Daft Beginners Tyre Question

Secteur

Have only ever had one bike with the tyres from new, so I have no frame of reference...

Decided to "upgrade" to Schwalbe Ultremo ZX HD tyres - the ones that won best tyre in Cycling Plus last month.

Anyway, the part that makes contact with the road is perfectly smooth with no form of grip or water channels at all, unlike my factory-fitted road tyres (Specialized ProII "all condition" tyres). I was expecting some sort of tread.

Does this mean that they will be no good in the wet (not that any standard road tyre is especially good in the wet)?

Anything else I need to know?

Hierotochan

I ride 23mm slicks & have no trouble in the rain or with standing water.
It's all about being sensible with your speed & how sharp you turn.

Just don't overcook it into a corner & you should be fine.

rick_chasey

In short, because the contact patch betwen your tyre and the road is so small, the pressure exerted on the road is much, much higher than say, on a car, which has big fat tyres (and four of them!)

There's thus no chance of aquaplaining, which is what the treads are usually for.

So, no, no need to worry at all about being in the wet. If anything, you want as much rubber in contact as possible.

For what it's worth, if it is very wet and slippery, you can always take out a half bar-bar of pressure out of your tyres if it bothers you.

vorsprung

Slick bike tyres grip just as well in the wet as ones with tread

The main use for tread is for dealing with mud on the road or other conditions that could lead to slipping

Aquaplanning a bike pressure tyre on a clean road would require a speed of 150mph istr
But sliding on mud happens at much lower speeds

Paul E

You would need to be going super extreme fast in the wet to aquaplane, I have just replaced the spesh pro 2 tyres with krylions which are completely slick, should have more grip as there is not tread taking rubber off the road

bakerstreet

I recently made the change to all slick tyres from treaded tyres that came with bike.

I admit I had no plans to change tyres on the bike, but my wheels were replaced under warranty and they included all slick tyres.

The slicks are much better overall than the Kenda treaded tyres that I had on before.

I cant see me going back to treaded tyres

Anonymous

Make sure you treat the tyres with anit-squeak compound before fitting them, though.

Paul E

dmclite wrote:

Make sure you treat the tyres with anit-squeak compound before fitting them, though.

Is that derived from the dried remains of mice?

Stoo48

Paul E wrote:

dmclite wrote:

Make sure you treat the tyres with anit-squeak compound before fitting them, though.

Is that derived from the dried remains of mice?

No cats..... Mice provide squeak compound....... I'll get my coat