How many of you remember the Avocet tires of varying widths that were
smooth?
Remember all the ads they had and proof of how no tread was actually safer
when wet because the smooth tire squeezed the wet out/away when riding and
cornering, making them less prone to slide/skid?
Just a little trip back down the wet brick road.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
Califonia, USA
> The conversation has veered from tread directionality, and is beginning to
> lose contact with Vintage bikes...
>
> May I offer a closing observation or two?
>
> First, I don't remember seeing (many, if any) treadless tires Back Then. I
> wasn't in the Biz, and not often in the hotbeds of activity, but to me a
> vintage bike looks more normal with some tread. But, that's aesthetics,
> not performance.
>
> Second, on the road (leaving out dirt, etc) there is a common sense
> argument about smooth v. tread, on bike v. car, that I haven't seen here:
> If you get down to the road level and look hard at the "texture" or
> average protrusion size on the tread and the road surface, whether
> concrete or asphalt, I think you'll agree that by far the bigger
> protrusions, holes, and channels are in the road itself, much larger than
> those on a bike tire. Bike tire typically has pattern with scale of 1 mm;
> car tire and road surface much larger. So, bike tire surface doesn't seem
> to have much dynamic opportunity to shed water except to the sides. Ergo,
> it doesn't seem that tread would matter on road surfaces.
>
> But, wait! The most recent wipe-out I had was with a slick tire on wet
> leaves. I'm not sure that the same arguments apply in this situation.
>
> We return you now to our regularly scheduled programming; that slick tire
> has moved from wheel to shelf, unlikely to see service again.
>
> harvey sachs
> mcLean va usa