I'm asking this in this forum because I have a lot of respect for the posters here, and because we have double the reason to want our tires to stay stuck to the road. This wish was just emphasized to me when friend of mine went down on a very slick straight road, just from front wheel steering input. Very slick wet nasty black tar. He was on Gatorskins. He did get injured, but not too badly.
What tires have the best traction on wet roads? Is there any data to be found anywhere?
For instance, I ride Vredesteins but I won't ride the Vredestein SE that Performance sells, because they are horrible in the wet, while Tricomps are good. I don't notice the difference in the dry, perhaps because I don't push it to a 45° lean angle. But it seems that there is a wide variation in bike tire stiction in the wet, wider than in the dry. I've experimented a bit, and find that my Tricomps will just hold while going slowly on wet, painted track banking. Other tires will not (ouch).
I think it's well established that slick tires are best, and that it's unwise to reduce tire pressures in the wet. For the physics of it, I ran across this website:
http://www.stevemunden.com/leanangle.html
What information and experience do you have?