Originally Posted by
mjoekingz28
Happy Feet that Ciudad Juarez tire looks like a car tire. Is it just the angle of the camera or something or is it not round at all?
It's more like a fat horizontal D. It's quite nice for what it does but the tread is pretty minimal and I think it is wearing too fast under load for the price. On a road tour they work fine but I think extended gravel would play havoc with them. For comparison it was $30CAD compared to a Marathon that was $50CAD.
Originally Posted by
MassiveD
I'm not convinced that going down in a corner on the pavement is something knobs or even cuts are going to stop. You don't get the chance to run it both ways. Basically they would be worse unless your tire cut through whatever was there and got a bite on pavement. If it was ice or oil that isn't going to happen, nor can you get a grip on fine sands and silts that accumulate at corners by running knobs. Anyway, most cyclist in the road, or on tour are not laying her over on the edge of the tire, and there are not many situations where doing that in circumstances were deep treads were the answer would see you sticking on the road. You would either need serious camber, or a material just soft enough for the tread to grip, but not so soft it tears out.
I dunno? All I know is I ride and commute in the rain a lot and found slicks and 700c skinnies to be sketchy on the corners. I started using slight treads running up the sidewall a bit and feel more secure. My take is that it prevents initial hydroplaning that skips the tire out which creates further instability. I don't like knobbies for anything road or gravel though. I also see some hybrid tires that have knobs on the side and a wider minor tread in the middle but I think those create too much forward friction and the sidewall is too aggressive. For non summer use I like a strong center bead with a mild sidewall tread which doesn't affect forward momentum. Just my opinion/experience YMMV.