Updated impressions: Continental Speed Ride 700x42c after 1000+ miles

After accumulating some more mileage on these tires, I now feel qualified to offer an updated (and hopefully more informative) perspective.

Commuting and adventure riding were the two reasons I initially sought out these tires. I picked up both wire and kevlar bead versions, with one set on my singlespeed cx commuter (since retired) for commuting and the other set on my adventure bike (in 2016, this was either a Specialized Tricross Sport, Ridley Crossbow, or Trek XO2).  Based on a lot of positive reviews, I thought these tires were ideal for both commuting and adventure riding.

For commuting, these tires did an adequate job. They rolled well on smooth and deteriorated road surfaces, offered a supple and comfortable ride, and were not puncture prone. Their generous width and volume inspired a lot of confidence on my commute. I felt as if I could roll over any obstacle. Due to California being in a drought for the past few years, and the fact that these tires were so fat that I did not even attempt to install fenders over them, I cannot comment on their performance in wet conditions. My suspicion is that the dense file tread pattern will fare better in wet situations than a slick tire would, but I cannot attest to whether that’s actually true. My only gripe with these tires was that I was not able to go as fast as I am accustomed to on my road bikes with regular skinny road tires. For commuting this was not a big problem but on several occasions, after a hard day of work, I wished that I was riding a faster bike/faster tires.

The other reason I got these tires is I wanted to do multi-terrain all-day adventure rides. In the past I’ve basically mountain biked on road bikes with road slicks, and I thought I could do better than that with a cx bike and more appropriate tires. A typical adventure ride, based on geographic and time constraints, involves a few miles of fire road/double track, sandwiched between 10-20 miles of regular tarmac. Basically, what I would like to accomplish is to ride out from my home, hit up a trail or few, and then ride back home, all on the same bike. Since the vast majority of miles still come from tarmac, I needed a tire that rolled and performed well, close to a regular road slick. The difficulty is that many of the off-road riding around where I live are not simply gravel/fire roads, but actual trails varying in terrain and technicality. It was really hard to identify a tire that could handle the road miles as well as the off-road miles.

After spending some time with the Continental Speed Rides, I feel that they do well for the type of adventure rides I do, but they are not perfect. Rather than being the all-around performing tire I thought they’d be, they get caught in the middle ground: too slow on the tarmac, not enough bite on the dirt. The situations where I suffer the most are on climbs. Already not a strong climber, I definitely notice the power loss when climbing on these tires with low pressure. On trails, they simply do not inspire confidence when I climb out of the saddle since they lack the bite I am accustomed to from my mountain biking days. Still, I can’t fault the tires for the fact that I ride on such diverse terrain; any tire that’s faster on tarmac will likely be even worse off-road, and vice versa.

Where these tires excel is on rough, hard-packed terrain that is not too technical. They are excellent on smooth dirt fire roads, gravel roads, rough tarmac, and the like. I’ve done a few dirt trails (no climbing) and abandoned paved roads on these tires and I think that’s where these truly shine.

Overall, I am reservedly happy with these tires. For commuting and flat hard-pack trails, these are just fine. These were not made for heavy miles on smooth tarmac, nor for mountain biking. For the tarmac-heavy adventure rides that I tend to do, these aren’t great. I may look for the old 700x35c version next to see if that suits me better; I can’t imagine being happier with a wide slick (e.g., 700×32-35c), though, considering some of the trails I encounter.