cx tyres on road bike?

oldwelshman

Got up to ride this morning and was way too much ice so I went out later, about 3pm thinking would be better.
I ride on quiet country lanes as the advantage is very low traffic volume but the downside is the roads are often shaded and slippery either from ice, frost or leaves and mud.
I had several hairy moments downhill when backend slid out.
This is nothing to do with road tyres as I have treid a few, it is down to road and weather conditions.
I am thinking of putting some cyclocross tyres on winter bike to make it safer, has anyone on here tried this, if so what tyres?

amclinden

Obviously there will be more grip... slower rolling... but on proper ice probabaly not better?

TommyEss

It sounds odd, but can be explained with a bit of maths, but you actually have a smaller contact area with nobbly tyres than completely slick tyres ON TARMAC! This is because on a microscopic level, totally slick tyres squish into the little grooves in the tarmac, giving you great traction, whereas with the nobbles, only the top of the nobbles can do this (the gaps are just fresh air that don't touch the tarmac).

In the wet, it's impossible to aquaplane without an engine, even on completely slick tyres (there's a calculation to back this up - you need to be doing around 86mph or something daft)

As for ice - without studs there's really nothing you can do if you hit a patch of ice - and if you do have studs, it depends how deep it is (needs to be enough ice for the studs to bite)

Hope that helps - I'd just bump up to 25/28c tyres for winter.

oldwelshman

I guess I have to go slower down hills and get ready to unclip

DavidBelcher

TommyEss wrote:

In the wet, it's impossible to aquaplane without an engine, even on completely slick tyres (there's a calculation to back this up - you need to be doing around 86mph or something daft).

The Michelin labs at Clermont-Ferrand did the sums on this one and their Axial Pro/Pro Race series apparently don't start to aquaplane until the speed is 100+ mph, so slicks are a safe bet at normal pedalling speeds!

For the OP - you can just about shoehorn CX tyres on to an ordinary road bike with caliper brakes if it's a training/touring/commuting design with mudguard clearance. Someone actually raced such a bike at the North Hants RC seniors CX event at Basingstoke this season, kitted out with double-sided MTB pedals to boot.

David