tyres for commuting
 

I commute 12 miles a day on the road on a hybrid bike with 700x37 tyres.

Last Thursday I fell off my bike on some ice and got hit by the car that was following me. I'm ok, a bit battered, some trouble with my knee and a dislocated finger but got off lightly considering.

The tyres are quite worn and I'm picking up quite a few punctures so it's time for a new set and I have a couple of questions.

Could worn tyres have contributed to my lack of grip on the ice? I've cycled that route every day for about 3 years and never slipped on ice there before. I'm a bit nervous about going back out on that stretch and hope new tyres will give me some confidence.

Are there any specific tyres that are good for potential ice and for good puncture resistance. I do about 3-4000 miles a year.

many thanks,
Steve

Worn tires (tyres) are not necessarily the culprit. Only a studded tire (tyre) is truly going to give you some additional grip on ice. Bicycle tires have such a small contact patch that tread patterns are of no sigificant value on road surfaces whether they are icy or not.

If you do significant riding in icy conditions you may want to consider a set of studded tires to get you through the winter.

The only tires which will help you gain traction on ice are spiked/studded tires. For a 37mm width and less agressive tread for the road, you can find the Schwalbe Marathon Winter. It's a reasonable road tread, but will be noisy with its 200+ carbide studs. For less studs (74 total) and easier rolling on the street, the Nokian A10 comes in a 32 or a 40mm width.

For UK where temp only rarely goes below freezing, studded tires are not worth the cost. Just use extreme caution on those occasions. Traction of rubber compound varies - try Schwalbe Marathon Winter.

This was my initial thought, but since I've never been, I didn't want to make too many conclusions.

Marathon Winter tires are studded, so again, they may not fill the bill. Schwalbe's "stickiest" tire/tyre in this size would be the Marathon Supreme.

Ice is slippery no matter the non-studded tire. I ride over metal grates often and avoid treads that have deep angled sections like the Continentals or regular Marathons because it makes the front wheel jerk around. Basically you need new tires with a bit of puncture resistance. Pasela T-serve or Pasela TG are good, Vittoria randonneur Pro are very nice riding tires. Schwalbe Supreme is nice and stupid expensive.

"stupid expensive"

Ouch. Please, could you just say expensive? I mean they are expensive, no arguments there, but all sorts of people like them.

Guy/Kojak, " Stupid expensive" simply means paying a LOT more for incremental improvements. Don't take it personal , I've bought $500 of Scwhalbe tires in the last two years, how many have you bought at retail for your personal use?

My response was mostly tongue in cheek. I've gotten so numb to the price of all things cycling that it takes a statement like that to bring me back to reality.

I bought two sets of Ultremo tires about 6 months before I started working here, so that was roughly $280 for 4 tires (late summer of 2008). Since then I do get to buy my tires at a very good price (a little below wholesale). Given the pay cut I had to take to work in the cycling industry, it's a small consolation. I've got a cutoff date set for myself for the move to this industry to pay off in some manner, at which point I may have to get back to the real (corporate) world. So many tradeoffs in life.

No doubt this is true, so can you tell me why bike tyre manufacturers continue to put tread on road tyres? All the tread does is make them wear out quicker, perhaps increase rolling resistance and maybe even compromise fast cornering grip.

At Interbike, I posed that very question to the person who is in charge of pretty much every tire that comes out of the Schwalbe factory, and his response was much the same as that provided by Sheldon Brown:

"Unfortunately, most people assume that a smooth tire will be slippery, so this type of tire is difficult to sell to unsophisticated cyclists. Most tire makers cater to this by putting a very fine pattern on their tires, mainly for cosmetic and marketing reasons." SB

I asked this question because I was puzzled by the tread pattern that had been designed into our road racing rain tire (Ultremo Aqua). Surely I thought if there ever were a "sophisticated" segment of the market, this would be it, and no tread pattern would be introduced to a tire that surely should not have one. The same logic was given. So, all I can do is buy my slick Ultremo tires and hope that some day we'll all be able to reconcile what we know with what is offerred in the marketplace.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=134920

I have been using my Bike Friday with both tires mentioned here quite a bit lately,

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=134921

The one on the front being a Marathon Winter, and on the back, a Marathon Supreme.

I'd certainly recommend the Winter if you are experiencing full ice, the Supreme is fine if the road is wet, but it will *definitely* not save you from full sheets of ice at all. I nearly had a spill the other night when I found that the road beneath was nothing but a smooth sheet for 10 metres solid up ahead. The supreme broke loose and I almost ended up on the ground, only saved by the screws in my boots and the grip provided by the Marathon Winter on the front of the bike.

I would like to note though, that this combination worked very well up until this point: I've been riding around on the ice slicked streets of Edmonton for a while now, and did not feel like I had no control until this patch of practical skating rink came into the picture. One winter tire on the front has been sufficient for most other situations, and Edmonton is a fairly brutal city for winter riding conditions. In areas where there was snow with little bits of ice underneath, the setup worked well, as did situations where the ice was just patchy and not great enough to allow the rear wheel enough time to really break free. It took a true patch of pure ice to mess things up, but it messed things up spectacularly.

I've got another marathon winter coming in the mail, unfortunately the 20x1.6 size has been hard enough to get a hold of that only one was available locally -_-

If you have real ice on your commute, and not just a little coaster sized patch here or there, i'd recommend saving yourself from another accident and simply purchasing spiked tires. It's not worth your health to toy around and fret over a little efficiency.

Great advice guys (meant in the non gender specific way). We don't really get icy roads here, more like small patches of ice on generally ok roads. I do go down a couple of unused roads which are more likely to be iced up.

After reading this write up http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/sh...ad.php?t=51629 I'm thinking I might order some of those winter tyres and a rear rack and fit them to my mountain bike the for the winter commute.

I'm in London, UK and I just bought a set of Marathon Winter tyres, 35mm. Decent tyres, held up well during the snow! Am running them all winter just incase any ice shows up - not much penalty for doing this, also when you change tyres you are much faster!

Otherwise I run armadillo tyres the rest of the year - excellent tyres, almost bombproof and decent grip. Only thing I'd say is heavy and harsh ride, but if you don't want to fix punctures...

I think I may switch to "normal" tyres when these armadillos are worn out just to see what they are like, but if I end up getting loads of punctures then I'm going back!

I declared our ice season done and switched back to marathon supremes from nokian a10s. I am amazed at how much grippier the supremes are than the a10s in *non-ice* situations. I can brake on wet thermoplastic street markings and not lose traction. Might look to marathon winters for next year after all (twice the price, but less than ER deductible...).

I use CST Selecta 700x38C which have kevlar puncture protection, but am thinking of putting on CST Cross 700x42C which have meatier sides for gripping but no puncture protection

I heard about England getting ice and that you guys are not used to it. I would suggest for the rest of the icy months that you use studded touring tires. then later get something a little narrower. these are the 2 tires I'm using, good luck with you choices and with your recovery.

Schwalbe Marathon Winter Studded Tire 700 x 35

http://www.bicycletires.com/pscoi8/s...00_x_35/pp.htm

Specialized All-Condition Armadillo Tire (700c) I use 700 x 28C

http://actionwheels.com/product/spec...0c-50157-1.htm

Yeah it is getting rather icy over here. For me it isn't about not being used to it, but the fact that you don't know where you will encounter black ice. I use the same tyres you do, although I use the 700x23C and also use specialized nimbus 700x35C. Both are good tyres :)

I have a feeling that we are going to see a bit more snow this year so I am glad I got my marathon winters. If you want them then try getting them from Germany (bike24.com, hibike.com or bike-components.de) the prices are MUCH better than the UK for almost all components, and most places in the UK don't sell studded tyres.

but wait - you mean you went down even with studded tires?