Review: Geax Roadster Tyres

When I built up my latest commuter bike I opted for slick tyres, tired of the lost energy and noise from using mountain bike tyres on the road.

I chose the 26 x 1.5 Geax Roadster set, which come in at a very reasonable price of around £14 a tyre. Having used them for a few months and several hundred miles, I continue to be impressed by them, from a multitude of perspectives:

Durability: I clock in around 95 miles a week of commuting when I'm at Uni, and a similar amount when I was working during the summer. These tyres have been on the bike since July, probably racking up a total of around 850 miles to date. Yet they show nothing of it! The centre seam on the front tyre is still proud of the tread from when it was moulded, and on the back tyre, despite being burdened with heavy panniers every day, the wear is negligible. That's a pretty impressive performance by any ranking, and I can see that these tyres are going to last a good few years of abuse.
 
Puncture Protection: One of the things that attracted me to these tyres from the outset was the good comments in reviews about their puncture protection, and I'm pleased to say that I can vouch for them as well. I've ridden them through glass, thorns, jumped off curbs and even (when I was feeling particularly confident) taken them off-road down a flint covered bridleway. With all that I have only had one puncture, and in the tyres' defence, that was when I hadn't pumped them up for a while. That really is pretty outstanding for a pair of budget tyres, without any kind of secondary puncture protection!

Grip: The tread pattern is similar to a motorbike or car tread - taking water away through groves on the side of the tyre. It seems to work well, grip hasn't been a problem on wet roads, leaves or even when I've taken the bike off-road a few times. It seems to cope well with being rear-end heavy and they front of the bike still feels solid on the ground.

 Versatility: As mentioned above, I've happily taken these tyres off-road, and down flinted cycle tracks. They hold their own at least on the hard-pack stuff and have sufficient puncture protection to overcome the risks that you face when you do this on a road bike. The 1.5 inch profile means that they can be used with standard mountain bike tubes, if you are careful to make sure that the rim bead is not trapping in the tube before you inflate it; this is another bonus compared to using smaller profile tyres that require a lower volume tube.

Overall, a very pleasing product purchase. Robust, versatile and fast. It's a major improvement over using nobbly tyres on the road, and in the long run it will probably save you money due to the harder compound and lower rolling resistance.

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