Originally Posted by
Velo Dog
What do you plan to do on the bike? Tires make a huge difference--i did my first metric century, 20 years ago, on a mountain bike with road tires, because that's what i had. i've also used my atlantis on dirt and gravel with 'cross tires, and it was surprisingly competent.
if you're happy with the performance of the tires you have, look for something that resembles them. if you do most of your mileage on pavement, you may be happier with less tread. why not go to a bike shop and look at what they have? by the time you factor in shipping, the price may come out close to the Internet, and you can ride the tires that day.
FWiW, I've probably had five or six different road tires on my 20-year-old Bridgestone mountain bike. They were all way better than knobbies, but none really stood out as better than the others.
I used my bicycle MAINLY on pavement, although I do occasionally get the urge to hit a trail or too. I like having knobby tires because not all pavement is clean, and having large tread blocks helps in sand and water. Also, the larger the tread blocks, the farther the main body of the tire is kept from road debris: making it more puncture resistant.
Trust me, I love the grip that the nice slicks on my roadbike give me, but when you factor in frequent puncture repairs (Almost always the back tire, which takes the most work to fix...), it's not really worth it to by a slick. That's why I like this tire's wide center tread. It's a nice compromise between traction and protection. it just rolls over most glass and metal pieces (That I'm not able to avoid) and the times that it DOES get in the tire, it's almost always gets stuck in a treadblock.