Bald, smooth... looks bloody scary !

Good evening .........

I've just received a pair of wheels and they are the most lovely thing. However ..... they have Specialized mondo tyres on. I appreciate they're probably as fast as but are they safe ?

My rubber has always had some kind of groove, which just makes them look grippy. Grippy gives confidence.

Any thoughts ? Will I be safe or will I wipe out on the first corner. Should I panic while riding if I see a grey cloud ?

Smooth=grippy.

Grooves are only good for water clearance, but that aint a problem with skinny bike tyres. You're not going to aquaplane!

If you like going through massive puddle, then groove three is idea!

I actually quite like these tyres, they should be fine in the wet. But the rubber is too soft for london roads - you'll be puncturing a lot.

I've used them. They came on my S-Works. They seemed fine during early 2008 (not the best weather) and I swapped them for Rubino Pros when they got a bit cut up. I still have one here in fact..

i thought this thread was about waxing, and frankly I'm disappointed.

I'll wax for you (southpark)timmy!(/southpark)

i just swallowed some vomit.

I'm on a roll tonight.. fat gags.. fisting.. midgets.. midget fisting.. waxing.. vomit.. it's fucking great in here.

and there's also the bike forum!

bike forum?

Ultremos smooth also. Grip like limpets.

someone has to post the sheldon article about grip and tires (think there is also an english version of the page)

This one?
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html

This one?
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html

cheers hippy, was just being lazy.

and for all the grammar/spelling whiz-kids try this one
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tyres.html

[grasp of the English language must be a common affliction of cycling nerds]

*From Sheldon
Bicycle tyres for on-road use have no need of any sort of tread features; in fact, the best road tyres are perfectly smooth, with no tread at all!** Unfortunately, most people assume that a smooth tyre will be slippery, so this type of tyre is difficult to sell to unsophisticated cyclists. Most tyre makers cater to this by putting a very fine pattern on their tyres, mainly for cosmetic and marketing reasons. If you examine a section of asphalt or concrete, you'll see that the texture of the road itself is much "knobbier" than the tread features of a good quality road tyre. Since the tyre is flexible, even a slick tyre deforms as it comes into contact with the pavement, acquiring the shape of the pavement texture, only while incontact with the road.*

• People ask, "But don't slick tyres get slippery on wet roads, or worse yet, wet metal features such as expansion joints, paint stripes, or railroad tracks?" The answer is, yes, they do. So do tyres with tread. All tyres are slippery in these conditions. Tread features make no improvement in this.*
  
  
  

I see I have fallen into "unsophisticated cyclists" category !

"when in doubt, quote Sheldon"

"when in doubt, quote Sheldon"

Was that a Sheldon quote?

siping is for losers