Winter commuting tyre

[Therealsouthstander]

I've been running the excellent Vittoria voyager hyper 32mm since spring on my daily commute.
I'm now looking for something a bit more grippy in the wet and frost. I don't want to use spikes until the really bad weather arrives.

My 25 mile round commute consists of, country roads, city centre roads and a gravel track for 5 miles on the way home.

I want something quite fast if possible

I was wondering if the panaracer gravelking sk 700 35-blk would be an option or should I go with continental grand prix 4 season 32mm.?

I have no experience ridding gravel tyres so not sure how they'd ride on the road,especially when wet.

Many thanks for any suggestions

[Samuel D]

The Continental Grand Prix 4-Season is now available in 32 mm and would be a safe choice.

Since you mention speed: a faster option would be the Pirelli P Zero Velo 4S. This tyre shares a casing with Pirelli’s racing clinchers but tests slower, which all but proves that the tread compound has higher hysteresis and therefore better wet grip. I think the biggest size is only 28 mm, however. And of course puncture resistance and durability would be a lot worse than the Grand Prix 4-Season. You have a long commute so perhaps it makes sense for you to emphasise low rolling resistance at the expense of the usual commuting qualities.

[Scunnered]

I'm using https://www.specializedconceptstore.co.uk/product/13348/2018-roubaix-pro-2bliss-ready over similar terrain, very pleased so far.

[Jamesh]

Wiggle own brand 28mm tyre.
Kevlar bead and nylon casing lightweight and cheap 250gms.

Cheers James

[RickH]

Or even go up a size to 35mm (& run them a bit softer) on the Hypers if you have clearance (as you were considering 35mm Gravel Kings). The only time I'm not running my Hypers (I'm on the 38s) on the road in winter is because I'm on the studs, or have fitted them to the wheels the Hypers usually live on so I'm running on the slight knobblies (700x40 WTB Nanos) on my other wheels out of necessity. But that is only because I'm running the Nanos tubeless & it's easier to swap the tyres on the tubed wheels. The Nanos are definitely overkill on roads & gravel.

Planet X are still claiming "lots in stock" for the 35mm Hypers, although I'd be inclined to wait for a price drop before stumping up for them - they often do deals like 30% off tyres for a few days (I don't think I've paid more than £15 a tyre for any of mine).

32mm GP4S should be good too, but more costly. I didn't have any complaints running 28s year round on a bike that would fit anything bigger.

[PH]

I like a bit of tread this time of year and will shortly be swapping my Marathon Supremes for Panaracer Paselas.
I'm not convinced it makes any difference, it offers me a bit of reassurance anyway. The only times I've lost enough grip to also loose control of the bike it was on surfaces that no tyre would have held on - Deisel, gravel, ice - maybe studded tyres would have held on the ice, though it was so unexpected I hadn't considered using them. The Paselas (I think mine are the PT version and 32/35mm) are adequately puncture protected, comfortable, long lasting, they might be a touch slower than the Supremes, but who isn't a little slower this time of year anyway?

[RickH]

When tread (or not) was being discussed recently, I started looking at the tyres on motorbikes to check what they have. Normal road motorbikes bikes don't really seem to have any, apart from a bit af angled channelling on the shoulders (very similar to a scaled up Voyager Hyper or Hypers are a scaled down motorbike tyre?), at least not from my limited observation.

I reckon the cold weather performance of the rubber is probably likely to be at least as important as any tread (maybe even more so). As a side note: Seeing the performance difference of winter car tyres over normal one purely at 5C in the wet (no actual "winter") a few years back convinced me of their usefulness but now there are all-year compounds that give most of the performance of both types, such as Michelin Crossclimate.

[meic]

Normal road motorbikes bikes don't really seem to have any, apart from a bit af angled channelling on the shoulders (very similar to a scaled up Voyager Hyper or Hypers are a scaled down motorbike tyre?)

Those tyres are optimised for high speed and performance on nice smooth, clean tarmac. Not the best for a motorbike on dirty, muddy lanes either.
I remember the back end wobbling on such surfaces when Avon Roadrunners switched to that type of tread. The reason why we bought them was that it was normally a centreline getting down to 1mm that made your tyre illegal, no centre line made your tyre last longer. The reason we stopped buying them was the back end would wiggle even when riding upright at a steady state.

[andrew_s]

Continental Top Contact Winter
https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/continental ... yre-643326

Not as good as studs, but better than anything else. I've ridden straight uphill on sheet ice at 6-7% on them.
They are the bicycle equivalent of proper winter car tyres.

I would point out that even with studs, a certain amount of care is required, and you can't just ride like you do in summer.

[Vorpal]

I ride on Continental GP 4 seasons, which are about the best available for mucky autumn leaves and frosty mornings.

When there's ice or snow, I use studded tyres. The Top Contact (non-studded) Winter tyres are good for everything in between, including fresh snow, where they are generally better than studded tyres.

And yes, the studs stop working if you get going too fast, or pump the up too hard. Too fast in my experience has been around 12 mph, but I've had some loss of traction, of felt the bike go a bit squirrely at somewhat slower speeds a couple of times. But at 8 mph riding studded tyres on shear ice feels like good rubber on warm asphalt. The first time I rode them on ice, I didn't realise how slippery it was until I put my foot down & fell over because my boots had no grip!