Kenda 163026 Big City Slick Wire Bead Bicycle Tire, Blackwall, 26 x 1.95

Let's make one thing clear, I hate buying tires, any kind. Last time I bought tires for my car, my head gasket let loose two weeks later. The time before that, I bought new tires for a different car, and a week later someone forgot what stop signs are for. Curse of the tire, I say. That being said, I do most of my cycling on pavement now. My knobby tires had to go. My local Wal-Mart had an abysmal selection, mostly consisting of knobby-all-terrain-climb-a-mountain-extreme-sports tires. Not many mountains in Florida. So, to Amazon we go! Turns out, there's a lot of tires on Amazon. Honestly, I picked these because they're round and they look cool in product photo's. Hahaha. Now, to the meat and potatoes! Amazon shipping, as usual, was fast and these tires showed up on time. Packaging was overkill if anything. These tires arrived in a large thin box, and were NOT folded, nor deformed in any way. Overall build quality looks good, thick sturdy rubber on the road surface, light, thin rubber sidewalls. On the road, these tires give the bike a light, aglie footprint on the road. They grip pavement quite well, even when digging in to tight corners. When inflated to 60 psi, these tires ride on the center ridge, offering very minimal rolling resistance. They also grip fantastically during hard breaking, both front and rear. I don't often bike in the rain, so I can't attest to the effect of the siping on the tires. For some reason, these tires feel "heavier" on acceleration, which is maybe just my perception. They're also fairly miserable off-road. So, stay off the wet grass or you may find yourself slip-sliding away. So far, I've put about 30 miles on these tires, and I can certainly say I'd recommend them.

I used these tires on my "lipstick on a pig" build. I built up an older late 90's sears mountain bike (Free Spirit Octane).These tires are an awesome alternative to mountain bike tires on a 26” wheel. Especially if you’re building a little commuter bike from an old mountain bike frame like I did, or if you’re just using them on any road oriented mountain bike. Anyways, these tires are smooth on the road and I get really good traction when turning as well. I put about 20 miles on these tires already, and every mile has been an easy one. These tires roll 40% easier than knobby tires on a flat surface. I’ve been up to 25 mph with them with no problems or bulges, their just great commuter tires. I used these on a set of KADA Concepts rims, and I couldn’t have spent my money any better for what I got out of these two purchases.

I ordered a pair of these tires for a college engineering experiment. We were studying the overall effects of three different aspects on a bike, one of which was the tire tread. Since these fit on my dad's old K2 Apache 5.0, we selected these as a drastic alternative to traditional mountain bike tires. While our experiment showed little influence from the tires, every rider noticed that it was substantially easier to pedal with these tires. The low rolling resistance allows you to reach and maintain high speeds quickly. The traction is excellent on pavement as you'd likely expect. If you've got a mountain bike that you plan on using to commute with, these tires are a great choice instead of purchasing another bike or remaining on knobby tires.

I ride a mountain bike in an urban landscape. I commute to work by road and on terrible sidewalks. I also ride hard through whatever comes my way when I am riding for fun. So I really need a great hybrid tire that has traction and very low roll resistance. Vast improvement over knobby tires.I have been experimenting with various hybrid tires looking for the cushion and some traction of a Knobby MTB tire, while getting the smooth speed of a road tire.I tried a 1.75" hybrid tire that was terrible in every regard. I did not want the flat bald sidewall / slippage and very hard ride I experienced with the 1.75".Then I found a 2" "lower" resistance hybrid knobby tire. I really enjoyed it on paved roads and absolutely loved it when I was in any rough urban conditions and trails. But on the long rides to work, I still knew I wanted/needed even more improvement on resistance.So when I saw this 1.95" tire with low resistance / recessed tread for a great price, I had to try a pair.When I put them on my bike they looked proportionate for a mountain bike. They were really fat and they really ride very comfortably like a normal MTB tire. They have passable traction in gravel, but I wouldn't hit any trail or loose footing full blast with them. Obviously being as fat as they are, they are not the best road tire out there. They do give some additional (unwanted) dampening to the shocks on the road, but pumped to 60 psi, they really ride fast and smooth as you could expect for such a fat tire. So I will be sticking with them over the 2" lower resistance knobbies, since trails and gravel are only a small portion of my riding time. I don't think they could improve on roll resistance at this width. Great tire.I definitely recommend these tires for anyone who needs a versatile hybrid tire in an urban setting.

I don't know well everything about these tires, but I'll update mu review within few months or so. I drive my bicycle about 14000 mi per year and I'll put them on real test. So far, ride is smood and less resistant. I drive my bike because of physical effort, not for speed. I had 5 years ago stroke and I am 64 old, but I am doing well, thanks to my activity and bicycling...I'm from Tampa bay area and we have a lot of bike trails and most of my rides are on pavement...