surfaces

 

[vickster]

Tubed or tubeless?

 

[Big John]

Tractor tyre. They seem to cope well with today's potholes 👍

 

[biking_fox]

Marathon plus. Always. Everyday all day.

Yes they're heavy, and expensive and possibly overkill for 'nice' commutes. But if you're on urban glass; rough tarmac; stones; thorns et al for commuting you need a tyre that will always be there every morning, you can't beat them.

 

[Adam4868]

Vittoria Rubino for me on the winter bike.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Marathon Supremes and Marathon Cross were my favourites (45Nth Gravdal if risk of ice/snow), but not sure those Marathons are available anywhere these days.

It depends on the risk of punctures going on having good experience of the commute route through the seasons.

I'm trying not to buy new tyres at the moment to save a bit of cash, but at the mo, I'm most tempted to buy a set of Caracal Race in 40/45mm for ~£50 each from Merlin... Rolling resistance of ~13W, would be quicker than Supremes (~19W) and surprisingly close to top racing slicks like GP5000s!

 

[Alex1982]

Tubed or tubeless?

Tubed

 

[Arjimlad]

Another happy Rubino Pro user here. In 700x30c flavour on my "gravel light" Giant Contend AR bike.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

If you want your punctures to be as rare as unicorns then something like a Marathon Green guard will do the job on road. Otherwise pretty much any modern tyre other then race tyres will do the job.

 

[Alex321]

Marathon plus. Always. Everyday all day.

Yes they're heavy, and expensive and possibly overkill for 'nice' commutes. But if you're on urban glass; rough tarmac; stones; thorns et al for commuting you need a tyre that will always be there every morning, you can't beat them.

Absolutely. I use Marathon+, and while I did get a puncture the Friday before last, that was the first one I'd had in over 4000 miles of riding, mostly on minor roads and lanes around the Vale of Glamorgan, plus into Cardiff city on my commute.

 

[mjr]

It all depends what you want and what your roads are like. My latest purchase was a Pirelli CYCL-e tyre in 37mm for the city bike and I've some cheap Fincci 28mm ones on the road bike I use most often. Both are pretty smooth centre tread with "file tread" on the shoulder to try to cut through leaf mulch and the other rubbish covering local tarmac. The city bike's other tyre is some 42mm Kenda hybrid tyre, but mud just gets stuck in the tread unevenly on that and makes a squelch-squelch-squelch noise as I ride along even in a straight line so I'll not do that again. I probably should replace it before the sounds of my own wheel drives me crazy.

I also like some of Schwalbe's cruiser tyres, found the Marathon's too dead-feeling but pretty low-puncture. I'm not impressed with Rubinos but they're not on my bike and are narrower (and so pumped harder) than I usually use, so that may give me a strange opinion. I wouldn't ride Conti GP or Gatorskins around here at this time of year as I've seen too many riders (some experienced) slide out on them. Tannus solid tyres the same on that.

 

[teeonethousand]

I have Panaracer Gravel King semi slicks in 45 and absolutely love them.

 

[Punkawallah]

If you want to avoid punctures, why not add a tyre liner?

 

[mjr]

If you want to avoid punctures, why not add a tyre liner?

Because, depending on the type, it's another thing that falls out when replacing a tube or gets kinked up while repairing punctures and it's not unknown for the ends to stab through tyres themselves. Been there, done that (kevlar tape, stiff nylon and some sort of foam thing) and can't be faffed any more. Buy tyres with it in or just accept more repair stops.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Marathon Original Greenguard: a bit lighter and a bit cheaper than the Marathon Plus.
Rare to get a puncture, especially if you take care not to ride on puddles of broken glass.