Winter cyclist commuters , cx or slick tyres?

For greasy and icy roads, which perfoms better, slight knobbles or grooved slicks (both 35mm)? Thinking more about grip than rolling resistance

Neither IME 🙁

Edit – knobbles prob sl better except for ice – nothing is good on ice!

Slicks,more rubber contact.

i prefer slicks. compound must have a lot to do with it though.

I find my small block 8 CX’s alot grippier than my Schwalbe marathons, softer compound may help alot.

On the road fat slicks

Maxxis Raze rolls well and was v good in the snow and ice last year 35mm only though us them on the cross bike for everything including racing.

The road grips the tyre, not the other way around. So slicks unless you are expecting something like snow or mud to be between you and the road. The tread on road tyres doesn’t aid grip, it’s just a wear indicator and something to help on tyre look different to another

Niether of those option ill be any good on ice – don’t steer, don’t brake, don’t pedal and you might just get over that icy patch.

1.5 slicks for me at all time except when it snows then the ice tyres 🙂

I’d use something soft myself. My commuter will be getting some proper knobbly tyres fitted once it starts getting icy on a regular basis but then my commute has quite a lot of offroad in it.

as maccruiskeen

I had some Specialized Borough tyres – grippy and I never had a puncture with them.

http://www.specialized.com/gb/gb/bc/SBCEqProduct.jsp?spid=61746

+1 for the Specialized Boroughs, a lot of rubber on the tarmac when you’re just on the road but a bit of grip for sludgier stuff. As above though, if it’s icy none of them are much cop unless they have spikes.

Oops – I meant knobbles bit better on grease not ice 😉

Neither are any use in ice – so, slicks, but what you want is the Continental Top Contact Winter II. Though they’re about £90 a pair.

Spikes on ice, slicks everywhere else … unless the roads are covered in a few inches of sloppy slurry, in which case cx knobble innit?

+1 for the above re tyres on road ice. Not a big fan of riding on ice, Mrs K broke a wrist and smashed her face on ice riding a heavily treaded hybrid on the road a few years ago and one of the worst injuries in our club in recent years was a guy who chanced it that the roads wouldn’t be icy, sunny where he lived – broken hip, not a killer but a major injury for him.

If you want to read about how potentialy serious an injury in the hip area can be start at page 4 post no78 on this thread;

http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=53301&st=60

P.S I would add I’m off the bike with a jipped back for the last few weeks so have turned into a right miserable pessimist at present.

Cheers, will dig the slicks out

anotherdeadhero – Member
Spikes on ice, slicks everywhere else … unless the roads are covered in a few inches of sloppy slurry, in which case cx knobble innit?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I’m just back from bedding in the spikes on my Marathon Winters (700×35). Bluddy noisy!

25mm slicks all year round for my Manchester road commute, I can only think of 3 days last year in the snow when I had to get the mtb out.

knobbles prob sl better

On mud yes not on the road.

A combination of 2.35″ Big Apple & Super Moto 29er tyres for me. Ace slicks that give a magic carpet ride. Pretty grippy too and roll well. I can plough through all the potholes with no problems. 🙂

I’ve got some Spesh Borough 700×42 as well but much prefer the big volume tyres instead.

but what you want is the Continental Top Contact Winter II. Though they’re about £90 a pair.

Tempted to try a pair of those on the cross bike for commuting on dodgy winter days. Would use studded tyres but they’re a bit of a drag on a 90km round trip.

schwalbe landcruisers on my cx for everything but racing

Tempted to try a pair of those on the cross bike for commuting on dodgy winter days.

Yeah, same here, for similar commute. Not sure I can find £90 for rubber having just spunked for some new lights, though 🙂

Not sure I can find £90 for rubber having just spunked for some new lights, though

I may be able to get them a little bit cheaper than that although Madison are out of stock until December :-/

Duranos all year round have served me well. Tough and used on both 520 and 700c sizes. Slicks make me ride more itelligently in the wet too, off-road ones instill a false confidence. Seem to remember some Tricross riders on a forum complaining about Boroughs. After I got 3 punctures in 3 rides on mine I swapped to Travel Contact and never had another problem.

Madison are out of stock until December

Yeah, looking at some places I looked at a week or two ago, it seems there’s been a rush…