Someone else already mentioned that you don't really ride on the sides of the tires, as the bike remains perpendicular to the surface in the banked turns, but to do this at slower speed, your body is kept in a more upright position to compensate for balance (and so, the top of the bike is moved left of your body center when in turn). But I'm pretty much a newbie, and have only ridden track a few times.
At Detroit's Velodrome at Bloomer Park, in Rochester, a few of the long time regular guys told me that Continental Sprinters are a very good, yet reasonably inexpensive tire choice for the track. The Sprinter tread doesn't have any middle or special tread section ... it is just a series of tiny bumps on the tread, center, left and right, for traction. I rode them, and they felt very comfortable ... very grippy. I can detect no perceptible increase in wear on any one side of any of my pista bike tires, compared to the opposite sides. But again, I'm still new, and don't have a ton of miles in.
Ciao, Mark Agree Southfield MI USA ~ ~ ~
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:25:10 -0400 From: Bianca Pratorius <biankita@comcast.net> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Velodrome tire usage
It occurs to me now after just having committed to once a week sessions at the velodrome that the tires only get used up on the right side, not the center or left. This probably means that tires preferred at the velodrome would have sufficient rubber near the sidewall and might even have to be rotated side to side to give more even wear. Looking at a typical clincher or tubular that I have in my collection, it seems that the sidewall is thin and fragile and that an ideal tire for this purpose should look very different. Of what is available today, what are good candidates for something durable and grippy? Nothing shows up in the archive.
Garth Libre in Miami Florida USA
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