I love the way this tire handles pavement and dirt. Excellent volume, grip, and fast rolling...and cheap! It's not so great at preventing flats so I would never use it as a city tire. This one is best left for the fun rides. I've had four of these tires and all of them started breaking down at the beadsidewall. They're unthreading themselves like a stitch coming loose on your clothes. There are threads all over where the tire meets the rim.
I replaced my big, wide heavy Schwalbe Big Bens with Continental Speed Ride Tires on my Salsa Fargo 2.
I do a mix of street riding with rail-to-trail riding-asphalt in a few places but mostly fine gravel rolled and compacted. Wherever I go the Continentals give me plenty of control and minimal rolling resistance. The Schwalbes certainly are more puncture resistant, though I have ridden about 800 miles on the Speed Rides without a flat. The fact that they are foldable is a big plus as it makes it much easier to pack an extra one in a pannier bag and have it handy-just in case. I highly recommend the Speed Ride.
I replaced my big, wide heavy Schwalbe Big Bens with Continental Speed Ride Tires on my Salsa Fargo 2.
I do a mix of street riding with rail-to-trail riding-asphalt in a few places but mostly fine gravel rolled and compacted. Wherever I go the Continentals give me plenty of control and minimal rolling resistance. The Schwalbes certainly are more puncture resistant, though I have ridden about 800 miles on the Speed Rides without a flat. The fact that they are foldable is a big plus as it makes it much easier to pack an extra one in a pannier bag and have it handy-just in case. I highly recommend the Speed Ride.
Put these on a Trek 920 for a 200 mile Midwest tour. Worked great for gravel roads, shoulders, etc. but still felt fast on the paced paths. Not too heavy. Seems pretty durable, did well in the rain. I'm happy with them.
They measure at 38-39mm so they fit on my 2012 Stevens Prestige Alloy frame and fork. There's a good solid 18-316 clearance to the chainstays so some mud won't be a problem. Super sticky Kanza mud might present a problem but I'm not going to do 'that' to my body anyway. Good high-volume fast-spinning gravel tire. Less precious than my Grifo XS tubulars which I would use if the course was hard-pack clay with no sand or loose point gravel. Pretty happy.
Light, fast, grippy. What more can you want in a tire? Oh yeah, its stupidly cheap. Not sure how they can get a tire this good but they did. Rolls great on the street and does very well on hard packed dirt gravel. Plush ride too. If they fit your frame, get them.
I did manage to flat one on a blackberry thorn, but so what? Thats what you carry a spare tube for
I put these tires on my Trek 520 to ride from Pittsburgh to DC along the GAP and C&O Canal Towpath. The tires did great on the ride, with a smooth ride and easy rolling, even over the rough and sometimes muddy C&O Towpath. I did get 2 puncture flats in 400 miles of riding a fully loaded bike (self contained tour). So, while these tires may be puncture resistant, they are not puncture proof. If you want that, you have to get a heavier tire like the Schwalbe Marathon, which weighs twice as much as this tire. You make your choices and live with the consequences. If you want a lightweight touring tire, this is an excellent choice.
I used the Speed Tire for commuting to and from work. I work 5 miles from home, but take a gravel path from door to door making it a 18 mile trip each way. The Speed tire is perfect for the gravel to pavement environment between home and work.
I have a 23 mile, each way, bike commute that is 50% clear pavement, 25% bad pavement, and 25% on single trackcinder bike path. The commute is quite busy, so I don't get to choose my line half the time, the line is chosen for me.
I am faster on my cyclocross bike fitted with this tire than I am on my light road bike. When the line of cars is deep and slow, I drop into the gravel, dirt on the side and keep going. They roll over everything. I run them at max pressure (85psi) so I give up some of the bump absorption, but I don't care if the line is through a pothole, over broken pavement, clear road... it just doesn't matter. Over 500 miles so far and no flats and no sign of wear.
I'm impressed enough with the tire, that they are going onto a Salsa Mountain tandem as our race tire for the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee in August.
Just finished up a 40 mile gravel grinder on these tires with about 4000 feet of climbing. First impressions are great. Really like having the extra width/volume to smooth out washboard dirt roads and rough descents. I felt like I could bomb down steep/rough sections with more confidence since the tire was soaking up bumps a whole lot better. Ran these at 40 psi front/rear and they are very smooth. The diamond tread rolls great on road/dirt/gravel and the tiny side knobs have just enough grip for gravel roads while not getting in the way when you're on the pavement. For the price these are really hard to beat, especially considering the folding bead.
-1 star for the weight-advertised at 420 grams, mine weighed 445 each. Also the width of these tires mounted on my Ksyriums measured more like 38c. Still a good bit wider than a standard cyclocross tire, but pretty far from the 42c they're labeled.
Bought the 700x35c for my Litespeed Blue Ridge to use on dirt road rides. The best tire I ever used for D2R2, incredible grip on the dirt roads and able to out roll other cross bikes on descents, some with heavy road tires. No flats to date and with all the rocks I have hit, there are no cuts.
Bought the 42mm for local gravelfire roads and they work great. Was pleasantly surprised when they also excelled in the recent Portland snow. Ran them at lower pressure and the width and thousands(?) of edges on the tread gripped all the snow and ice. No noticeable wear and tear or flats after a few hundred miles. Would definitely buy again.