Using an adventure touring tyre for off-road fun

Hi all. I've been mulling over how best to get the most out of my Croix de Fer commuter next summer by taking it off road for some bridle-path bashing and hopefully a bit of flowing singletrack. I commute from Sutton to the City (14 miles) 5 days a week. I guess I am only a few miles from dirt in the Surrey hills.

To illustrate my thinking, here is a chronological summary of my musings:

1. Lusting over the Monstour thread and dreaming of 650b fat tyre wheelsets.
   
2. Realising how expensive said wheelset, tyres, casette and disk rotors would be.
   
3. Thinking about cyclocross tyres instead.
   
4. Imagining the faff of changing tyres every Friday evening before a weekend ride and again to put the commuter tyres back on before Monday.
   
5. Wondering if I could get away with a fat, durable semi-slick on my bike that might be fast enough for my commute and give me sufficient grip for dry singletrack. I'd never off-road in mud as my bike lives inside, so I'd have to get it very clean and dry after every ride.
   
   

What do you knowledgeable people think? Could I commute on something like this and not be cursing its width and weight? Would I see any benefit on hardpack compared to just braving it on my 28c Conti Gatorskins? If you have a different "do-it-all" solution I'd be interested to hear how that works for you.

I was running these 42c http://www.wiggle.com.au/continental-speedride-folding-city-road-tyre/ as commuting tyres and noticed that they are just a fatter http://www.wiggle.com.au/continental-cyclocross-speed-folding-cx-tyre/ with basically the same tread pattern. Used them for singletrack for a couple of months too.
Fast rolling for commuting and reasonably grippy on singletrack, though I have just changed out for some Clement http://clementcycling.com/xplor-mso for more grip on forest trails.

This: http://clementcycling.com/ush is perfect for what you want, rolls really quick on pavement but grips great on the dirt roads out here in Ontario.

Thanks, that's interesting. I did think of a file-tread CX tyre, but assumed they would not be very durable on tarmac and I'd end up balding them very quickly, thus defeating the object. Did you get many miles out of them?

Schwalbe Kojak

@jimmy_james approx. 1200km mixed tarmac and gravel/singletrack...they are still rideable but the sidewalls are starting to unravel (ie. loose threads).
Would buy again as they fill out my All City Dropout nicely, one pinch flat in just over a year...42c but come up measuring 40 on Chukker rims.

@Thuekr - Are you suggesting the Kojaks on the basis that tyre volume is more important than tread for riding on hardpack? I've ridden my Conti Gators on gravel before and it was quite fun, if a bit bumpy, so I'd be tempted to 'go bald' so as to speak.

Thanks also to cheekychappers - I missed your reply earlier.

You can just use any tyre off road on the dry single track, fire roads, tow paths etc,. Grip is not really an issue unless you start hitting fast (30mph) downhill corners and the like or if you start hitting mud but even then I manage through mud on 25c tyres.
All of my riding is a mix of 50% on road and 50% off road.

The only problem I have with using light weight road tyres is that they puncture a lot as there seems to be sharp flinty bits of stone in amongst all the gravel where I ride. I keep trying the lighter puncture resistant tyres (i.e. Ribmo) but even those puncture so I keep going back to Marathon+ as I know I won't get punctures with those but hate the weight and ride but not as much as dealing with punctures (especially in wet and cold).

If you are not prone to punctures or don't mind getting one ever few rides then just use whatever tyres you fancy and if only riding a couple of miles at a time I wouldn't even worry about comfort.

Exactly - volume over thread when riding dry to semi-dry paths.

Try a semi slick on the rear but use a knobbly on the front, rear wheel traction loss is more controllable than losing the front. This set up works well on all conditions. Currently on my cx pomp I have a worn down 30mm hutchinson cx pro on the back and a 32mm maxxis mimo on the front, both at 40 psi.

I use these on my tourer:-
http://www.challengetech.it/products/gravel/almanzo-060/en
30 mm section, very grippy and light, has a puncture resistant layer which hasn't let me down yet, and roll way better than Marathon plus.

Thanks again everyone. I think I'll wait until everything dries out and go for a ride to scope out trails. I can then decide whether I need more cushioning and maybe a semi-slick.

Been using 28c paselas on my new cx bike because thats what I had. Ridden them on all sorts of terrain and they are a pretty good compromise between fast rolling on tarmac and grippy off road. I wouldn't mind going for something fatter with a bit more tread at some point but if I was commuting on the bike as well I would stick with the paselas.