I understand that this is a self-defeating exercise but I'd appreciate some input from you guys:
I use my gravel bike also for commuting to work. My commute is 80% tarmac, 20% separate bicycle paths (concrete). Over here, winters are typically wet, with usually one month of freezing temperatures and snow. Mostly it hovers just around freezing. Now, on the bicycle paths, a lot of dead leaves accumulate and these are ridden into mush. A very slippery mush at that because they're lying on hard concrete.
What tire do you use in cold/wet/slippery conditions? I'm looking for ideas about a sensible middle ground between speed and traction, especially on those damned leaves. The accident of a colleague who slipped, fell and broke some ribs + a leg last year gave me some pause especially since he fell when riding to work at 4 AM (irregular hours) and could very easily have gone into hypothermia as hardly anyone passes the spot where it happened, even in daytime.
Last year I tried WTB resolutes but found them too draggy and noisy. Otoh keeping my slicks on the bike is also a definite no go.
Both Schwalbe and Continental make dedicated winter tires, some with studs. These are touring tires with low temperature compounds so they're probably heavy, slow, wear quickly, and not suitable for warm days.
If you don't want a winter tire then a good mud tire might be OK on those wet leaves. Maybe the Pirelli Gravel M or Tufo Swampero?
Either way be careful out there! That was a scary story.
Slick sloppy on top of concrete is like trying to grip ice. I'm not even sure a metal studded tyre is gonna be much help, as they won't dig into concrete the way they would ice. You're probably looking at slowing down, and getting as much soft rubber on the road as possible to try to find grip in between the leaves.
In Minneapolis most of us year round commuters are on studs a few months out of the year. 45nrth is my current fav. Gravdals might be overkill but you can always remove some studs to make them feel a bit more normal and not velcro-ey. Fully studded they'll make you long for Resolutes and the only time you can shut them up is if you intentionally ride on ice.
barturtle wrote:Slick sloppy on top of concrete is like trying to grip ice. I'm not even sure a metal studded tyre is gonna be much help, as they won't dig into concrete the way they would ice. You're probably looking at slowing down, and getting as much soft rubber on the road as possible to try to find grip in between the leaves.
Yeah, I was hoping for a magic bullet but I guess the above is probably the bottom line. 8 months a year the concrete paths are a beautiful solution but they pass through woods and are never swept or cleaned so come autumn, lots of bike traffic, some rain....you can imagine.
I'd prefer it if I could simply ride pure gravel to work in autumn/winter but regrettably that's just not possible. The one 'pure tarmac' alternative is way too dangerous on a bicycle. A lot also depends on the weather here during winter, you never know. I've ridden at -10 centigrade (14 F) in bone dry conditions wearing a balaclava and goggles over -5 with snow to 14° and pouring rain. Right now it's supposed to be about 8 centigrade during daytime but it's 22, hottest October 30 in recorded history. Thanks guys. Might check out the Tufo's, have heard good things about them. I'm off WTB for a bit after finding out (after removal) that both tires had developed enormous 'blisters' on the inner side. All sealant had coagulated in those, must have been a manufacturing issue.
