road bike or mtn bike which is safer in the wet

[Profpointy]

Good advice. Better to emphasize the rear brakes. Of course, in the US, our rear brakes are on the right hand side of the handlebar, generally.

..... Don't agree with "emphasise rear brake" - well, mostly don't agree at any rate. On very slippy surfaces, eg snow, OK, but if actually trying to slow down on somewhat grippy surface like a wet road, rear really won't do much, though can help a bit. But you usually don't want to grab a handfull of front brake on wet road - cause of risk of skid - but if you don't squeeze hard, you don't get much braking on the wet rims - until they suddenly start to grip ! Tricky whatever

 

[adds21]

I do understand this but I can never get my head around if this is the case only on smooth roads.

On roads with a slightly broken top surface my logic (which may well be illogical) still says that a tyre without a tread will not drop down into troughy bits whereas a tyre with a tread will and thus provide some resistance to slithering sideways.

Strangely in over 12 years of using an MTB (moderately aggressive trail tyres) on roads I never came off once yet within months of purchasing a road bike I came off twice (sideways slips on gravel and diesel). Not conclusive but enough to get me wondering and not having total faith in slick tyres.

Even with a high tyre pressure, road tyres will deform enough to wrap around the little highs and lows in a tarmac road, however I expect the bottom like is to ride what you're most comfortable with, regardless of what the physics says.