someoneonabike

Hello. I have a mountain bike. My tires are very old and the back one has ripped itself and cuts the tube. Permanent flat. I need new tires.

There is a wide range of tires available and I need to know what to choose.

One thing that I really find complicated is the knob pattern. Bike tires are either for road or for off-road. I do both. I've done some research, but nothing seems quite good enough. I realize I need to make a compromise, but I would like, ideally, to get the best tires that can do both road and off road.

My bike has 26 inch wheels. My biking habit is mostly periodic long trips, 60-100 km, through Bucharest and the neighboring towns, villages, forests, fields etc. I often times mix road travel with off-road travel. I do a lot of road biking, especially when I need to get from, for example, Bucharest to a neighboring village and I just cycle on tarmac and try to get from A to B as quickly as possible. There I would like some extra speed, if possible. But then when I arrive at a village, or set of villages, I end up on gravel, or even alternations of gravel and tarmac. Replace "village" with "forest" and I need to go on dirt. If it rained the night before, it's mud. I love the feeling of freedom that cycling gives you so I would like my bike to be able to go on any terrain and easily switch between them. Taking a different wheel or tyre set with me and replacing them at every terrain change would be cumbersome and would not fit my biking style.

I am currently looking at tires that have a compromise: knob size and density is right in the middle between knobless (https://www.cheapbikeparts360.com/images/b/7617.jpg) and pure off road mountain biking (https://p.vitalmtb.com/photos/users/2...jpg?1316636511 --> these are the kind of tires I used to have and the knobs just got completely erased in the back tires because of road use) - like the Maxxis Holy Roller (https://cdn.maxxiscentral.com/tyreima...lyRoller_l.png) or the Kenda K-rad (https://www.avantiplus.com.au/images...0N810_zoom.jpg), not too small and not too big knobbs, packed neither too closely and have too little grip in the mud nor too loosely and be too easily erased by the pavement; OR un-uniform knob distribution, meaning some type of knobs in one part of the tire and another type in other parts of the tire, like semi-slick tires: https://www.cecilwalker.com.au/images/i_0115001.jpg; the problem is, I read that not only do knobs get erased when using off road tires on road and that you slower with offroad tires on road but apparrently there is actually less grip with knobbly tires on road. Apparently, if you get semi-lsick tires you will get a lot of traction and speed on road when you start and pedal in a straight line, but once you turn, you loose traction.... in a turn. Recipe for skidding, or sliding, and falling. Is that true? This is why I tend more towards a uniform pattern like Maxxis Holy Roller.

I very much like the look of tires in a zig zag, like CST Traveller C1313. I tend to think the zig zag will be slick on road but grip dirt and mud on offroad. Combined with the knobs on the sides, that would be a perfect hibrid. Would be, that is, if you don't slide when you turn like on the semi-slick.

This model is also interesting: Anvelop? CST TRAVELLER CROSS 42-622 (700X40C)

So that is my research on the issue of tires knob patterns. I would like to ask you what is your opinion/experience when it comes to tires and what do you think is the best tire for using both on and off road, tires that roll fast on road and grip dirt and mud on off road? Thank you.