Last updated on July 1, 2026
So, not long after getting my bike I picked up a pair of Forte FastCity ST/K tires. These are relatively narrow, somewhat smooth tires designed to make a mountain bike work better on roads. This they do very well, but they are awful on other surfaces.
The knobby tires which came with my bike seem to do well on trails, but whenever I’m riding on pavement they are a bit rough/rumbly, and just a bit harder than the smooth tires to pedal / go fast with.
I’ve been finding that what I really want, to match how I use the bike, is something which is smooth rolling on pavement, but will still be okay when I have to deal with spots of mud, puddles, and riding around on grass / dirt paths, two-tracks up north, stuff like that. Not true mountain bike uses, but more go-anywhere tires.
Looking around online I came across these, Continental Traffic tires, which seem to have a nicely smooth but still grooved center, and bigger knobs around the edge. From these reviews they look like they’d be pretty all right.
Do any of you have an opinion on these, or possibly recommendations for similar tires?
Thanks very much!
I generally go “nearly slick” and I have 8 miles a day of gravel/clay mix. If you’re all pavement I’d go with the Fortes out of the two. Tread does zero (actually, negative) good on pavement for a bicycle.
I’ve never shopped for 26″ street tires so I don’t have any real advice. I run 700c/32
Ah well, thanks anyway. Those slicks really are nice on pavement, but I’m finding there are loads of places where I end up going along fields, or through the mud because some of the best flat trails for riding along for fun are in a floodplain. :\
On the recommendation of a friend I’m also looking at these and these.
I try to stay out of muddy places. Where I went to school up in the UP, I was there when mountain biking took off in the 80s. Several places that had been enjoyed for decades by the public were destroyed and closed off by their owners within 2 years of people starting to ride bikes in the muddy areas and tearing the places up. The erosion was incredible; feet per year.
That’s understandable. For me, at least on Saturday, the mud I was in was more like 1cm of mud on a paved path, mostly because the path runs through a floodplain. There was also standing water deeper than the rims in some place. On those the choice was either go through the water or ride in sopping wet / icy grass.
Yeah, that’s a mess. There are some bad spots on the gravel roads here where the frost hasn’t broken underneath yet, but there’s 2 inches of mud. It’s like hitting molasses.
I think I’m actually going to go grab a pair of these from REI on the way home. They look like they’ll do just what I want overall, and the reviews on them are pretty good.
That’s one of the highly regarded tires on the commuting forum. I bet you like them.
That’s good to hear. Thanks. :D
The Pythons are notorious for being useless in mud. The are great for just about every other condition, but almost as bad as slicks in the mud.
Geax Saguaro’s are a good middle of the road tire I’ve found. Handle mud/gravel/dirt well, but have a nice raised center that makes them roll well.
http://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/TI400A19-Geax+Saguaro.aspx