Carbon black is added to rubber compounds to improve strength, this is what makes the tread black. A colored tread without the added strength from the carbon black typically means the rubber needs to be harder, which is not good for traction. These days silica is sometimes used in tire tread compounds to take the place of carbon black . With silica (white in color) modern tires can be strong and come in various colors. The performance of a compound can be tailored towards improved traction on wet roads, today this will not have much to do with the color. I do know that these orange tires back in the 1970's had poor wet traction, not very good for racing in Oregon! I was told that they were made for hot weather, the light color reflected sunlight keeping the pressure from building. Not sure how effective this is, but expect more flats and poor wet traction with these old colored tires. New colored tires work fine if done correctly.
Jim Merz Big Sur CA
On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 5:21 AM, Barb and Dan Artley <hydelake@verizon.net>wrote:
> Back in the seventies when I had a set of the orange Vittoria's on my
> Woodrup, I'd been told that they were a special dry weather tread and that
> the red Clement's were also. Was there any truth to that?
>
> Regards,
>
> Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland