Road tyres for mountain bike

Full slicks were what were on

Full slicks were what were on my MTB before I got a road bike. I always was fast enough on it to out gun those on far lighter bikes than mine. 

Conti Double Fiighter they’ll

Conti Double Fiighter they’ll do the trick…

Hi Kirk,

Hi Kirk,

Have you made a mistake? No.

You’re on a bike and riding 🙂

Is it hard work? Yes.

As others have said – whatever bike you have, starting out will be tough until you condition your muscles to it. Hawkinspeter quoted Greg LeMond (“It never gets easier, you just get faster”) but actually for a given speed, it does get easier. If you’re riding in traffic, there’s a limit on how fast you can go just because of traffic lights, junctions and other road users.

Have you bought the wrong bike? Maybe.

Don’t feel bad about this – its quite common! No bike will be right for every type of condition and so if you are looking for a one-size-fits-all solution there will be compromises to be made. 

This is why cyclists often quote the formula x = n + 1 (where x is the number of bikes you need, and n is the number of bikes you currently own)

Whether the Voodoo was the wrong choice depends on what the main type of riding you thought you would do (and what riding you now find yourself doing), and what the conditions are like (hilly vs. flat, mud trails vs. gravelled path vs. smooth tarmac vs. typical pot-holed british roads etc) and how hard you want to push yourself.

Can you do something about it? Yes.

Assuming its mainly on-road riding you’re doing then look at the adjusting the seat height (chances are you have it too low), and locking out the suspension – look for a thumb-dial on the top of your forks (probably has pictures of a padlock in open/closed position).   Both of these come for free. Getting the correct seat height maximises your pedalling efficiency, locking the forks stops all that energy being soaked up compressing the suspension.

The next fix is the one you are asking about – changing the tyres to something less knobbly. I swapped the off road tyres on my old MTB  to a set of Schwalbe City Jet and knocked a good 5 minutes off my commute overnight.  They only seem to be made for 26″ wheels though and I believe the Voodoo Hoodoo has 27.5″ wheels.  Search for “MTB slicks” or “commuter” tyres.

Your final option is more expensive – buying the “n+1”.  Personally, I would try the above fixes first, give it a few months and re-evaluate what your requirements are before making a decision.

Hmmm, many many things to

Hmmm, many many things to consider.

If you’re just starting out then you’ll be slow or knackered. I used to commute between 5 and 10 miles a day and when I first started being a roadie a brisk 25 miles still hurt, even on a better bike. You’ll be using muscle groups that your body isn’t used to, even reasonably fit runners will struggle on a bike.

The tyre situation will make a difference, the narrower (within reason) and less gripped you can get will help. If the bike has adjustable front suspension you could lock that out so energy isn’t lost there.

A jump to a road bike isn’t necessarily going to suddenly make things fast or easy. If you’re a bigger lad or unlikely to want to get low and aero dynamic then a hybrid could be the way, my old hybrid still has some of my fastest times on short climbs as I could put the power down well. You’ll find some crackers on Gumtree and the like from cycle to works that never quite happened. Or if looking to purchase new, go to an Evans or similar and test ride a few bikes (then maybe look online for a price match opportunity), you don’t want to jump from one ‘wrong’ bike to another.

I would suggest you make a cheap tyre change to see if it helps and get more miles under your belt to see what you need and whether the investment is worth it. On the other hand, if you hate your bike it’s hard to motivate yourself to get on…

I have a set of road tyres

I have a set of road tyres for my GT helion, after trying a few cheap ones I ended up buying a set of schwalbe marathon supreme touring tyres (mostly so I could take my full suspension bike around the ride london 100). I do notice a lot of difference in effort on those vs the off road tyres when i’m on road but caution is required if you decide to take a shortcut via an offrad route as they have bugger all grip away from the tarmac.

I tried some hurricanes that are a cheaper option and supposed to be mixed use (on road + light offroad) but found the narrow tread just picked up small stones which worked their way through the tyre to puncture the inner tubes.