Slick tires

[like2bike]

Well, I just read St. Sheldon's article on tires.  Now I'm a believer in slick tires for my touring bike.  

So what's a good 700c slick touring tire?  I've been running Continental Top Touring 2000, and I've been looking at the Schwalbe tires advertised in the magazine, but those are both treaded tires.

What's the list think?

Mark

[wanderingwheel]

Good slick tires for touring are few and far between.  Avocet makes it's FasGrip tires in 28 and 32 diameters but I don't know how durable they are.

The Rivendell Rolly-Polly and Ruffy-Tuffy tires are both nice and fat and their checkerboard tread rides like a slick (and turns into a slick after a few hundred miles).  I used the Rolly Polly for many miles or randoneering this summer and truly loved it, but I'm not sure how it would do on a fuly-loaded bike: the Ruffy-Tuffy is proabably more apropriate.

Michelin Carbon tires come in a very large 25 that would be appropriate for light touring.

Soma makes some interesting tires with minimal tread, but they are probably similar to your Contis.

Another option is to use an inverse tread like the Avocet Cross so that you get most of the benefits of a slick tire when cornering and in the rain, but you still have lots of rubber in the tread to prevent flats and give the tire long life.

Sean

[RussellSeaton]

I think whether you have a tread pattern or not on your bicycle tire means absolutely nothing in performance.  Just ride whatever tire you like.  For loaded touring I like wide and heavy tires.

[like2bike]

RolyPoly --

Thanks very much for the data.  I'm using 35 mm tires, which fit well on my bike, and the Conti tread pattern is pretty unobstrusive.

Cars tires, of course, have pronounced tread patterns which provide channels for the water to escape out from under the tires so as to prevent hydroplaning.

Is there any benefit to a channeling-type tread pattern on a bike tire, or are the tires narrow enough and speeds low enough that hydroplaning isn't a real-world factor?

I remember some years ago riding on a wet asphalt street when all of a sudden my back wheel lost traction and swung around beside me, much like a dirt-track motorcycle in a turn.  It was a non-knobby treaded tire, but I don't recall what make/model.  

Sheldon's article makes it sound like there's no benefit at all to treads, but that certainly seemed like a hydroplaning event.  

Is there truly no difference between treaded and non-treaded tires in wet situations?

Mark




This message was edited by like2bike on 10-3-05 @ 8:32 PM

[wanderingwheel]

You did not hydroplane when your rear wheel slide out, you simply lost traction.  Hydroplaning means that you trapped water beneath your tire and that you are riding on a film of water.  Your tire is no longer in contact with the asphault.  It is basically impossible to hydroplane on a bike due to the shape and pressure of the tires.

In order to avoid losing traction in wet weather you need to increase the amount of rubber hitting the road.  This is done first by running your tires at a lower pressure (about 10psi less is usually enough).  The next step is to choose an appropiate tire, if possible.  

A good wet weather tire will be wide (you can run it a lower pressure) and will be supple so that it conforms well to the road.  Anything that prevents the tire from deforming evenly when it contacts the road will increase your chance of losing traction in turns.  A treaded tire will therefore be more likely to lose traction than an identical slick tire because the tread dos not allow the tire to deform evenly.  The worst case would be a large knobby tread, and a small file tread would be almost identical to the slick tire.

Sean

[martyk]

I read Sheldon's tire article also.  I use my bike to commute.  I tried slick tires(Avocet FasGrip 28wide) also.  I have found slick tires "throw" a lot more water on wet streets.  Tires with a few small grooves around the circumference seem to "throw" a lot less water on wet streets.  If your bike has fenders this isn't a problem.  If you ride without fenders, I would lean toward tires with the small grooves.