Tires Slick vs Semi-Slick

mifletz

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How would the performance, rolling resistance, longevity, puncture resistance, ride, wet and dry road adhesion and roller grip of a 26x2.1 Continental Town and Country

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compare to a totally slick 26x2 Schwalbe Kojak?

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I can not speak to those tires in particular. A lot more than tread type goes into wear and longevity. Generally speaking, all things being equal, tread only helps in the wet (and some people say at bike speeds, not even then) and in soft conditions. On a dry road, slicks will always stick better.
 
I used to work for Specialized and the subject of slick versus treaded always came up. During our testing of these tires (ours and competitors) the treaded tire did just a smidgeon better in the wet than the slick tire. The tiny contact patch of a bicycle tire means that if a bicycle tire is to do something like hydroplane, tread won't make that much difference. Now wear would have to do with the durometer of the rubber and how much of it is at the wear point...
Rolling resistance would also depend on what air pressure you're running. For ride I think that the larger the tire cross section, the more comfy the ride. Puncture resistance is a hard one. I wouldn't think it would make much difference.
 
From a rubber viewpoint, I would think that puncture resistance is diametrically opposed to traction. A soft, flexible rubber works better for traction, as it deforms to the road surface (bulges into small depressions, and the opposite over small bumps.) It 'grips' the road surface. A hard rubber would not do this as well.

However, a hard rubber would tend to deflect thorns and road debris better than a soft rubber - to better keep them from penetrating through into/through the tube.

I would think that all else being equal, a hard rubber would have lower rolling resistance than a soft rubber. (not deforming as much would mean less internal friction.) However, this also means that it would have a somewhat harsher ride.

The Town & Country would definitely have less high-speed cornering traction than the slick Kojak though. You have no tread over substantial portions of the outer portions of the T&C.

Also, if using a friction drive, the T&C has slightly more vibration than a slick tire. I had an Inova Swiftor on the rear of my Staton friction drive, and it had great traction, (including cornering,) NO vibration, and increased the top end by a couple of miles per hour. But, I locked up the rear wheel in an emergency stop from 25 mph one day (my old bike had coaster brakes on the rear,) and the road ate the soft rubber, right down to the fabric in the plys!

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As the postage to Israel is going to cost more than the tyre itself, I want to get the right one!

Is there going to be any better or worse perceptible difference between a tyre of width 1.9" and one of 2.2" in friction drive use?

What is your opinion of this 26x2.2 "DMR Transition"

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about which the blurb http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=11093
says:

One of the important features we wanted was a tougher sidewall so we are using a double ply lay-up in the tyre carcass to stiffen up the tyre & improve impact protection. The dense tread pattern is fast rolling with a round profile that wraps bead to bead adding further protection to the sidewall.

The tread height varies across the section giving loads of grip without ‘squirm’ on hard surfaces like concrete & wooden ramps etc, the full wrap pattern gives grip in places other tyres fear to tread!
 
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