View Single Post
Old 08-05-09, 12:17 AM
  #12  
Andy_K 
Senior Member
 
Andy_K's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Beaverton, OR
Posts: 14,787

Bikes: Yes

Mentioned: 522 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3228 Post(s)
Liked 3,851 Times in 1,436 Posts
Originally Posted by curbtender
Andy has good suggestions, but I think what will help most is going to a thinner slick then what comes on the mountain bikes. The Gothem is good, but I'd go even thinner, maybe 1.5 on the thickness for a road commute.
You know, I'm not so sure thinner is necessarily better. I've put some two inch wide Marathon Supremes on my rain bike this spring, and that thing'll move. In fact, I think it's faster than it was with 1.6" wide Conti Town Rides. I think the main thing is getting rid of the knobs (which neither of the tires I just mentioned have).

Someone here recently linked to a technical article which showed that all other things being equal wider tires generally have lower rolling resistance that thinner ones of the same type. The thing that thinner tires have going for them is a better aerodynamic profile, but I'm not sure that really comes into play much at the speeds most commuters are usually going.
Andy_K is offline