Road Bike Slicks In Rain

Bike tires are treaded to grab on customers rather than the road.

Road bike slicks in rain. The main difference with a wet race car tyre is the compound and obviously they have grooves to stop aquaplaning at high speed. On earth mud gravel sand roots. In all jurisdictions that i am aware of it is illegal. Made for mostly smooth surfaces and some off road riding these feature a smooth center for fast rolling along with aggressive side treads to help with cornering.

In this post we ll cover the benefits of a tread free tire address the common concerns and hopefully get you rolling even faster than before. For years race car drivers have known that slick tires offer the most grip best performance and fastest times. The reason it is illegal is because it is quite unsafe. Whether you are riding in a sportive a club ride.

Try to avoid puddles painted lines and the tell tale rainbow of oil slicks and you should be fine. I ve driven racing cars on slicks race karts on slicks and race bikes on slicks if you can ever call a bike tyre a slick. If you go to a race day at a track you ll probably see something like this. Now sixty years after those first slicks rolled onto the drag strip bicycle tires are finally coming around.

When i started riding the road bike last year i couldnt trust the 23 c slick tyres and took it very easy around bends wet or dry. I haven t used slicks on a mountain bike in ages but i use continental grand prix 4000s on my road bike. Has been that slicks are wonderful on clean pavement. My road bike has michelin pro 3s on it and i.

Don t let the rain stop you riding your road bike. You ll still get plenty of gears for most road riding but you won t have quite enough high gears for when the speeds gets very fast like 26 mph to 30 mph or faster. But contrary to popular belief on the road whether it is concrete tarmac or asphalt treads will do nothing except offer a slightly slower ride and at the same time less grip on the surface. Now after a couple of thousand miles i feel safer on the road bike than the hybrid with wider treaded tyres.

Many gravel bikes these days have a 1x single chainring set up in the front. If you are a road bike racer then a gravel bike probably won t work as your primary bike. Feature a barely there tread pattern for unhindered rolling speed on smooth surfaces like asphalt. Those aren t fancy wheel wraps to placate a spons.

Rain washes the oil over the road making the pavement. My commuter has a specialized armadillo on the front and a michelin city on the back. They make a few of their road tires available in 26 sizes although i don t know if they go as wide as 1 5. Obviously different tread patterns will perform differently off road that is.