Commuting on knobblies

spasypaddy

WHY!?

Seriously, why do people do it?

I rode my CX in today, with knobblies on it. It felt like i was going backwards.

All because I dont want to lock my road bike up tonight

bigmat

Because its snowing. Or for resistance training perhaps? I occasionally commute on a bike with semi-knobblies (the central rolling surface is relatively smooth). It feels slow as anything, but then I don't really care - probably only makes 5 minutes difference over 10 miles.

ugo.santalucia

Not all knobblies are born equal...
I did find Conti speed King incrediby un-speedy but a set of Vittoria XG PRO are pretty nippy, maybe just over 1 mph slower than a slick tyre on average. Semi-knobblies like Vittoria XN are nearly as fast as a slick, then you are measuring the difference only in the exact same conditions of air pressure/wind etc... in which case you probably look at 5 seconds per mile or so

tgotb

What Ugo said. XG Pro at 60psi are still comfortably fast enough to win the Millbank sprint, a file tread would presumably be faster. The trick is to pump them up hard for road riding and then let the air back out for off-road. Bit of a compromise required for mixed riding (I normally just go with something like 40psi) but it's very common to see people riding to races or training sessions, letting a load of air out, and then pumping the tyres back up to ride home.

To answer the original question, I commute on knobblies:
1. If I'm racing after work
2. If I'm training after work
3. If it's snowing
4. If I'm taking TGOTB Junior to school on the way to work, and we want to ride along the towpath

spasypaddy

these are cheap CX tyres. it was grim.

i normally keep this for commuting in really bad weather. now i remember why

markhewitt1978

Mostly because people buy a bike from Halfords, and mountain bikes are the cheapest ones, and they run whatever tyres it came with. With no idea what slicks even are, never mind what advantages they have, nevermind knowing what size to get, how to fit them.

This is a bike forum so we know that stuff - or we can research it, for a vast number a bike is just a bike and that's it.

wandsworth

There's a guy I see going westbound along Embankment some evenings on a Surly mountain bike. It seems to have tractor tyres on it. He's fast.

jonginge

wandsworth wrote:

There's a guy I see going westbound along Embankment some evenings on a Surly mountain bike. It seems to have tractor tyres on it. He's fast.

Green? If so, I saw him last week. Pretty swift.

macleod113

when the weather turns i commute on my 29er MTB with knobblies. i do off road occasionally so wouldnt want to swap tyres to slicks. its obviously slower than a road bike but better than not cycling at all in my opinion.

Kieran_Burns

I think I have the XG Pros and running them at full pressure actually makes some of the worse conditioned roads almost pleasurable. They don't half smooth out the bumps and ruts, and yes they are slower but the dull whrrrrrrrr noise is kind of soothing.

I really, really want some Winter conditions that require the use of the spiked tyres this year. I'm not fitting them to the Felt with the disc brakes 'cos I actually want to limit the amount of braking force and those BB7s are too good.

ugo.santalucia

I've just done a lap of the smaller Richmond Park loop (5 Km with a bump in the middle) in 9:15 with the XN... slightly breezy... my best time with CX 23 tubulars is 8:35 in ideal conditions...
I think for commuting these semi-knobblies are pretty fast things...

spasypaddy

im running these
http://www.csttires.com/int/bike/cycloc ... tor-c1604/
at 60 psi

ugo.santalucia

spasypaddy wrote:

im running these
http://www.csttires.com/int/bike/cycloc ... tor-c1604/
at 60 psi

The name suggests they are quite agricultural...
They seem pretty full on knobblies for the deep bog... I sense they weigh more than the declared 440 grams, with all that rubber

mudcovered

spasypaddy wrote:

im running these
http://www.csttires.com/int/bike/cycloc ... tor-c1604/
at 60 psi

Wow :shock: . That looks more like an MTB tyre than any CX tyre I've ever used. When things do get boggy I switch to Bontrager CXR tyres which are light and only have a fraction of that tread depth from the look of the picture. Only slight downside of them is that the lightness means that they have little or no armouring for puncture protection although on the routes I ride that's never caused me much of a problem.

Mike

tgotb

spasypaddy wrote:

im running these
http://www.csttires.com/int/bike/cycloc ... tor-c1604/
at 60 psi

That tread looks incredibly aggressive for a cross tyre, I'm not surprised you're finding it slow. Compare with the Clement PDX, which is one of the best clinchers for really muddy conditions:
http://www.cxmagazine.com/wp-content/ga ... 7809_1.JPG
Even this has a fairly continuous strip of knobbles around the middle and smaller (albeit more cunningly shaped) and wider-spaced knobbles. I'm not recommending this as a commuting tyre, but it is about as aggressive as race tyres get, and will handle far worse conditions than you'd expect to encounter on a recreational ride, so you really want to be looking at less aggressive treads than this (there are loads, but the Vittoria XG Pro is a good example).

spasypaddy

haha yeah i know they are awful tyres. i just cant bring myself to spend any money on tyres for this bike.

i only ever use it when its snowing and i have studs for that situation.

When i move back to north london and am able to ride some CX rides i'll contemplate some other tyres

unless someone has some reasonable suggestions (c.£20-25 a tyre)

ugo.santalucia

Awesome tyres for urban riding/commuting and the likes

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVTRANPII ... lding-tyre

meanredspider

I used Ice Spiker Pros every winter for the last 4 years - last winter I was doing 35 miles a day on them. Not too bad when you get used to it but it was a joy to get back on the road bike.

spasypaddy

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Awesome tyres for urban riding/commuting and the likes

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVTRANPII ... lding-tyre

nice, but i want something that i can jump off road on down the dirt path on the way home if im on my CX bike... so a file tread with knobbly edges id guess?

ugo.santalucia

spasypaddy wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Awesome tyres for urban riding/commuting and the likes

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVTRANPII ... lding-tyre

nice, but i want something that i can jump off road on down the dirt path on the way home if im on my CX bike... so a file tread with knobbly edges id guess?

I've used the Randonneur off road until it started to rain and got boggy. Vittoria XN are exceptional tyres for light off road and very fast on the road, but they are not as hard wearing or puncture proof.

For light off road the Randonneur will do just fine

tgotb

^ Ugo seems to do a lot of this sort of riding, so I'd definitely respect his opinion on this.

The Rookie

When I ride in India the rental bikes are cheap MTB's, most are on treaded road tyres, but one I use frequently is on knobblies and I can comfortably get to 25mph on road (they are at about 45psi) which is enough to keep up with the people on road tyre shod Hybrids (when I then ride away from on the 'less well made' roads).

spasypaddy

ugo.santalucia wrote:

spasypaddy wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Awesome tyres for urban riding/commuting and the likes

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVTRANPII ... lding-tyre

nice, but i want something that i can jump off road on down the dirt path on the way home if im on my CX bike... so a file tread with knobbly edges id guess?

I've used the Randonneur off road until it started to rain and got boggy. Vittoria XN are exceptional tyres for light off road and very fast on the road, but they are not as hard wearing or puncture proof.

For light off road the Randonneur will do just fine

excellent, i shall order some on pay day (and a new seatpost)

BelgianBeerGeek

On-one/Planet X are doing some good deals at the moment on tyres, as Ugo points out. Just put some Vittoria Randonneur Cross tyres on my CX commuter (32mm). £8.99 each. Before that I had Kenda Small Block 8s.

Differences: Kendas were lightweight, not bad off road (grass, light trails, paths, the beach etc) and fairly quick. At a lower PSI they were also quite good on ice on my rural, un-lit commute. When the tread was newer they made a lovely rumbling sound that sounded a bit like an old Land Rover. I got over two years commuting and general use out of them, so they weren't bad at all.
First run on the Vittorias: not as much grip, I nearly came off on the end of my drive! Perhaps the rubber compound needs bedding in a little - they are very rigid. They are quicker and much smoother running as you would expect. They also have a much thicker tread, so I hope to get some miles out of them.

veronese68

I'm running the Vittoria Randonneur Cross Pro at the moment, on Ugo's recommendation, and am very pleased with them. Plenty fast enough for me on tarmac and good on paths and trails. Slightly more tread than the regular Randonneur and a higher thread count so supposedly faster than the non Pro version. Also got mine cheap from Planet X at about £15 each as I recall.