700c "gravel" tyres

[mattc]

Just bought a friends battered parts-bin CX bike, for use mainly on the commute over "mixed" surfaces. The sidewall of the rear is starting to fail, so I need a new tyre.

Any good mid-range suggestions? I'm in unexplored waters here!
(bike has regular width road rims. Current tyres are 40mm? Anyway, plenty of clearance on it, but I dont expect to go a lot wider than that - I'm not riding on sand or snow. )

_{I dont believe we have a thread about this - but lots of discussion buried in wider threads about "gravel" bikes or similar.}

[Veloman]

I have used a CX bike for commuting/utility stuff and the bike came with Conti Cyclocross tyres which were not very aggressive and fine for tarmac/gravel.  I currently use Vittoria Randonneur that are rather like Marathons but far cheaper, although not sure about puncture resistance.

[bumper]

wtb nano

[mattc]

[EDITED  - 40mm !]

Thanks bumper - what flavour nanos though? there are ... several! (lets stick to clinchers for now, too!)

As its for commuting I'd really like decent p* resistance, even at expense of weight. In this vein I shall shortly stick a spare 25mm M+ on, just to tide me over. Yes, it will look odd ...

[bumper]

I've used the wired, race and tcs. All the same but different weights. I run the tcs tubeless at 30psi and lower and they are great for trail work, the wired are just as good, I run those at around 40 for mixed road/trail riding. They run well on tarmac and great on hardpack and shallow mud.

They are possibly my most favouritest, bestest tyre ever ever!

CRC have the wired for ~£17 and PX have the tcs for ~£30. I stocked up on wired when they were 13.99ea and I've just bought another 4 tcs from px

[tiermat]

Not Conti SpeedRide, they are fairie magnets!

I am using, currently, Clement X'Plor USH, which are supplied on the bike with tubes but work fine tubeless (due to lack of tuits, the front is tubeless and the rear tubed). Great tyres, nice balance of on and off road grip plus no visitations. Ask me again in two weeks, though when they have had a trip out to lands forrin.

[morbihan]

Been using some bontrager CXO 33’s That just about squeeze onto my Van Nic randonneur bike. Nice floaty ride over broken road/track. No flats as yet and ridden pretty hard.

Firefly have specced clements for the new all-road build (in production), I've no personal experience yet, but the guys at Firefly seem to get everything right.

[rr]

There is a gravel version of the sharbre one, my marathon supremes 32 work well until things get really loose.

[mattc]

X'Plor

?!?

Is this the sort of thing I'll have to tolerate once I stray off the tarmacced path?

<shakes head ... >

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's the kind of grammatically illiterate marketing speak all right-thinking tarmac cyclists d'plor.

[PaulF]

Matt I've got a pair of Michelin Mud 2 CX tyres that you can have for nothing - think you're in South Oxfordshire?

Caveat is that I bought them used on here about 5 years ago and have never used them so can't vouch for their condition

[tiermat]

X'Plor

?!?

Is this the sort of thing I'll have to tolerate once I stray off the tarmacced path?

<shakes head ... >

Yeah, get used to it...

I don't make the tyres, nor even name them...

[mattc]

Matt I've got a pair of Michelin Mud 2 CX tyres that you can have for nothing - think you're in South Oxfordshire?

Caveat is that I bought them used on here about 5 years ago and have never used them so can't vouch for their condition

PMed.

(anything to avoid X'plors ! )

[morbihan]

worth a look.
https://www.compasscycle.com/shop/components/tires/700c/compass-700cx35-bon-jon-pass/

[Gus]

schwalbe marathon mondial, not a specific gravel tyre, but a great allround touring tyre, available in 700x40c

[Andrew Br]

I endorse what Tiermat said about the X'plors.
Mine have done 1700 miles a lot of which was commuting through the glass strewn streets of central MCR.
I've had one puncture and that was a snake bite caused by a sharp edged, water filled pot-hole. Of course it was raining at the time.........
Fitting and removing them is very, very easy.
As well as, seemingly, being tough, they roll well on tarmac and are great on gravel.
They're soon out of their depth on mud though.

Who cares what they're called ? They're tyres.

[mattc]

Who cares what they're called ? They're tyres.

As long as they're not tires, I'm happy.