Tyres yet again.

[manonbike]

Hi I havn't been posting on here for a bit, I have just retired my trusty Giant mountain bike after 13,500 miles and have bought a new bike a Revolution Country Explorer. My question is what tyres do people recommend for winter riding as the tyres the bike is fitted with are Continentals with a smooth tread which looks okay for Summer but I'd be a little weary of them in winter conditions ( I ride all weathers every day). The rims are 700 x 32 can I fit a slightly fatter tyre or is 32 the limit for a 32 rim. I also want something with good puncture resistance. My initial thoughts were Marathon Plus, I have standard Marathons on my Daws Galaxy but have not ran them in winter conditions, any thoughts and advice would be great.

Martyn.

[landsurfer]

700 x 28 Marathons ... the go anywhere tyre ....

[Malpas]

For tarmac smooth is what you want,more rubber on the road, I doubt you go fast enough to aquaplane which is why car tyres have tread. Snow, off road and very messy minor roads(I do mean very) would be a different story.
You could go wider then 32 on your rims,subject to brake and mudguard clearance.
I suspect your bike builders thought long and hard before they put those Conti's on. Try them out.

[Gearoidmuar]

For tarmac smooth is what you want,more rubber on the road, I doubt you go fast enough to aquaplane which is why car tyres have tread. Snow, off road and very messy minor roads(I do mean very) would be a different story.
You could go wider then 32 on your rims,subject to brake and mudguard clearance.
I suspect your bike builders thought long and hard before they put those Conti's on. Try them out.

A bike cannot aquaplane. It could if it did 85mph AND had tyres with a square profile like a car has..

I've used slicks when available for years and years and it takes a while to trust them, because intuitively it appears that they must skid, but they don't.
The will skid however, on wet metal or wet freshly painted road lines, as ANY tyre will..

[reohn2]

Slicks(no tread) are ideal for tarmac(wet or dry) and consolodated tracks and paths,it's only when things begin to get loose or muddy that tread becomes necessary.Hard packed snow and ice require studs.
You don't say which Contis are fitted to the bike though the ones fitted to the one tested here:- http://road.cc/content/review/19389-rev ... y-explorer are Country Ride(Continetal's Marathon equivelent)which aren't slicks and would do for almost anything but ice.
You say the rims are 700x32's those would be very wide rims so I assume you mean the tyres are 700x32 which are great though 35's or 38's would be more comfortable but that's personal choice and if the bike has clearance for tyres so big.

[Vorpal]

If the Continentals have been fine where you are riding in summer, they'll be fine in winter, too. The exception is ice and snow. I've ridden slicks through winters in the UK. I did fall on ice once a few years ago, but otherwise have had no problems.

In ice or packed snow, even knobbly tyres won't help. Studded tyres, though, are pretty amazing. I've ridden on them in ice and slush where I didn't realise how slippery it was until I put a foot down at a junction, and almost fell over.

[fatboy]

700 x 28 Marathons ... the go anywhere tyre ....

Too small for the rims IMHO

[willem jongman]

The Continental Topcontact Winter II is the ideal winter tyre for anything short of where you need studded tyres. They use car winter tyre technology, so a different rubber compound, and a specific tread pattern. They are not only more comfortable and marginally faster when the rubber gets cold, but also a great deal grippier. I have used them on icy roads, and the difference was spectacular. They come in two sizes: a 50-559 size that is really the best option for winter as it puts most rubber on the road, and a narrower 37-622. Both sizes are quite a bit narrower in reality. My 37-622 is only 31 mm wide in real life (but quite tall), but that is on a fairly narrow rim. The 50-559 is about 43 mm on a touring rim.
It does get cold where we live, and we do have ice and snow. I bought them when my son fell three times in one a week riding to his new school. One five minute ride on the frozen snow in front of our house was enough to convince me that the other family bikes also needed them. They are expensive (less so if ordered from Germany), but it has been some of the best money spent in recent years.
Willem

[manonbike]

Thanks for the replys re tyres, the bike is brand new I have only been for a short spin today and it feels okay. I just assumed as far as tyres go I would be better with a tyre with a more open tread pattern in winter conditions, from the feedback it seems as though I might be over concerning myself with technicallitys.

[Brucey]

if it is muddy or greasy on the road a more open tread pattern may make a difference to the grip, and you may also notice that the tyre may feel different as it starts to slide, with different tread patterns. But in cold conditions especially, the type of rubber will affect the absolute grip level. This time of year, a good, hard wearing tyre like a Marathon may be significantly less grippy than something designed specifically for winter conditions.

cheers

[Gearoidmuar]

if it is muddy or greasy on the road a more open tread pattern may make a difference to the grip,
cheers

Speculation?

Is there any evidence for this, Brucey, or are you just thinking aloud?

[531colin]

It depends what you mean by "muddy on the road".
I'm a rough-stuffer, I go looking for tracks to ride. Where the mud washes onto the first bit of tarmac from the last un-surfaced bit, you can get smooth tarmac covered in a continuous layer of mud. At this time of year the same thing happens on back lanes in the vale of York...its arable land, worked by big machinery...the machinery drives off the field onto the road, bringing lots of mud...nobody cleans up, and there is not enough traffic to push the mud away, so you get sheets of mud laying over the tarmac in the hollows. That sort of stuff is at least as slippery as a muddy track.

I generally use good old Marathons on the roughstuff bike, 35mm wide, they are a good compromise, not too punishingly hard work on the road, reasonably competent on mud......



I also have a pair of these (now obsolete, they changed the tread pattern) Marathon Racers....



The tread is a lot shallower than the regular Marathon, maybe less than 2mm deep. In proper mud the "Racers" will just wash out without warning, the difference is staggering. They are OK on tracks in the dry...which means they live on a nail in the bike shed.

On the "light tourer" which I ride when I don't envisage going off road (well, hardly at all!) its slicks or slicks for me....and a bit of care on the odd stretch of road.

[Brucey]

when tyres skid they effectively aquaplane. The 'tread doesn't make any difference' camp say that the contact pressure is always too high for this to happen. However this argument is based on relatively narrow tyres working at high pressure on (relatively rough) tarmac surfaces that are simply wet with water. Within these bounds the argument is correct, but arguably meaningless; real-life roads are not exclusively like this.

Mud, road slime, smoother surfaces, wider tyres, lower tyre pressures etc will all provoke (and/or help to maintain) what is effectively a 'viscous aquaplane' condition (see wikipedia) more easily and here tyre tread will make a difference.

You generally 'pay for' an open tread pattern in the form of increased rolling resistance through tread squirm. I ride bikes both with and without tread patterns and I certainly don't ride around in the belief that I have just as much grip with either sort of tyre; experience has taught me that I may slide with no warning on smooth/slimy surfaces and I may keep sliding. These things are more likely with slick tyres.

cheers

[reohn2]

700 x 28 Marathons ... the go anywhere tyre ....

Too small for the rims IMHO

If the rims are 32's(?) yes,if they're 25's no though having ridden 28mm Marathons,IMHO they're a harsh ride for no advantage and are a world away from 28mm Gatorskins,RibMos,Paselas for comfort.

[reohn2]

..... experience has taught me that I may slide with no warning on smooth/slimy surfaces and I may keep sliding. These things are more likely with slick tyres.

cheers

IME thats as much to do with road surfce than tyre tread,on textured surfaces I'd agree the treaded tyre will tend to "bite",think two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together,they grip because the highs get into the lows providing grip.
On smooth greasy/slimey tarmac it's a different story for either slicks or treads.