RMMJ

I just purchased a new bike (Scattante CFR Race) last night. I didn't notice until I was home that the tires are slicks (Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick, 700x23C). This has me worried. I'm concerned about skidding in a turn due to the lack of tread. I don't race, I ride for enjoyment/exercise, I like to ride fast, and I'm training for a century ride next month. Are these appropriate tires for a casual cyclist? Should I swap them out for tires with side tread?
Thanks,

Ron

grolby

The maximum possible traction on any hard surface comes from a smooth tread. Slicks are exactly the kind of tire you want.

Check out what they have on race cars (you know, F1, NASCAR, drag racing) and motorcycles (pretty much any motorcycle, street or racing) - do you see tread? No. Slicks are the best possible choice.

Nimitz87

^^^^ to add to that "in the dry"

other than that they should be fine.

Chad

zonatandem

They are just fine!
We ride 700x23 Maxxis Refuse tires (thread looks like ultra fine file) on our tandem.
Work just fine, but then we are older folks (77 and 75) and don't race any more.

RNAV

Those are excellent tires! The more rubber you have physically touching the road, the more tractive force your tires can exert (i.e. grip); therefore, lack of a tread pattern increases traction. That holds true only mostly under dry conditions only. The reason why car tires have tread is to give water a place to go so that the tires don't hydroplane.

With that in mind, be very careful taking turns when the pavement is wet (personally, I avoid riding in the rain for a number of reasons, this being one of them). If you do find yourself on wet pavement, DO NOT turn on painted surfaces (lane markings). You'll lose your bike from underneath you quicker than greased owl poo.

grolby

Incorrect. Slicks are best under all weather conditions. The only reason that slicks are poor choices in the wet on cars is hydroplaning, which is a non-issue on a bicycle.

grolby

And again, this is pure, unmitigated nonsense. ALL tires have poor traction on wet pavement, but slicks are better than any of the other options. Bicycles do not hydroplane.

EDIT: Sorry, I don't mean to be a jerk. This is a frustrating issue! I simply don't understand why this belief that slicks are poor wet-weather tires sticks around. Bicycles can't hydroplane, and hydroplaning is the only reason that we don't drive around with slicks on our cars.

RMMJ

Great! Thanks for the responses.

thompsonpost

Consequently, they also throw way more water than broken tread in the rain.

Keep SA Lame

Youtube TdF crash videos.

agarose2000

"treaded" road tires are only made because of incorrectly informed consumers who think it helps.

It helps a LOT on a mtn bike, but not on a road tire, where the road provides so much irregularity that the slicks are the best.

W Cole

Have you never ridden in the rain before? On asphault, I can lift the rear tire off the ground on a mountain bike in the wet and I can can come pretty close on a cyclocross bike. On a road bike with slicks if I so much as breathe wrong on the front brake I lose the front end.

I am not claiming to be an expert in wet-weather motorcycle, bicycle, or racecar tire design. But intuition tells me that even if you aren't hydroplaning having some tread would aid in removing the micro-layer of water between the tire and the road thus increasing traction.

W Cole

Do you ride or race motorcycles? ALL motorcycle street tires have tread, it is required by DOT. You would have to be a kook to ride a slick motorcycle tire on the road. Not only would it be impossible to get enough heat into, but if you hit any sort of water it would be game over.

tagaproject6

This is about as entertaining as the carbon fiber vs. aluminum vs. steel threads!

Chris_F

No need for that caveat. Bike tires are narrow enough and profiled enough to "cut through" water and not hydroplane. No need for tread in the wet.

Chris_F

Except ice. For that you're gonna want studs.

Then there's loose surfaces like snow and dirt, where you will want tread to help with surface cohesion. But if you aren't riding your road bike on ice, snow, or dirt you should be fine with slicks.

Chris_F

Something is wrong with your bike. That's not a slick tire issue.

A little tread between tire and road can sometimes help to concentrate pressure and force water from under the tire. But road bikes already have a very, very small contact patch. If you can't force water out from under a road bike tire you're going WAY too fast (like 100+ mph). The road pressure under that contact patch on your road bike is like 3x higher than it is under a car tire.

Chris_F

Actually I think those a cyclocross tires. The tread helps on the dirt.

chasm54

That's the trouble with intuition, it's so often wrong. The contact area of a bicycle tyre is too small to allow hydroplaning at speeds less than about 150mph. Slicks maximise the amount of adhesion because they put more rubber to the road in both wet and dry conditions. Have a look at the tyre manufacturers websites, they explain this very well. Obviously different considerations apply when riding on snow, ice, mud or gravel, where you want tread to bite into slick or loose surfaces. But it can't do that on the road and therefore reduces your grip rather than increases it.

springs

Assuming slicks provide more contact and hence more traction, does this mean slicks create more rolling resistance, other factors being equal?

chasm54

Good question, to which I don't know the answer. I suspect it is complicated, because it is the extent to which the tyre deforms as it meets the road that causes the rolling resistance, hence higher pressures - as a general rule - meaning less rolling resistance than lower pressures for the same tyre. Whether the deformation of a treaded tyre works differently I don't know. I do know that knobbly tyres are desperately slow on the road.

RNAV

Perhaps you missed this:
The OP was concerned that his tires didn't have tread. I said no tread is actually preferred (in essence, agreeing with you), and that the only reason CAR tires have tread is to prevent hydroplaning (in an attempt to assuage his fears by referencing the type of tires the vast majority of humans have had experience with). I didn't say that bicycles could hydroplane.

I stand behind my wet-weather riding advise that I gave the OP -- you can't ride the same in the wet as you do in the dry and expect to stay upright. I don't care who you are, or what you think: you will have less traction available for cornering in wet conditions compared to dry (regardless of slick or treaded tire). And in my experience, slicks are slicker on painted portions of the road than treaded tires are, in wet conditions.

chasm54

I don't think anyone would argue that you'll get the same grip in wet conditions as you would in dry. But a slick tyre does work better than treaded in both.

As for the painted sections, they can certainly be treacherous. I can't see why the same would not apply, though.

curbtender

So, throw tire pressure into the equation. Does a slick run better at max psi or adjusted to wet/dry conditions?

garysol1 

road tires with tread are designed by the tire companies marketing department. Many riders believe falsely that treaded tires work better in the rain so to appease these newbs they have created the grooved bike tire.