Originally Posted by
Phamilton
I think that’s an interesting idea about wider rear, narrow front, equal pressure. I had just never thought about it.
FWIW, I don’t have decades of cycling experience but I tend to get more punctures with knobby/armored tires than slicks. I’ve never set out to understand why, I just stick to what works.
first off you'll tolerate a higher pressure (semi)slicks which are usually narrow too.
rear gets punctured more often than front (dunno if you had slicks front);
knobby are usually used offroad where goatheads etc. do nasty stuff;
knobby are more often ridden in mud and mud prevents stuff from being ejected from the tire - it stands to reason that on road a knobby tire would have the slippage disadvantage (rear is no big deal) but also keep less debris for it to have high chances to work into the tire;
there's tire pressure to be considered and some knobby tread pattern can get you choosing a lower pressure; lower pressured tires are punctured more easily because there's more surface and more mud kept etc.
by knobby i mean dimpled knobby being best. the dimples are thicker, the area between them press less on the ground.
i'm just saying that i don't mind having a knobby on the rear right now on the road and can tolerate it until i get a proper grooved tread WITH a puncture resistant tire having some good belt to resist debris going in.
schwalbe mondial would be the nicest thing
but there's no bigger size than 2" and they're not cheap so i'd rather pick the Big Apple 2.35. this gets slightly offtopic... any sugestion for a not so expensive tire (the G-One have low mileages and they aren't cheap) so that the puncture resistance would better than Big Apple's and also be available in 2.35 width? weight is one concern too, i'm not interested in Marathon Plus which are low quality anyway and i'd rather put some extra (cut) tube under the pressured one or a tire liner than use heavy and low quality kind like Marathon Plus.
the narrow enough 1.6" Dureme front is a given and i won't take it off unless it gets destroyed - worn out in about 5 years i guess.
the rear tire does not have to be knobby, i just tolerate it being low budget. 2" works and i'd have 2.35" but budget and unavailability of proper tires like Mondial in that size are factored in delaying the meh knobby (race kings) taken off.
the larger rear can tolerate a larger tire to rim width ratio, the front is critical to be able to stay put and not flex in turns.
front needs a not too low pressure to cut throuh water and mud. you should not ride at speed through sandy or muddy portions and when you see such thing hit the brakes so that you won't need to brake when you dig into it. a narrow tire is not to brake in such stuff, it's use being narrow is to allow a precise steering even in nasty stuff and you have to lower speed right after you see nasty ahead.
large tire in the front makes steering less agile so i'd rather say it's why certain motorcycles have a 40:60 ratio front to rear.