Tyres

[Jim_Noir]

Hifolks, got a Boardman CX on order as my commute/winter bike. Don't fancy thetyres on the road though. So looking to replace these with more road friendlyones. My first thought was Schawble Marathon’s,but the look a bit chunky too. My 2[sup]nd[/sup]thought was to stick conti ultra sports on it, these are on my Boardman TC andare outstanding, just not sure we are going into the weather for them. Anyone got others to confuse me with?

 

[ianrauk]

Spesh Armadillo 23's. I use them throughout the year. Very good in the wet and very few punctures.

 

[DrSquirrel]

Vittoria Diamante Pro - probably no puncture protection at all - yet very few punctures (Read: this is all mostly anecdotal).

So basically get what you want - you don't need groves for water on a road bike either - you like the Ultra Sports, so I say get them.

 

[PpPete]

Michelin Krylion 700x25
These are being discontinued though - so grab 'em quick

 

[tyred]

Michelin City. Good tough, durable tyre and cheaper than Marathons.

 

[Jim_Noir]

Cheers guys. DrSquirrel why does the tread no matter? I have read this, and others saying it does. The conties on my Boardman TC have been great, 2000 miles and no issue. Only slip on the wet was an oil patch... though I go through the cyclde tunnel and the back end slips on the climb out if it's wet (don't think any tyre would improve this though) Think my issue is the snow and ice we get up here, but the stock tyres on the CX look like they can deal with the really bad months

 

[Kestevan]

Tread on a bike tyre designed for road use is useless.

A car has a wide, flat tyre inflated to a low pressure. This means when it rolls through standing water, the water is trapped under the tyre and cant escape, the tyre then floats on the surface water (aquaplanes) and you lose all grip. Tread allows the water to escape sideways from the centre of the contact area.

A bike tyre is much much narrower, and being inflated to a high pressuer has a narrower more rounded contact patch. The presure exerted causes the water to be displaced past the thin trye without the need for tread/sipes.
In order to get a bike tyre to aquaplane you'd need to be doing some very silly speeds (100mph+).

With regards to mechanical grip, any bike tyre will conform to the surface texture of tarmac enough to make the cosmetic tread patterns useless.

Course.. non of this applies to MTB/off road tyres where the larger area and need to handle mud/gravel/loose surfaces comes into play. Then the right tread pattern can be the differernce between having enough grip to stay upright, and smacking - into a tree at 20mph - I have some immpressive bruises on my arms now which confirm this

 

[HLaB]

Jim, tread is not needed on a roadbike tyre because it serves no purpose (a bicycle tyre has to be going 100mph+ to aquaplane) and in fact it can make things worse less of the tyre grips the road. As to tyres my own preference is to get something from the conti range, the bee knees in terms of grip to me are the 4 seasons but they are costly, hence when mine wore out they were replaced by wire grand prix.