Frederiksen

Multiple questions in this post.

1. Looking to put some Michelin Wild Run'rs on my 26 in mountain bike and I've seen people talking about how glass can easily puncture them. I would say I do about half of my riding on sidewalks and road shoulders and there are sometimes specks of glass I ride over. Would those be bad? Or are they talking about shards of glass?

2. Sometimes the sidewalks I ride can be a bit bumpy. Would that be bad for the tire? I know that choosing thinner tires makes the ride bumpier, but idk if its bad for the tires.

3.Also I'm open to tire recommendations if you think I should get a different tire. Budget of 50-60 dollars. I just picked these because I like the look, they're relatively cheap, and apparently the rolling resistance is pretty low.

Elvo

Looks like it has to do with your roads. I'd recommend going tubeless and running lower psi which will eliminate your puncture risk and make your ride more comfortable.

JanMM

I used Wild Run'r 26x1.4 for a year on my commuter bike. (suburban/urban/suburban, spring - fall). Performed well - don't remember any flats but the surfaces did end up with quite a few cuts over about 1200 miles. Zero surface cuts on the a pair of Panaracer T-Serv 26x1.25 tires I've used for a 1000+ miles of suburban/rural riding.

Do I care about the looks of tires that I use? Not so much.

Frederiksen

Thanks for your reply. I would go tubeless but I just want to buy a tire that will fit onto my wheel without any modifications right now.

greatscott

No, actually a tire with deep lugs or tire pattern, also known as sipes, can capture the glass inside those grooves and hold it into the tire where it will eventually make it's way into the tire after so many revolutions, whereas with a smooth tire the glass most of time will fly off.

So if most of your riding is going to be on paved or hard gravel or hard dirt a smooth tire is just fine, it's the loose stuff, or trying to climb a steep dirt or gravel or grass grade will make the smooth tires spin and thus lose speed. When 23c tires were all the rage, I rode them all the time on grass, dirt, gravel, etc and never had a problem, even hard dirt climbing a grade they were fine.

tyrion

Agree with GreatScott above. Slicks tend to puncture less because they don't "grab" glass and nails and stuff.

I think I tires don't usually puncture on first roll over of the offending object, the object sticks and gets pounded in as the tire rolls over it many times. That's why tire wipers are effective.

Frederiksen

Thanks for your reply. That's good to hear that you were able to ride them for that much distance without any flats. Did you ride on any sidewalks? How was the ride quality? Also, when I get them can I still go over bumps and down curbs as fast as I used to with knobby tires? I've never ridden anything other than knobby tires so I don't really know how I should change my riding habits when I switch to a tire like this.

Frederiksen

Thanks guys that actually makes a lot of sense. Glad to know I can still pass pedestrians on the grass lol. I also had no idea tire wipers were a thing until trion mentioned them.

Ironfish653

Ride quality has more to do with the size and construction of the tires, as it does with the tread pattern. Smooth treads roll faster than knobbies, but lighter, more supple casings typically ride ‘smoother’ than heavier, thicker tires, regardless of tread style.

A tire like WTB ‘ThickSlick’ is a totally slick tire, but it has very thick rubber on it, compared to, say, a Conti GrandPrix. That heavier casing will typically be harder to puncture than a thinner, more supple tire, even though they are both treadless ‘slicks’

As far as taking bumps and curbs, you will want to keep to a higher volume tire, like a 1.75”-1.95” or at minimum, a 1.5” to help protect your wheels. I actually like the Maxxis DTH, which is a 2.1” BMX tire, on my commuter bike, since I ride on a mix of pavement and unpaved surfaces, and I tend to view curb jumping as a useful urban skill.

How often you get flats are dependent on a lot of factors; some of which are environmental, and some are just luck. I get maybe 1-2 a year, between the bikes I regularly ride, so puncture resistance is not a high priority in my choice of tires. YMMV

JanMM

Seldom ride on sidewalks. Generally 1.4" tires can't be ridden over bumps, curbs, etc fast, compared to fatter tires, whether they are knobby or smooth. What size tires have you been riding? I don't ride over curbs and avoid rough stuff but my current 1.25" tires do well enough on pavement, even if it is a but rough at times. I ride recumbent bikes, so I'm not going off road or jumping curbs.

cyccommute 

I don’t agree. Having tread doesn’t lead to more flats nor does not having tread lead to more flats. Glass isn’t more likely to get trapped in tread than smooth tires nor are smooth tires less likely to have the glass embedded in the tire leading to a flat.

Punctures are random events and there is little you can do to avoid them. You can put a sealant in the tire...either tubeless or tubed...but those only seal the holes after they have occurred. There isn’t anything you can do to prevent the punctures. Nor will higher pressure, lower pressure, smooth tread, knobbed tread, etc keep a puncture from occurring. The sure fire way that will prevent flats is to just not ride. But then bicycles become art objects.

Climbing on loose surfaces is only part of the problem. Cornering on loose surfaces are more of a problem. If the tire fails to grip on a climb, the bike is moving slowly and losing grip is more of an annoyance than a problem. You might come to a stop or slow down. But if the tire loses grip on a corner, you are likely to come to a much more abrupt stop involving using parts of your body as your braking system. That’s seldom a good outcome.

cyccommute 

Sorry but I don’t agree (again). A 1.4” tire is a 35mm tire and is a reasonable width. You can’t just finesselessly slam into bumps, curbs, potholes, etc. You can’t even do that with a 2” or even wider tire. It’s a recipe for damaged wheels.

On the other hand, if you use some finesse and unload the wheel before impact, a 19mm (3/4”) can be ridden at speed over bumps and curbs. It’s not about the tire, it’s about the way it’s ridden. Finessing is harder with a recumbent, of course.

Amazingly, I agree. Yes, smooth tires roll faster than knobbies until you hit the point where knobs are needed. Then smooth tires may be able to roll faster but they can’t handle the conditions and have to be ridden slower. A higher thread count (threads per inch or TPI) casing will make any tire roll faster. 30 TPI tires are cheap but roll very poorly. 120 TPI tires roll very nice with or without tread but they are very expensive.

I hop and drop curbs all the time on every bike I own. My tires range from 25mm on my go fast bike to 57mm (2.2”) on my dual suspension bike. I use more finesse when I go off a curb with the 25mm...I let the suspension do it’s job with that bike...but I use the same finesse when I go up a curb. I hop my front wheel up the curb and lift the rear with my feet. I bent a rim long ago because I didn’t lift the rear wheel. It’s the only rim I’ve ever bent that way but I haven’t stopped jumping curbs.

Frederiksen

Thanks for your reply. I've been riding 2.1 knobby tires. I can avoid going down curbs but there are some bumps in the sidewalk that I can't avoid. If I go for a ride today I'll take a pic of a bump and put it here.
What makes them unable to go down curbs and over bumps fast? Is it because there is less air/cushioning which makes it harder on the rim? Would the suspension forks on my bike help with that?

cyccommute 

The thing that makes bike wheels unable to handle curbs and bumps fast isn’t part of the bike. The thing that makes wheels unable to handle those situations sits on top of the bike. If you sit on the bike like a sack of potatoes and let the bike slam into every bump with your full weight, no tire is going to save your wheels. While a front suspension helps a little, the real® suspension system on the bike will go a lot further. That real® suspension is your legs and arms. And it has far more range of motion and impact absorption than even the longest travel bicycle suspension.

When you hit a bump with your weight off the saddle by being held up by your arms and legs, the center of gravity of the bike...you...floats over the bump and the bike can rise and fall as it needs to to avoid the wheel slamming into the bump with the full force of you and the bike. Get up off the saddle, put your feet parallel to the ground, crouch over the bike and let the bike rise up over the bump. If you ride lightly in the saddle...hover over it rather than sit on the saddle...any bike can take impacts better.

The reason that narrower tires have a problem with bumps is because of the volume of the air cushion. There’s less volume and, thus, less distance between the impact and the rim. The tire compresses when you hit a bump and if there isn’t enough volume, the wheel can bottom out which results in a bent rim.

There are actually two ways to approach this. One is to use a wider tire but even that isn’t foolproof. The other way to approach it is to run counter to the current fashion...put more air in the tire. The more air in the tire, the harder it is to compress and the more time you have between impact and the tire bottoming out. Everyone out there wants a nice cushy ride so they run lower pressure but the trade-off is that you risk rim damage. Even wide tires run at low pressure are susceptible to rim damage if you slam into obstacles.

So the question to ask is: Do you want a cushy ride or do you want to replace wheels? One causes you a little but of discomfort. The other empties your wallet. This wheel, for example, Untitled by Stuart Black, on Flickr

came into my co-op a year ago. It’s a $600 wheel that seems relatively new. It was completely ruined because the owner ran low pressure in a high impact situation. With a bit more pressure in the tire...enough to prevent bottoming out...the rim never would have been damaged.

So make your choice.

Frederiksen

Thanks for your replies. I wanted to respond earlier today but I'm apparently limited at 5 posts every 24 hours.

So are you saying that I could get a meatier tire with like 50 tpi and it could be just as fast? I found these tires from reading a post abt the Schwalbe City Jets and people were saying that these are faster. Does that mean that these tires being thinner and full slicks outweighs the fact that have 20 less TPI than the city jets? Damn, picking tires is hard.

As for going over bumps, is the rim bottoming out really the only way to damage anything? Normally when I feel my tires after pumping them up (55 PSI) they feel very hard and I think it would be very hard to compress them all the way to the rim. Thanks for the advice on how to take bumps. I always get out of the saddle when I feel that it is going to be a significant bump, but I didn't know about crouching over the bike. From what I read, higher PSI decreases your contact patch with the ground which increases your speed so that was my plan anyways. I don't mind a bit of a bumpier ride if it's going to make me faster and save me money.

cyccommute 

The lower the TPI, the stiffer the tire. The higher the TPI, the more supple the tire. Stiff, low TPI tires tend to hit road imperfections and bounce off which is what causes the increase in rolling resistance. High TPI tires roll over road imperfections without the bounce. The result is a faster ride. A wider tire has a bit more flex in the sidewall among other differences between the way that the tire interacts with the road.

Any tire with less than 30 TPI is a stiff (and fairly heavy) tire. They won’t give a very good ride. 60 TPI is in the middle of the road but is still provides a rather bad ride. 120 TPI tires are getting into nice ride territory. It’s almost always better to have higher TPI (usually >60) in any tire no matter what the width.

Yes, the rim bottoming out is about the only way to damage the wheels. The dynamics of wheels are complex but the rim floats on the spokes. If you bottom out on the rim, the rim deflects upward but the spokes don’t really experience the impact. They are detensioned but they don’t really bend, The cycle of detensioning and tensioning of the spokes will eventually fatigue the spoke and cause it to break. That’s a long term problem where impacts are short term problems.

As to rolling resistance, increasing the pressure reduces rolling resistance for a given width of tire. A tire will roll faster at 100 psi than at 50 psi but a narrow tire may have a higher rolling resistance at a higher pressure than a wider tire at a lower pressure. There are other considerations as well. A wider tire may have lower rolling resistance but the width increases wind resistance. The weight of the tire should also be considered because you have to move the tire down the road.

Don’t fall into the “analysis paralysis” trap. Pick something that doesn’t weigh too much, is reasonably supple, doesn’t cost too much nor costs too little. Most tires are up to the job.

BobbyG

I've been running 26x1.85 slicks on my mountain bike commuter for a couple of years now (except in winter when it gets studded tires). I really like how wider slicks corner!

I've been using tire liners for 10-years, and they work for me, having cut down the number of flats to just a couple a year (I commute almost daily).

Ross520

You're a braver man than me... 😂😂😂.

Digger Goreman

As the singer sang:"It's your thang, do what you wanna do!" But, for me, I am not a racer. And I am in the camp that believes you get faster faster by conditioning. Decide your criteria (cost, composition, hybrid/slick) and check reviews. Then enjoy the ride!

Frederiksen

Thanks for your reply. I took a look at some other tires today and I think I'm going to stick with these slicks. Despite the low TPI, they only weigh 420g, reviews say that they roll well and they're a good price. The Panaracer Pasela Protite in the 1.5 size has 60 TPI, is 10g heavier, has some thread, and is double the price. I think considering the fact that these are full slicks and are thinner, they should be about as fast as the Paselas.

Now I just have to buy tubes for them. It seems that the Presta valve tubes for this size are more common and a better deal. However, my rims are drilled for Schrader valves. What's your opinion on Presta stem savers?