Nathan_S

Hi,
I need some help with my new bike and a recent move. I moved overseas recently and before doing so, I bought a Trek Domane SL-6. I absolutely love the bike, but have come to find out that the area in which I now live is a small city and to get to the outskirts/next town (where the riding is good) requires a bit of off offroading. Basically, as far as I can tell so far, all real riding in this area is a hybrid of road/off road.

My question is if I should change my road tires to gravel tires so that I can get through the offroad sections to get to good road riding. Google tells me that I can install up to 38c wide tires on this bike.
This picture: https://imgur.com/a/Z0LBw1c approximates the kinds of orange groves I'd need to get through but maybe even a little deeper sand on the bottom. I tried it with my default road tires the other day and it was very no-bueno. Would gravel tries be able to handle something like this? Or is it strictly mountain biking? I'd hate to invest to find out they still can't get through it. Am I ok sticking with the Domane for this mix of road and offroad application? Is there a minimum tire width I should go with?

Also, how much of a difference would i feel on the road? I love the feeling on the road with my current tires, but I am realizing I won't really be able to get out of the busy city unless I look into other tires.
Thanks all!
Nathan

unterhausen

I moved your thread here from General cycling because I think it fits better.

I have ridden up to 100km road rides on my 38mm GravelKing small knob tires. That went okay. They might be marginally slower, but the biggest thing I notice is there is a bit more road noise. They would fit in your bike. I'm not sure how well they would work on deep sand in the 38mm size though. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to use them on mixed surface rides. OTOH, sand might work just as well using the biggest slicks you can fit. Maybe someone has more sand riding experience.

mstateglfr 

From that picture, I would figure a fat tire bike would be best. That looks like some really plush deep sand.

Where are you riding now?...looks really cool since its so different from anywhere I have ridden before.

Nathan_S

I'm in Israel, in the center of the country. There are *tons* of interesting rides to take. I can go north to small villages and bike around farms. I can go east towards the coast and ride up and down the coast alongside the beach. There's so much to do and so much to see but in between everything there can be unpaved areas. The orange grove is one such example--to get beyond the city you have to go through an orange grove.

Let me ask the question this way: would I be (a lot) better off with gravel tires through semi-off road conditions than with my current street tires?

unterhausen

I think you need the biggest tires you can put on the bike. I thought you had narrower tires than that, what size are they?

KJ43

For 38mm tires you can't beat the Specialized Pathfinder Pros imo. I ride them and they are fast on the road and ride will in the dirt, even on some fairly technical trails.

scubaman

+1 for using the widest tires that will fit, which I think is 38mm.

René Herse Barlow Pass are 38mm and are lovely on road and dirt: https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop...8-barlow-pass/

IDK about sand, which is a tough surface to bike on - no joke that someone mentioned a fat bike for that.

René Herse Steilacoom are also 38mm and will be better on wet dirt than the smooth Barlow Pass tires: https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop...38-steilacoom/

Those knobby tires are designed to have the same outer diameter as the smooth ones, so they should also fit your frame. And they actually work well on pavement too - it’s truly not like riding a knobby mountain bike tire. But wet dirt and leaves etc may not be an issue in central Israel very often, so I’d suggest starting with the smooth Barlow Pass, standard or endurance casing, tubeless if your wheels are tubeless ready.

Fentuz

in the UK, your bike comes with 32-622 tyres so I would assume that's what you have. Now while I agree that a wider tyres with knob (like gravelking sk or G-One etc.) would work in 38-622, there may be other option to check such as cyclocross tyres because you said "requires a bit of off offroading".
If the offroading is small proportion of the ride, a tyre like schwalbe X-one speed might be suitable as it has a semi slick centre line and knobs of the side so when of tarmac/asphalt, you keep a low rolling resistance and when on softer terrain, the tyre digs in and the side knobs offer grip. If you think the speed is not enough, you can go for a more aggressive tyre.

yes wider tyre is good on "hardpack" offroad. But when loose offroad, knobs is the answer. look at rally cars, on forest stages or snow stages, they run narrow knobbly tyres