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Allround tyres
I used to ride to work with semi slick tyres (Maxxis Overdrives) on my hardtail and these were pretty good in term of weight, rolling resistance, puncture resistance and they held up well on wet and slippery pavement corners.
The problem I have is that I want to ride offroad also eg on the weekends and not have to change tyres all the time and I don't have the money to buy another lightweight wheelset with matching XT disc rotors and cassette so I can have one set with slicks and one with knobblies.
Therefore I need suggestions on a set of tyres that are great all rounders for both commuting and offroad - ie fast rolling, lightweight (eg less than 540 grams), good at cornering on wet pavement (I have washed out a couple of times with other knobbly MTB tyres) as well as good in the loose gravelly conditions, on rocky hill climbs, sand and hardpack that we get on the Northern Beaches. Can be different front and back - oh and not too expensive as I guess they are going to wear out more quickly with combined use.
Any suggestions?
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Maxxis crossmarks could work. They have a almost solid centre ridge which would roll relatively well on bitumen. I think 540g maybe a bit ambitious though. Even Crossmark Exceptions only barely go under that mark.
Hi Nick
How much road riding do you plan on doing? How hard do you go off road? I don't think you will find a tyre that will be good at both, it's always a compromise with tyres and the weight you are after has already limited the field massively
Any off-road tyre will slip faster than a road tyre when wet in the corner, it has so much less rubber in contact with the ground. Like wise a road tyre will slip pretty much everywhere off road. I don't think I would be comfortable recommending anything (not that my advice is worth anything mind you) because of that. However, the closest you will probably get is either crossmarks, or TT Larsens. Both roll very well on the road and offer good grip (well the TT does
) off road. No idea about side grip on the road though, perhaps load the front tyre more when you corner 
Do check the Maxxis website though, they have a pretty decent matrix on there that might help.
Dylan
Maybe the Kenda K-Rad, Kiniption or Short Tracker: http://www.kendausa.com/bicycle/mountain.html
Or, something like the DMR Moto RT looks good: http://www.dmrbikes.com/?Section=products&pageTy...
get some good slicks, some good off road tyres and a really good track pump. It only takes 10 minutes to changes your tyres with a track pump (I used to do it all the time).
If you get a tyre that leans toward road use, the centre rubber will be harder and (with inevitably less traction elsewhere on the tyre) won't give you much grip on our chossy sandstone trails, and if you lean more towards an offroad bias, the rubber will be softer but will wear out much faster on the road.
2 sets of terrain specific tyres will last way longer than 1 set of crossovers-my slicks have lasted me 4 years.
As if by magic, look what's on special this week:
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/products/INTYMNNSL
Hardly light, but what do you care on the commute? For sure, you don't want to be wearing out the nobbies on the road.
At $9 a tyre, you can't go wrong. Maybe one day you will get a second set of wheels, then you could interchange when you go on or off road? Easy!
You cant go wrong with $9 tyres.
I guess I am just going to have to become really quick at changing tyres until I can afford a second wheelset, rotors and cassette as it appears that there is no perfect solution for commuting and offroad use. I will however certainly look into some of the suggestions for hybrid tyres - they look pretty interesting and I guess the weight limit of 540grams will need get ditched.
Yeah.. on special.. AFTER I've just bought a pair...
Not to mention, before buying a pair.. I tried a trick someone mentioned here asking them to put them on sale...
They kindly replied...
Then right after they charged my credit card..... BANG! http://www.torpedo7.com.au/products/INTYMNNSL
GRRRRRRR
Everytime I buy something from T7 they put it on special... But this time, I was sure I'd short-circuit the problem by asking first... then when I was told there is no way they will put them on sale, I thought I'm safe for once!!
So... just to keep things consistent they put it on special anyway!
HA!
/rant
Loz
Loz, create a post on NoBMoB when you have just bought something off T7, so the rest of us can look out for the specials...
