Fat STREET Tires are WAY BETTER for Riding on Pavement than KNOBBY Off-Road Tires

[mail_e36]

Friends,

On my 85-pound mid-drive ebike, the original CST BFT Fat Tires wore out in 1,000 miles of pavement/street riding, plus they were extremely loud (sounded like a swarm of bees when riding on roads).

Replaced with STREET tires, and they were way quieter, much more agile (easier to lean into corners without loosing stability), AND lasted TWICE AS LONG as of the offroad knobby tires.

The street tires lasted 2,000 miles without a single issue, albeit the front did wear MUCH more than the rear, not sure why?

Pictures are of the used tires which I just replaced with identical one tires.

Just an FYI if your original 4x26 Fat Tires are wearing out, consider replacing them with STREET tires if you don't do much off-roading.

What are your thoughts on STREET VERSUS KNOBBY TIRES, friends?

 

[indianajo]

Fat tires are for fluffy beach sand, or powder snow. Any other application, IMHO, is wrong. They are fashionable now, but stupid in other terrain.
I ride knobbies on street, because they have 1/10 the flats of street tires. No liners, slime, tubeless, etc etc required. Just change them when knobs get shorter than 3/32". And they are cheap. ~$26. My tires run at 50-60 psi. I ride unpowered 80% of the distance, 100% in months where it might freeze.
I watched a PBS show last month about a 70 something guy that had recovered from heart trouble, to ride his bike from St. Louis to Chicago over 3 days. The show was about one flat after another, on those 32 mm 120 psi road tires. The guy believed what the sales people at the bike shop told him. I have a lot more fun when I ride. I don't need a support vehicle, I get where I am going 99% of the time without help. My last big problem was broken seat support.

 

[harryS]

Sure,all of the above is true. If you ride a fat tire bike on pavement, use street tires. I put 26 x 3" Veeco Speedsters on my fat tire bike in 2016. Then I had Veeco Snowshoes for the winter.

My tastes changed though, Haven't ridden the fat tor bike much ar all.

 

[Coco Bob]

The first fatty I bought was a low end basic bike. I installed a Bafang mid-drive and upgraded the brakes. Then replaced the knobs with foldable street tires and light weight tubes. I think the bike lost 5 pounds per tire. Rode much better and quieter. Thinking of doing the same thing on my new fatty. Maybe I’ll just swap them out and see how much I like them again.