Originally Posted by IanB
What Raiyn said is commonly suggested and is a nice theoretical argument, but who has done the practical experiments to prove it?
In fact, when motor vehicles like motorcycles and race cars run on slick tires, they use a very soft sticky compound to provide traction. If treadless bicycle tires are made from hard smooth rubber, the argument is rather weakened.
For instance, I rode with some Specialized Armadillos and found they had almost no traction on wet or sandy surfaces. I once rode a corner gingerly at walking pace on a wet patch of road and the bike went from under me before I even knew what was happening. Likewise, on sandy patches of hard paved trail the wheels felt very insecure.
Unless you are a hard core road racer, I think a little bit of tread on bicycle tires is a good thing.
Most decent road tires are not nearly as stiff on the casing as the 'dillo's. Those tires are made for boucoup flat protection and extra long wear. That was one of your problems. The another one is the 'dillo's have a harder durometer rubber compound than many road tires do.
There is no practical use or reason for tread on a road bicycle tire. It is mainly put on some tires for marketing, because many people are so used to seeing some kind of tread pattern on
any tire (car, bike, ox cart) that they think they'll tip over and die on a slick. That kind of thinking is naive'.
A bike tire is too narrow to hydroplane, and can't reach the speeds necessary for its size to hydroplane - so that's no reason. Pavement is much harder and immovable for a bike tire than say - dirt, sand, or trails for knobbies to dig into like a MTN tire does. A road tire with tread will only deform to one degree or another at the contact patch, and less rubber will be touching the pavement than the same tire with no tread pattern.
Period.