Originally Posted by
FBinNY
There is plenty of documentation for why road bike tires don't need tread, and we've done fine without for a century or so.
No, there is not, which is why so many bike tires have tread.
Bicycle tires are essentially different from car tires in an important way. See what Sheldon Brown had to say about this.
No, they are not, and the venerable Mr Brown is wrong on that topic, of which we have video evidence.
Bicycle tires are subject to the same physical laws as automobile tires, and there is nothing about them which changes the fact that water is incompressible and once the vehicle reaches a speed that exceeds the tire's pumping threshold, the tire will hydroplane.
The only difference is that bicycles generally lack the horsepower to achieve that speed, unless gravity-aided.