Tyres Make the Bike

When it comes to negotiating the back roads, the urban jungle, or picking your way through an overgrown trail, the only thing keeping you moving and not planting your face into the foliage, are the tyres. Even the best rider cannot force a bad or badly chosen tyre navigate safely across the earth.

While slicks are great on the street, they are dangerous off the road or even on streets with a bit of sand on them, on the flip side, knobby tyres are just plain exhausting to ride on unless you are traversing their intended terrain, both will wear badly is misused. What is needed then, is a compromise between the two, a tyre that can pick it's way across the forest floor and grip the asphalt with enough authority to make good time.

The Race King by Continental is just such a tyre. It's small knobbies can handle the loose stuff on trails and fire roads and it's low rolling resistance makes it a breeze to get up into the tall gears and put on the miles. One of the first upgrades I did to my Trek, these tyres have done thousands of miles and are still not showing much in the way of wear, but I fear they are beginning to dry-rot, so I will be replacing them this spring with another set. I can only imagine there is no better endorsement?