Warbird21

It looks like the five year old Schwalbe Sammy Slick tires that came on my NOS Salsa Warbird are toast (rear showing a cord). I guess age worked against me. So, now, I need a quick replacement solution for both. I've had two rear flats recently, I guess they tires have started to dry rot. (they have less than 1000 miles on them).
Tires are 28 x 1.35
Rims: WTB SX17 32 hole

What I ride:
Road & C&O Canal - a mix. Sometimes the Canal is muddy.
I typically keep the tires at 75 psi for dual purpose riding (I'll ride 10 miles on the road, jump on the canal for 15, than 5 back home on the road)

Guys on the Salsa forum say Panaracer Gravel King (which look more road oriented than my Sammy Slicks)
My brother loves his Clement X'Plor MSO tires

Suggestions appreciated, this whole tire/tube thing is still very confusing to me.

Rolla

Gravel Kings come in two versions -- SK (Small Knob) and SS (semi-slick). Both come in several widths, and both work well on a variety of surfaces, with the SK being more dirt-oriented and the SS more roadworthy.

HTupolev

They also come in AC (All Condition), EXT (Extreme), and slicks.

Rolla

Ya caught me sleepin'!

Warbird21

I'm SO confused - I keep looking at tires, find their PSI is not good, they are out of stock or the size is slightly different.
Tube or tubless? I have no clue (I currently run tubes, that came on the bike, tubeless is completely new to me).

What size range works - currently 28 x 1.35 - No one seems to sell in this size. It's 700 x XX (is up to 700 x40 OK?)

Thanks for your help navigating this quagmire of choices.

Again, I ride a mix of road/light gravel with some muddy conditions at times. I like 75 psi (many choices seem to to to 50 or 60 psi)

pdlamb

I think your "28x1.35" is 700Cx35, or 35-622 if you want a "standard" nomenclature. You'll want to check your frame, there's a decent chance you can fit 38, and perhaps 40, in there.

mstateglfr 

Buy Gravel King SS in 38mm and be done. The center tread is relatively smooth and fast rolling which is great for your paved sections. There is some tread too on the sides, but not much. On a well used packed down path like the c&o, you dont need aggressive tread. Instead, volume helps.
If a tire wider than 38mm can fit, use it. From what I remember, that frame when it came out didnt have a ton of clearance, but I thought it wasnt terrible either...like a 40mm would work.

The Donnelley MSO in 40mm is a good tire- I used that tire for a few years. Its heavy and medium rolling resistance, but plenty good.

tdilf

Agreed, Gravelking SS sounds like a good solution here. Use tubes if you don't ride much, try tubeless if you ride a good bit. If your tires were dry rotting i would say you are in the "use tubes" category.

ThermionicScott 

I wonder if you're using too much pressure for your weight. 75 psi is quite a bit for 35mm tires, and overinflated tires would explain how you wore through a narrow stripe down the center.

Warbird21

thanks Guys. As I suspected, options limited in my local area. My Salsa shop, an hour away, had two Panaracer Gravel King options - Great! Blue and Pink in color - thats a no go

My local shop had Schwalbe Road Pros (looked too city like) and WTB Cruz. I opted for the WTB Cruz:

scottfsmith

Those are rated max 50psi, don't go over that if you want to get some good miles on them. These larger tires need much less pressure to get to the 15% or so drop standard.

Hiro11

Tires are debated with religious fervor here, so I'll caveat all of this by saying these are my opinions and personal preferences.

I'm not familiar with those particular tires, but city / hybrid tires like that usually have very stiff, reinforced sidewalls and thick, heavy tread. They're great for tons of miles going slowly on broken pavement, but roll slowly and ride like frozen garden hoses. A true gravel tire like will roll faster and more comfortably at the expense of a some amount of durability and cut resistance. It really depends what you're looking for.

A few other things:
1. Essentially no modern road/gravel tires use inches as a measure, metric dominates. Confusingly, 700c tires do not have a 700 mm diameter, they have a 622 mm bead diameter. Gravel tires are generally 28 mm - 50 mm wide. Also confusingly, the labeled tire width is often only notional. Actual tire widths vary widely based on the rims being used and manufacturer tolerances. Even more confusingly: MTB tires still use inches.

2. Opinion ahead: I believe tubeless to be superior for basically in every way for every bicycle application. All of my bikes (road, gravel, MTB, fat etc) are tubeless. This is again a personal preference thing. There is a learning curve to setting up and maintaining tubeless, but after you've learned it I find it's easier to live with tubeless setups than tubed setups.

3. Tire pressure is probably the biggest factor when it comes to how a particular tire rolls. Especially with tubeless, I tend to run much lower pressures these days than I did 15 years ago. There are various charts online to help with this. I weigh about 160 lbs. To give you an idea of what psi I usually run on various bikes (F/R, again, all tubeless):
Performance road with 28s: 80/82
Gravel race bike with 32s/35s: 38/40
Gravel adventure bike with 45s/50s: 28/30

4. In general, I find less tread is better in most gravel. I actually most often run full slicks on my gravel bikes as they roll faster and I can't really sense any less grip. The biggest exception is mud, where slicks are essentially useless.

ThermionicScott 

Yeah, I would have happily installed the pink GravelKings before those WTBs. But whatever gets you riding again...

Warbird21

the sidewall says "45-80 psi"

scottfsmith

Thats the old recommendation. See https://www.wtb.com/products/cruz?variant=19835483268 for the new one.. 50psi. There is a little disclaimer on this webpage which I think is there because they recently lowered their pressure recommendations.

dwmckee

That tire will be slower than a good gravel tire but pretty durable on the balance. When those wear out maybe look at Schwalbe G-One, Gravel King SS, Rene Hearse Bon Jon Bass, or Challenge Strada Bianca. those all have little tread which is fine for most of your riding. They may be just a bit slick in some of the mud puddles on teh C&O though, but the puddles are short so I'd not worry about that.

I agree with most of Hiro11's comments, other than tubeless probably is not a direction you want to go.

Warbird21

Ah, I see, thanks! Well, they are mounted, what an SOB but they are on.
Wish I had time to actually research the best tire. Well, now I have my front which is serviceable, to keep as an emergency spare should I have another issue in the future. On the road tomorrow, we'll see what happens.

Warbird21

I had a set of Schwalbe G-One's loaded in my Ebay cart, but they weren't rated well for puncture resistance.

dwmckee

It all depends on your riding priorities. For some a flat is the worst imaginible scenario. For others, speed, handling and/or ride quality is a higher priority. No wrong answers, just different priorities.

Badger6

Warbird21, when I lived in Northern Virginia, I regularly rode the C&O. I lived in Falls Church, and despite having about 10 different ways to pick it up, they all involved pavement, until I hit the towpath. I've never ridden it on anything other than Specialized Roubaix Pro 30/32 tires, both tubed and tubeless. Weighing about 78kg, on a 9kg bike, I ran the tubed tires at 60-62psi and tubeless at 42-44. Tubeless were far more comfortable and felt much faster. This tires worked well on tarmac, and were just fine on the towpath...if it wasn't muddy. I've never had a set wear out in less than 5000kms, they don't get many punctures (I can only recall specifically 2 in the last 5 years), are easy to mounts new out of the box, tend to not pinch flat even when I fail to check air pressure when tubed, are dead simple to set up tubeless, and they roll fast enough on the varied surfaces that I don't ever think about it. I realize they are "narrow," but I honestly don't want to risk trying new tires just to get another 5mm wider as stated not he sidewall, when they measure out at 35 already on my Light Bicycle rims.

I also ride Challenge Strada Bianca, Challenge Paris-Roubaix (really a road tire for cobbles and capable on short gravel sections)...nice tires, but honestly, not as nice as the Spesh Roubaix Pro. The Challenge tires are hard to mount, in my experience. The Specialized Pathfinder Pro (38mm) might be a good option also. Similar carcass to the Roubaix, with a slick (and thick) center strip, after 3000km on a set, no punctures, dead simple to set up tubeless, roll fast on tarmac and plenty grippy for the gravel and even occasional sandy sections. Not so hot in mud. Frankly nothing is hot in mud, unless it has huge blocks and then it won't be great on tarmac.

For the record, in my opinion, the WTB tires are junk. Everyone I know who has ever used them has had all sorts of issues...punctures, terribly difficult to get set up tubeless, and they feel like a "frozen garden hose" while rolling, even some QC issues. Roll them out, see how you like them. But, I think new tires are sooner in your future than you might have though.

Warbird21

Good advice. Of the two Specialized shops in my area, neither had anything suitable in stock (my brother had suggested the Roubaix Pro's as well).
So, the WTB's were the low-hanging fruit.

They were an SOB to mount, but I got good after the 3rd try - I snake bit the tube twice, and cut the shi!#$@ out of my finger in the process. That was most likely just my ineptitude mounting tires.

Over the weekend, I rode 60 miles on them. On the road and canal, the did fine. It was a bit muddy, but they shed the mud quickly. On the tarmac, they felt equitable to the Schwalbe's. On the canal, they were far more compliant that the Schwalbe's (albeit at 10 psi less). No complaints so far, but my perspective is so limited, I probably don't know what I'm missing. Puncture resistance will have to be determined (I'm 200 lbs, so push them I guess).

Great feedback, wish I had time to make a more informed decision. The good news is the front Schwalbe was salvageable, so I have a back up for future use.

ThermionicScott 

It's good to put a little air in the tube before installing it in the tire to avoid pinching it. On the road, I use whatever I can blow into the tube with my mouth.

I'm not sure if the SX17 is a tubeless-compatible rim or not, but it's good practice either way to keep the beads in the center channel as much as possible to provide more slack when mounting the tires. Hope this helps for next time.