Schwalbe Smart Sam Tire

4.5/5

(22 Reviews)

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Smart Sam goes well on any terrain and even on the road it rolls effortlessly. It is available in a wide variety of executions, also with reflective lines.

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Reviews 1 - 15 (22 Reviews Total)

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Submitted by Amir

Date Reviewed: November 29, 2012

Strengths:    hard to wear out, they don't suck THAT much on dry surface

Weaknesses:    slow rolling tyres, poor grip in corners, no grip at all on wet terrain

Bottom Line:

i see they got pretty good reviews but i got them after i wore out my maxxis larsen oriflammes and regret doing so. gonna get rid of them and try get maxxises i had before - i only got these cos of good reviews and the fact my old tires were nowhere to find in stores

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Submitted by CX Rider a Racer

Date Reviewed: October 14, 2012

Strengths:    Great all arounder - Roll well, easy mounting, great grip, price, integral reflective strip

Weaknesses:    Protective layer could make this a great commuter tire.

Bottom Line:

First off, this review is for the 700x35 Cyclocross sizing of the Smart Sam. I purchased these for off-season use and training rides due to their grippy tread pattern, 700x35 size and hard-wearing traits. The reflective stripe was icing on the cake especially given how dark it gets in the off season. I was sick of balding $50+ CX race tires on the road during training rides so I decided to give these a try. They are the widest & heaviest (450g) tires I've ever mounted on my cross bike so I expected them to feel heavy and sluggish. It's been a long time since riding a wire bead tire so I wasn't expecting much. To my surprise the Smart Sam's rolled incredibly well on pavement (comparable to a slick) but also had amazing traction on the trail. They felt much lighter than their 450g weight. I put these through one of my CX training loops that includes a mix of smooth paved roads, grassy farm trails and single-track. They performed amazingly well on all surfaces. On fast 90 degree off-camber grassy corners I could hear the treads ripping through the grass holding firm. On the road I nailed a Strava PR on a hill climb I've done many times on 700x23 road tires weighing half as much. They were also as easy to mount as a folding Kevlar tire which I was not expecting. I would not consider these race tires, but if I needed to I could press them into service. I can't attest to the hard wearing capabilities yet. Overall, I'm very pleased and for a $31.45 tire ($37.75 with reflective strip) these far exceeded my expectations. Price makes this a 5 Chili tire.

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Duration Product Used:   1 month

Price Paid:    $38.00

Purchased At:   Schwalbe

Similar Products Used:   WTB Crosswolf, Specialized Borough CX, Specialized All-condition Elite, Schwalbe Racing Ralph & Rocket Ron EVO's

Bike Setup:   Redline Conquest Pro

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Submitted by Peter Lawrie a Weekend Warrior from Cape Town, South Africa

Date Reviewed: December 14, 2011

Strengths:    Good allrounder. Rolls fast, but does not run out of track on the corners.

Weaknesses:    None for what I ride

Bottom Line:

Great for all round riding. Fast rolling, good grip. Even a mate riding a Nevegal (in front of a Stumpie) was impressed with my bike on these when we swapped bikes.

No idea how they work in mud or wet conditions, as yet.

It is going to take a lot to get me to change....

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Favorite Trail:   Tokai

Duration Product Used:   3 months

Price Paid:    $45.00

Purchased At:   Chain Reaction Cycle

Similar Products Used:   Continental Gravity, Race Kings and Verticals

Bike Setup:   Specilized Epic Comp

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Submitted by firekja a Cross Country Rider from stevens point

Date Reviewed: June 29, 2011

Strengths:    This tire can take a little bit of everything that you can throw at it.

Weaknesses:    This tire while is good on most surfaces, it is definately not a do all tire.

Bottom Line:

Most of my rides consist of a mix between hardpack and road. I do not completely trust these tires on a sharp corner on gravel. They are excellent for the road and trail though. This tire is a good compromise if you ride a little bit of everything and they seem to have minimal rolling resistance on the road. Overall I like these tires, just dont expect them to be your everything tire.

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Favorite Trail:   the island

Duration Product Used:   3 months

Price Paid:    $30.00

Purchased At:   amazon

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Submitted by Gregorin a Cross Country Rider from Zaragoza,Spain

Date Reviewed: April 27, 2011

Strengths:    Offroad versatility,comfort,speed,tought,quality

Weaknesses:    Low speed & high rub in asphalt roads,height,price

Bottom Line:

i agree that they are great for cross-country,parks,trail paths,stone roads.Quite good speed into these surfaces.
Running over potholes is quite comfort and well-driven and suddenly movemments no longer be in your bike.score(4/5)

Schwalbe says:Great all-rounder tyre but they are quite noisy tyres and low-medium speed into asphalt roads.
Quite rubbing,you´ll need strength and make an effort for moving them.So big size tyres for city and roads(2.10")score:(2/5)

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Duration Product Used:   6 months

Purchased At:   incluyed in bike

Bike Setup:   Acid Cube 2010

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Submitted by John a Cross Country Rider from Melbourne

Date Reviewed: March 1, 2011

Strengths:    Rolls fast on bitumen & hardpack.
Seems to be quite a durable compound.

Weaknesses:    By being an allrounder, it's not the best tire choice for any one surface. Ok on most, but master of none.

Bottom Line:

If you are one of those people that drives to the venue & then hits the singletrack, this is probably not the best tire for you. There are better condition specific tires out there. For me though these are a great tire choice. They will do my 40 km round trip commute to work and back a couple of days a week. Then they will take me quickly (these things roll as well as many slicks!)the 15 km I need to cover to get off road. Sure, when I get off road they are a compromise, but a pretty good one at that.

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Favorite Trail:   Mt Beauty

Duration Product Used:   6 months

Price Paid:    $40.00

Purchased At:   The net

Similar Products Used:   Reminds me of the discontinued Maxxis Ranchero.

Bike Setup:   Voodoo Sobo with : Sid Team, X0, Fulcrum Ones, Ritchey trimmings & SDG

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Submitted by Piti a Cross Country Rider from Germany

Date Reviewed: December 3, 2010

Strengths:    Balance between grip and rolling resistance, long wearing, good size and weight

Weaknesses:    Somewhat unstable cornering

Bottom Line:

Generally I hesitate to recommend Schwalbe products as I had several flawed tires and tubes in the past. So far I love my Smart Sam (2.1 ORC folding version) on the rear. It's the best compromise for combined on- and off-road riding I've ever had. This tire shows hardly any wear after several hundreds of miles. As a front tire I would use something with more evenly distributed knobs.

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Favorite Trail:   Hotzenwald

Duration Product Used:   6 months

Price Paid:    $30.00

Purchased At:   LBS

Similar Products Used:   IRC Mythos, Ritchey Z-Max, many others

Bike Setup:   Focus steel HT

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Submitted by Mohammad a Cross Country Rider from TT

Date Reviewed: September 16, 2010

Strengths:    It does What was Designed Great!

Weaknesses:    Nothing important, Just some noise on the pavement or Asphalt

Bottom Line:

The Bike came in with Kenda All mountain Tires, cause i commute to work everyday, I got it changed with this just with 10$. This was a great deal for me, It is great. It is 2.10 but the 1.90 or 1.75 one would be better on road!

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Duration Product Used:   3 months

Price Paid:    $10.00

Purchased At:   Jabbari Shop

Bike Setup:   2009 Fuji Nevada 1.0: Shimano Acera chain-wheel,Chain, Cranks, Shifters, Front derailleur & Hubs. Alivio Rear derailleur. Shimano B416 Mechanical Disk Brakes.

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Submitted by USAF a Weekend Warrior from Iron River, Wisconsin, USA

Date Reviewed: July 17, 2010

Strengths: Great all-around traction wet or dry

Bottom Line:

26 X 2.1 and it combines light weight with EASY rolling! Expensive but worth it if you have the money.

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Favorite Trail:   CAMBA

Duration Product Used:   3 months

Price Paid:    $110.00

Purchased At:   RideThis.com

Bike Setup:   Ti Motobecane Fantom Pro

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Submitted by YeahWhatever a Cross Country Rider from VA

Date Reviewed: June 26, 2010

Strengths:    Very Light, Rolls fast

Weaknesses:    Tends to suck up a lot of rocks, and it is a bit pricey.

Bottom Line:

This tire rolls faster and with less effort than the Kenda Dred Tread. I use it mostly on gravel fire roads, and it feels great. My only complaint is that I'm constantly hearing the pinging of rocks being thrown against the frame. Otherwise, it is an excellent tire. I look forward to seeing how it holds up over time.

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Favorite Trail:   401

Duration Product Used:   Less than 1 month

Similar Products Used:   Kenda Dred Tread

Bike Setup:   Dean Colonel Ti

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Submitted by jmf69 a Weekend Warrior from Lisbon, Portugal

Date Reviewed: February 20, 2010

Strengths:    Fast roll and confortable

Weaknesses:    None yet

Bottom Line:

After reading many, many tires reviews I decided to go for the Smart Sam and I confess that I hardly could be happier. The goal with this bike is long rides (usually several days at 80-100Km/day) where we can get every type of surface, from tar to difficult off-road trails usually carrying a considerable load for complete autonomy.
As far as I experienced, these tires are really wonderful. They are very comfortable, good grip and very fast roll. Even independently of the price they would be very good. When considering the price, they are awesome..
My congratulations to Schwalbe for the very nice work!

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Favorite Trail:   Sintra

Duration Product Used:   Less than 1 month

Price Paid:    $20.00

Purchased At:   Mototorres

Similar Products Used:   Michelin Country Trail, Michelin Country Mud, etc, etc

Bike Setup:   TREK 8000 (1993), weels shimano, rear derailleur XT, front SLX

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Submitted by sbowles a Weekend Warrior from Newmarket, Ontario Canada

Date Reviewed: May 4, 2009

Strengths:    Excellent all round tire , fast rolling, seems to stick well to roots and rocks. I have ridden all mountain terrain with them.. Fort Rock New Hampshire and North Shore style technical trails as Raven Shoe ... The tire just seems to perform in general terms better than any tire I've used so far..

Weaknesses:    As in all round tire it's weakest link would be its mud performance... but still as far as I'm concerned it's acceptable performance as long as you don't have long stretches of deep mud.. I have used other Schwalbe fast rolling racing tires in the past.. Fast Fred for example... these were absolutely horrible in the mud ..

Bottom Line:

I'm a big guy 220 ish ... in spring and fall I run Kenda Nagils 235 .. I was worried about going to UST wheels.. and especially only to 2.10's I purchased the evolution series triple nano. These wheels feel like I have another inch of travel and so far I have ridden them very hard over New England and Ontario rocky terrain... no flats and the tires stick incredibly well. The added bonus is that the rules superfast and or super sticky over anything I've thrown at it so far...

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Favorite Trail:   Fort Rock New Hampshire and Raven Shoe Keswick On

Duration Product Used:   Less than 1 month

Price Paid:    $30.00

Purchased At:   ebay store

Similar Products Used:   Fast Fred's , racing Ron's Kenda Small block

Bike Setup:   Santa Cruz Blur LT - Crank Brothers Iodine UST wheelset

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Submitted by Mr.SJ a Cross Country Rider from Germany, BW

Date Reviewed: April 25, 2009

Strengths:    Very fast, good allrounder, light and -most important- longest tire life for fast tires in my experience, similiar to Maxxis Ranchero.

Weaknesses:    None to cry about. This is made for XC and long distance riding.

Bottom Line:

This review is for the new Smart Sam EVO with the new Triple Nano Compound. Since I am riding with this tire, the "tire topic" is uninteresting for me. The EVO-carcass and the new compound is an upgrade for the Sam´s. They are touring and race tires now and I will use them for race purposes.
Very low rolling resistance like the Racing Ralphs, but better grip. Uphills with 25% are no problem. Great design, big volume and comfort. Even in bad weather conditions this is my best rear tire so far and has not to be changed due to different weather or ground conditions. In dry and medium conditions the new Sam offers plenty of grip even as a front tire. Sam EVO front and rear increased my speed significantly. But when heaven opens up you might be safer with the Nobby Nic front. No punctures!
Value: 30,- Euro is not cheap, all high end tires are expensive like this, unfortunately. But I do not know any tire as fast AND long-lasting (!!) like this. So I have to give 5.
Overall: clear 5.

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Duration Product Used:   3 months

Similar Products Used:   Some. I have been lucky with the Speed Kings, but these are better.

Bike Setup:   HT, pressure for the Sam EVO: front 1,6-1,7bar, rear 2,0bar.

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Submitted by Cal a Cross Country Rider from Scotland

Date Reviewed: August 27, 2008

Strengths:    light, seem to be tough

Weaknesses:    unstable, expensive, hard to find the folding version

Bottom Line:

These tyres are OK, but they are nowhere near all they're hyped up to be, at least for me. I ride what I'd call agressive XC, am average weight and height (about 11 stone and 5'8"). After long searching through reviews on the net I eventually settled on the 2.1" folding versions to replace my venerable 2.3" continental vertical steels. I was looking to lighten the bike, reduce rolling resistance but still retain traction. Unfortunately, the entire bike immediately felt unstable. I find that the knobs don't bite as well as the old conti's and the grip on rock, mud and everything except solid hardpack is severely reduced - the whole bike felt sketchy on even moderately technical terrain. Maybe I bought the wrong size and should have gone for the 2.25"? Anyway, I eventually changed the front tyre back to the conti and there was an immediate improvement. I'm considering going back to the verticals on the rear now too. Condsidering the contis are about SR£12 each and the Schwalbes were over STR£60 for the pair, this was an expensive failed experiment. Even if you find these tyres to be good, they're still far to expensive - car tyres are only twice the price!

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Favorite Trail:   Kirroughtree

Duration Product Used:   3 months

Purchased At:   online

Similar Products Used:   conti vertical, panaracer fire xc pro, wtb primal raptor...

Bike Setup:   Blur LT (v1), Rockshox Revelations, etc

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Submitted by dbblackdiamond a Weekend Warrior from Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Date Reviewed: August 4, 2008

Strengths:    This tire rolls really well, but what is more surprising is how much it hooks up. I was very surprised considering that the tread is pretty solid. On the same trail, I tried the Smart Sam and the Racing Ralph and I have found the Smart Sam to hook up better and roll faster than the RR, which really surprised me.
On the rolling resistance side, the tire feels like it is a slick. It accelerates effortlessly. I was able to push 1 taller gear than I usually does on my favourite trail. When things get a bit gnarly, it still hooks up well on roots and rocks.
The version I am using is the 2.1 SnakeSkin and I am impressed by the SnakeSkin. It has hold up very well to a lot of sharp rocks. I haven't been really careful going down and so far no sidewall tear.

Weaknesses:    It doesn't work well, when things get wet or loose. In the wet, it packs up really fast and then slip and slide all over the place. On really loose rocks, it can hook up, but one has to be careful of how one lays down the power. There is traction, but not a lot, so smooth is the word there.
As any Schwalbe tires, it is a bit on the expensive side.

Bottom Line:

I think this tire does what it was designed to do very well. It is a fast rolling tire with plenty of traction. I ride in the Rockies, where there are plenty of rocks, roots and loose rocks over hardpack and this tire works really well. The only place where it doesn't really work is when things turn wet, but with a tread like that, I wasn't expecting it to work well.
The SnakeSkin protection works really well as I have bombed through a few rock gardens with plenty of sharp rocks and it is as good as new.
If you're looking for a fast rolling tire with good traction, then I think this is a good option. Don't expect the traction to match that of Kenda Nevegal, but for such a fast rolling tire, it is really good.

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Favorite Trail:   MoosePackers

Duration Product Used:   3 months

Purchased At:   Speedgoat.com

Similar Products Used:   Schwalbe Racing Ralph, Maxxis Advantage, Kenda Nevagal, Panaracer XCFirePro

Bike Setup:   Heavily modified C'dale Prophet

Reviews 1 - 15 (22 Reviews Total)

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Schwalbe Smart Sam Tire

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