tires for loose gravel

[piper109]

Weather is warming up so I am riding my new bike more. I am an older rider.
I have a Sduro trekking SL and it has 700C tires, Schwalbe Plus Tour, which are only knobbly on the outer edges. I find that I am fine on the ashalt surfaces but when riding on loose gravel, I feel shaky, especially riding down steep hills and I tend to proceed slowly with care. True I need to do it more often and become more used to it but I am wondering if there is a another tire that would suit me better and be a little more confidence inspiring.
Any opinions, experiences ?? Thanks guys.

 

[J.R.]

Schwalbe has a bunch of new ebike rated tires, including more aggressive 700c tires. You may also be able to fit narrow 29er mtb tires, as both 700c and 29er have the same diameter rim, ISO size of 622. The difficulty is finding mtb tires you would want, that are narrow enough to take the place of your 38c (ISO 40) tires and then they need to fit inside of your fenders.

I thought these looked very promising for all terrain 700c: Marathon GT 365

I don't own those GT tires, but I do have a couple ebikes with Schwalbe tires, one road style and the other mtb. Great tires, great flat protection.

 

[piper109]

Thanks JR. I have looked at the info available on line and what is marked on the tire sidewalls. As you say it is 622. Perhaps a slightly wider mtb tire with a more knobbly tire exists in the Schwalbe line. I am going to do some research. I already have a Smart Sam which was wrongly fitted to a front wheel when I received the bike. I swapped it for another Plus Tour before I rode the bike and it says 40C on the sidewall instead of 38C and it worked with the fenders just fine. I am still learning about these (new to me) tire sizes and designations. For many years I rode only on 27 x1 1/4 or sew ups.

 

[JRA]

What tire pressure are you using? I use a similar type of tire http://www.wtb.com/products/riddler-37c and run them all the time on gravel and pavement but I use the lowest psi possible which provides the best traction and shock absorption with very little gain of rolling resistance. To find your optimum psi try letting out a little at a time until it starts to feel too soft and then go back up a bit. Once you find what works best for you it may be your answer over having to get new tires?

 

[piper109]

Thanks JRA . I will certainly give that a try. I also own a Land Rover and that technique is used sometimes to deal with some surfaces.