Tyres for cobbles

drumon

What is the best type of tyre for riding on cobbles (wet or dry) in town ?

I would like to fit slick tyres to my MTB for commuting riding, however I'm unsure whether or not they provide good grip on town cobbles, as opposed to a touring type tyre with a mild tread.

What do you think?

lbknuckles

Im not sure its about the treat pattern, more about the compound??
Softer the rubber the better, but they wont last as long!

cjcp

IME (on a road bike), if it's wet, cobbles are hairy full stop, regardless of the tyres you're running. Might be a bit different with a wider tyre, though.

Is there an mtb version of Vittoria Paves (which are 24mm "cobble spankers")?

roger_merriman

one of the fast but wide race MTB tires would probably give the best performace but they wouldn't last long at all.

but most MTB tires would be fine.

drumon

THanks for the replies.

Would you say 1.3" (33mm) is on the narrow side, or is it more a "wide" tyre in roadie terms?

cjcp

I'd say that's wide. Roadies tend to use 24-27mm tyres. Fwiw, I've used 23mm (GP4000Ses) on the cobbles in the dry and they were great.

Which cobbles are these btw?

drumon

cjcp:

Edinburgh cobbles, can be a bit greasy and wet obviously too sometimes.

So 33mm will be more than enough compared to real roadie tyres? Would the extra width help with grip as well as cushioning?

Or doyou reckon grip is improved with a tread rather than a slick.

cjcp

Ah, right.

Grip has more to do with the compound rather than the tread - no knobblies = more rubber on the road. I've not great experience with mtb tyres, but I've found Spesh Armadillos to have less grip than my cyclo cross Michelin Mud 2s. The Armadillos are made of harder rubber (great for p******e resistance, mind).

33mms will reduce the risk of the tyre dropping down between the cobbles. Also helps to run the tyres at a slightly lower psi (e.g. I run 90 psi over cobbles) as opposed to 100 psi normally.