The question is: what's the skinniest tyres that could sensibly be used to ride the Great Glen Way? It's talked about as a mountain bike route there seems to be a lot of towpath, forest track and walking tracks so big nobbly tyres seem like overkill. Any thoughts and experiences to share?
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Tyres and the Great Glen Way
(9 posts)- Started 9 years ago by Instography
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Posted 9 years ago #
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I've done the Maggies Bike'n'Hike on it a few few times as far as Fort Augustus on a mountain bike.
1 year the ground was quite damp and I managed fine on slick commuter tyres,had to slow down on some of the rare rutted forest tracks but ok apart from that.
Agree knobblies would be too much except in the most extreme of conditions.
From Fort Augustus onwards terrain pretty similar but there's bits you would need to get off and push anywayPosted 9 years ago # -
If sticking to the path - as opposed to the alternative road sections - I'd definitely go with thick, knobbly tyres. I did it just over a year ago and there were some really rough sections.
There were also some short sections where I had to lift/carry the bike, although there had been a serious storm just before I did it that had blown trees over and flooded parts of it.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I did it on 40mm Schwalbe Land Cruisers. No bother.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I rode from Fort Augustus to Fort Bill in September.
The roughest section was the south side of Loch Oich. There is a disused railway line but the landowner must have prohibited access as the path runns next to it over some pretty bumpy ground. For the most its fine but in places its very rooted and slippery when wet. There are a few spots where rocks protrude. I rode it on an MTB but you could ride it on your Genesis with wider tyres, like 30mm plus? I have knobbly tyres (I got with the Cotic X) but they are rather thin and not at all punture resistant without extra protection somehow. Most is a nice dusty/dirt track and 32mm Schwalbe would be fine in Spring Autumn, and 28 or 25 fine for summer. There were a few boggy places where works are happening (near the sout end of Loch Oich) - where the railway line appears to be being renewed for some heretage line. Plant machinary had tyrned the 'path' onto a quagmire.
The north to Augustus is along the canal and easy going. The south (of Loch Oich) is forest next to Loch Lochy and its the usual compacted mix of small stones flattened for Plant machinary. I have not ridden north of Fort Augustus. There is a road which runs the south side which is quite remote but nice and quiet, but rather hilly. The north runs on the road right? I rode at night in the summer from Drumnadrochet but I heard it is busy during the day?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Cheers. Useful info. I think the GGW is all off-road, although you can use the roads if you want to. My plan is to stick to the off-road paths.
Landcruisers look like they would do the job. At 40mm they're wide enough for rough paths without being tractor tyres. I'm more inclined to have tyres for the bulk of the ride and deal with short rooted or boggy sections or walk if I have to rather than be booted for the worst and have to toil with big knobbly tyres on perfectly smooth paths and tarmac.
I've been running around on my Longitude with its original 29x2.4" tyres, some 2" tyres and 40mm spikes. At the moment it has the 35mm cyclocross tyres that came with my Croix De Fer. Those were great this morning coming into work. I'll leave them on and see how they manage with forest tracks at the weekend. But like DaveC's they have no puncture protection so I'd want something better than that.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Thing with the Land Cruisers is that they're;
* 'p*ncture resistant'
* have a rolling band in the middle
* have good knobbles on the side
* cheap
* wide enough to roll straight on rough paths
* narrow enough to cut through mud to the hard earth underneath, and
* no use on soft peatwhich basically means they're the ideal trekking tyre, but not good for 'mountain biking' in the sense of riding off piste. I was pleased to discover them and I'll be using them for the trundle from Taynuilt to Findhorn this summer.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Agree on the Land Cruisers - I've been using them on the commuter for the past few years, as my commute takes in a fairly rough and muddy section of the Fife coastal path. They handle that fine, and they perform well on the road, too. For the money, they're excellent.
Downsides are that they're a bit heavy and they wear relatively quickly - nothing's perfect.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The trouble with the internet is that when you start browsing the sites you become a little inured to the everyday of the treaded slick and start looking for a little novelty. You find you just can't get interested in ordinary tyres and your tastes become, well, unconsciously, a little more exotic. These days I seem to be drawn more and more to the Schwalbe Sammy Slick (I see what they did there). Something a little rough round the edges where you can explore the edge of the paths. Touch mud without ending up in the undergrowth. A little bit of popping candy on an otherwise vanilla ride.
Posted 9 years ago #
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