Tyres

[lostcarpark]

My mountain bike needs a new tyre, so I popped into the bike shop and asked for one.
"Slick or bumpy?" asked the man in the shop.
A rather odd question, I thought.

Apparently, the "bumpy" are the traditional mountain bike tyre, with big groves to give lots of grip off-road. However, "slick" tyres have more modest groves, causing less drag when riding on roads.

As the only time my bike goes "off road" is when I ride it across the lawn to put it in the shed, I decided to try the slicks.

If it works out well, I might go back for another one for the front.

Comments

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Steve, who let you on LiveJournal. I knew getting rid of invite codes would lower the tone of the place. :-)

I understand the physics, and I'm well aware that skinny racing tyres make less contact with the road, so they go faster (although they do have a tendancy to be too fragile for Irish roads). It's just I'd never given the specific tyres on my bike a lot of thought, or considered whether I could get more suitable ones for road use. I imagine that most people buy a bike to ride and don't about these things. Manufacturers really ought to make the road tyre the default, since I expect the vast majority of "mountain bikes" don't go off-road apart from the odd short-cut across the football field.

I changed the inner tube recently (after nine patches, I think it was time for a new one), and noticed the tyre was rather worn. I probably ought to change the front tyre too, especially since it too is bumpy.

I do have a suspicion that it ought to be possible to design a tyre which minimises surface contact on a straight road, but with chunky bits on the side that bite in on softer ground. Hmmm must give that further thought.

What tyre pressure would you recommend?