Originally Posted by lhbernhardt

This brings up another of my challenges to conventional cycling wisdom, the notion that the front tire must be inflated to less than the rear.

Yes, weight distribution is usually 40-60 front-rear, but that's only when you're coasting or maintaining speed (or sitting statically on your bike with the scale under one wheel and a phone book under the other determining your weight distribution!). Under acceleration, it would likely be 30-70 or 20-80, and under hard braking, it could even be 99-1 as the rear tire starts skidding because there's hardly any weight on it; it's all on the front! When you're out of the saddle climbing, weight distribution is probably 60-40, most of the weight on the front tire, as it's easy to spin the rear wheel on some wet surfaces.

I'm beginning to think that both front and rear tires should be aired to the same pressure. This would account for all the extremes.

L.

Originally Posted by lhbernhardt

This brings up another of my challenges to conventional cycling wisdom, the notion that the front tire must be inflated to less than the rear.

Originally Posted by AzTallRider

I've found them to be just as flat resistant as Gatorskins, meaning that for both, it's mostly a matter of luck/fate/karma. A goathead will go through either one, as will various types of road trash. Keeping inflation up (less things stick to a harder tire), and avoiding all the trash you can, also help.

Originally Posted by lee kenney

"So this is Christmas and how have you done "Thank you Mr. Lennon. Be grateful for those small potatoes, fellow riders, be grateful ! My Christmas wish is for fewer "ghost bikes" and more riders for the"Ride of Silence".Happy Christmas to all you "vintage" cyclists!

Originally Posted by speedlever

Is it weight distribution or the fact that the rear wheel is driven? I'd say most of the time the rear wheel has more weight than the front, but I have to wonder how much wear is attributed to a driven wheel vs a non-driven (front) wheel.

Originally Posted by BluesDawg

Any tire I ride on will be noticeably slower than the tires ridden by the guys who are faster than me.

Originally Posted by speedlever

Most definitely. He said they (Zipps) came in tubular and clincher.

https://www.zipp.com/accessories/tires.php

I guess this is what he was talking about. I see they even include an inflation chart:

Originally Posted by oldbobcat

Our Continental rep says the GP4000 has better flat resistance than the Gatorskin and the best flat resistance of any road tire. While some may want to argue the second point, I take his word for the first. The advantage of the Gatorskin is more plies in the casing and especially the sidewall. Use the Gatorskin if sidewall damage is a concern.

Originally Posted by AzTallRider

I don't know about you, but I don't "lay scratch" very often, nor do I do power slides through corners. It's weight. Thinking back however, It's not quite 2-1 as far as wear and tire replacement goes.

Originally Posted by speedlever

Ah well, I've long outgrown the need to leave black marks all over the garage floor. But it still stands to reason that a driving tire will see more wear than a tire that's only carrying weight.

Originally Posted by FrenchFit

Hard to believe. Otherwise, Gatorskins just feel better with a loaded bike imo. I think it's that stiff sidewall. With loaded bags on the back I might have a Gatorskin on the rear and a GP4000s or R1 on the front. Front bags, Gatorskins front and back.

With respect to the prior "marketing" post, don't mock dem 'black chilis' yo. If you ride the colored GP 4000 and the black chilis I think you'd say there's a big time difference in cornering.

Originally Posted by AzTallRider

Why is that?

It's been awhile since I drove a front engine rear wheel drive car, but IIRC, when I did, the front tires wore more quickly than the rear due to, guess what, the weight. One can argue that the turning wheel tires would wear more quickly and make sense, but I see no basis for your contention that drive wheel tires would wear more quickly. Please enlighten me.

Originally Posted by asgelle

There is always slip between a driven wheel and the road surface. Jobst Brandt has data that shows tire wear is proportional to torque https://www.cyclingcrowd.com/Uwe/Foru...-Front-vs-Rear
"You are definitely wrong on that supposition. As you can see from
other responses here, rear tires wear proportionally faster the more
power is transmitted. This has been studied at length on tire wear
machines where a tire rolls on a "paved" tester drum with and without
a ******ing force on the bicycle wheel as the machine turns the drum.
There is no steering motion involved and tires wear proportionately to
torque."

Originally Posted by Camilo

No doubt. But in the OP, the guy was told that a different brand of the same type, and generally the same quality (both being skinny, high quality road tires) would make a significant difference in his speed. Among similar quality road-specific, call them racing tires if you will, there just isn't any meaningful differnce in speed. There may be other attributes that a person might prefer, but objecive, measurable speed isnt one of them.

Originally Posted by ka0use

i surrender. what is a ghost bike and a ride of silence?

as for rolling resistance, i find slicks to be easier pedaling, but they seem to come only in skinny widths and makes
for a real squirrely ride on my mtb. i do alternate between normal width summer and winter tires.
i do go for max pressure. that does make a defineable difference. if i go 5 psi under max i am dragging serious
booty. not that i don't drag booty, even at full psi. even folks using walkers make better time. i drag a little less booty is all. the booty is still there, sho' 'nuff. maybe i should have a tractor drag me around. i'd make much better time.

Originally Posted by ka0use

i surrender. what is a ghost bike and a ride of silence?

as for rolling resistance, i find slicks to be easier pedaling, but they seem to come only in skinny widths and makes
for a real squirrely ride on my mtb. i do alternate between normal width summer and winter tires.
i do go for max pressure. that does make a defineable difference. if i go 5 psi under max i am dragging serious
booty. not that i don't drag booty, even at full psi. even folks using walkers make better time. i drag a little less booty is all. the booty is still there, sho' 'nuff. maybe i should have a tractor drag me around. i'd make much better time.

Originally Posted by speedlever

Regarding tire pressures, here's a formula I picked up here at BF a while back that I use as a guideline.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...22#post6571222



For me at 170 lbs on 23s, that works out to 110 psi in the rear and 99 (call in 100) psi in the front. Lately, I've been running 115 psi all around and think I will back it down to those numbers and see if I can tell a difference.