rogc97

Hi im New in this forum so im going to introduce myself. Im a 20 years old college student (money isnt my ally) and i getting started to commute by bike. I always wanted a road bike but People told me That i couldnt have one here because the roads are too harsh and no road bike could survive the bumbps and holes.I wasnt convinced with That answer and was wondering which road bike could be perfect for me. Thanks

cb400bill

Welcome to Bike Forums!

Many have found that older steel framed road bikes that can take wider tires work well on rough roads.

Tape2012

A cyclocross bike with wide knobbies work well on rough roads, especially chip seal.

Maelochs

I visited NYC back in ...2000? when I was riding a lot of miles around Central FL. I saw a surprising number of bike sin NYC .... the traffic was insane (looked worse than FL) and the road surfaces looked like Lebanon. Yet I saw folks in track cycles with skinny tires and just about everything else.

I cannot think of a place where you could drive an unmodified commercially available car and not a bike. I used to use a rigid mountain bike with 1.6-inch wide tires, but switched over to road bikes and found they were generally fine.

Nowadays I would use any bike with a carbon fork and 28-mm tires at minimum, but a bike like that could handle anything.

Look at it this way .... pro riders ride Cobblestones on full-on racing bikes (though I am sure they don't enjoy it much.) I would most certainly not recommend knobby tires for pavement, though. The knobs will wear down fat, and while they are their they will squirm and make your stance less secure.

Knobs are only good when the can dig into something soft. Stick with slicks for pavement and hard-packed earth trails.

As for "Most people" .... most people will tell you all kind of stuff, none of which they have the slightest clue about ... and they will speak with a tone of authority and certainty, even thought they Know they are flat making stuff up.

If people can commute by car somewhere, you can commute by bike.

Tape2012

I disagree to a certain extent. The knobs on my cyclocross bike are not all that aggressive, I've ridden on pavement with them with no issues and no squirming. On smooth pavement they cost you a few mph, that why I will switch to road tires for those rides.

For potholes or asphalt patches, I don't think the tires matter much it's gonna be rough.

But if you've ever ridden 50 miles of chip seal on skinny road tires you'll end up with numb body parts and loose parts on your bike. It's pure hell. The worst part is the frustration of having to work twice as hard to maintain speed and listening to your bike rattle itself apart. Wider knobbies are much smoother since the knobs fill in the pits. I won't ride on chip seal again without my cyclocross tires. Plus it gives me the option of riding the dirt shoulder, often that's a much better option.

79pmooney

Wider tires are the secret. I find smooth tread is fine, despite the experience of the previous poster. For a medium priced tire, the Panasonic Paselas work very well in widths from 28c up. (32c if you are much heavier than me, 155 pounds or are hard on wheels.) Vittoria Open Corsa G+ are available in 28c, ride very nicely at a higher pressure and work very well. (In fact, they are fast becoming my favorite all-around pavement tire. Much like the Clement De Mondo tubulars of decades ago.

Both of these tires have little tread pattern and roll well. The Paselas have a simple water clearing pattern, the Corsa G+ the classic, somple ribbed pattern popular many years ago. The other thing they have in common - flexible casings. Casings you can ride with a fair amount of flex in without large amounts of rolling resistance. In other words, they are a joy to ride pumped up soft which makes them joys when riding poor, bone-jarring pavement.

I don't say this to claim these are the only choices or even the only good choices. But they are good tires to look at if just to see what a good poor pavement tire can look (and more important) feel like. The Paselas will never be called a "great" tire. They are on the list of really good compromises for a lot of us. Another plus, they come in every size for 700c from 23c to 38c, becoming better tires as the size goes up. The G+ is a great tire. (It also costs like one.) You are limited to up to 28c and that probably won't change (though I and probably a few others would love to see larger).

Ben

Maelochs

Much as hate to say this, you seem to know what you are talking about. I don't ride much chipseal, thankfully ... last time I did was on an Al-frame, CF-fork road bike with 23-mm tires ... which as you can imagine was simply too much physical pleasure to tolerate.

Other than chipseal, not sure I'd recommend knobs ... but those cross-cut treads (essentially "knobs" created from very narrow grid channels) might be more stable.

I was thinking of full-on MTB tires ... they are slow on the road, they disintegrate quickly, and they can squish in turns, in my experience.

I have never ridden a cyclocross-specific tire so i will defer to your greater experience on that.

HTupolev

Are you sure it's not just because you're running the wider tires squishier? In my experience, wide slicks are also very effective at making chipseal disappear.

kevindsingleton 

"Slicks" can be dangerous when wet, especially on painted pavement such as crosswalks and lane markings. For everyday use, something with a little tread, to give the water some place to go, may be preferable. I would agree with the recommendation for older (or newer) steel framed bikes, but you can get great deals on modern aluminum frame/carbon fork bikes, too, in the used market.

Kapusta

Get a bike that can take wider tires and it will be fine. The wider the better, IMO.

As far as tread goes, i don't see any benefit of dirt-orented knobs on pavement, only drawbacks (and this is coming from someone whose primary passion is MTB where I run very knobby tires).

I think the best tread pattern is a very fine file-like pattern.

I built up a Soma Fog Cutter a few months ago and it is excellent for crappy, broken pavement. I was running 35mm tires, now 38mm. Yet the geometry is still fun and "road bike"-like. Somewhere between a typical road bike and light tourer or gravel bike.

There are actually a number of options out there now for road bikes that can take big tires.

Regarding chipseal, the trick to comfort is not knobs, it's lower pressure (made possible by a higher volume tire). All knobs do is slow you down.

Regarding "channeling water", this is really a non-issue with bike tires as hydroplaning is nearly impossible on a bike.

f4rrest

If you're commuting to school, it will get stolen, so don't invest much in a nice road bike.

Get a cheap beater for school.

How far is the commute?

BobbyG

Every bike is different.

I started off with 700x23s when I started commuting on my old road bike but they were harsh. I swithed to 700x32 which fit, but only if inflated no more than 80psi. Above that they rub the fork crown. But they make for a gentler ride.

My main commuter runs 700x35s which is the limit with fenders. Without fenders I guess about 36 or 37mm. This time it's the seatpost that is the limiting factor. I suppose wider rims would allow for wider tires with less circumpherence.

On my 20-year old Mountain Bike commuter I have had 26x2.125 hybrid knobbies but went through a period with 26x1.5 smoothies. Lately I've been running 26x1.85 WTB Slicks at 65psi and they are the most comfortable tires I have ever ridden on, and the "fastest" on this bike. Ironically they diminish the sensation of speed as there is very little road "chatter".

In the winter the MTB commuter gets 26x1.65 Suomi/Nokian studded snow tires with aggresive tread. They take extra effort to pedal, and of course they chat like a Kardashian on dry pavement, but they are amazing in snow and ice.

In short, get the fattest tires that will fit, and inflate them a little less.

atitagain

jefnvk

College kid communting?

I'll take up @Maelochs challenge and tell you there is a correct answer: go to CL or a thrift shop, buy yourself a mid-90s Trek/Giant/Specialized/Miyata/similar rigid mountain bike. Take off knobbies, put on slick commuter tires (anything from 1.5" to over 2" is available), and ride it. It'll last longer than you, those things are tanks that will stand up to people trashing it on the racks. Flat bar gives you better visibility cruising around crowded walkways. Wheels are generally sturdier for jumping up and down curbs. I still have no problem riding mine on metric centuries, so distance isn't really even a concern, although it does take a bit more energy to pedal. You can generally find serviceable examples under $100, depending on your location, as well.

It is what I did, at least (minus being smart enough to know that slick tires existed back then)

Maelochs

I Strongly disagree. Bikes don't hydroplane at human speeds .... too little contact patch, too much weight, to compress water enough to create a shear surface over the pavement.

Painted lines and metal are slippery when wet, period. having less rubber on the road (as with treads) only makes that worse.

Maelochs

Best all-around bikes ever made.

athrowawaynic

Bigger/wider tires (which can [and sometimes must] be run at lower tire pressures) will take a lot of the harshness out of the ride.

Older race bikes probably won't have room for bigger tires, but old touring bikes might. Cyclocross and so-called "gravel" bikes will have room. Mountain bikes will (but for commuting, avoid suspension). Some hybrids may.

rumrunn6

approx where are you located? & how tall are you? curious to poke around CL & throw some at you to look at

jefnvk

Yep. I don't ever see getting rid of mine, except maybe to replace it with something similar that fits a smidge better. Used it as a commuter for many years, now it is rebuilt into a rough road touring bike that can still easily function as a commuter.

Then again, for how cheap they are, I don't ever see myself getting rid of mine, even if I do get one that fits better

danmyersmn

They fill a spot that is for sure. Mine has gone from the original MTB to a tourer, to a rigid MTB, to a hard tail 8 spd MTB to a hard tail Single Speed and now it is a gravel road 2x8 drop bar bike packing rig. The frame was just enough road and just enough MTB in that era to be used many ways.

fietsbob

Is the Paris Roubaix race over bad roads?, sections of the Ancient cobbled sections are a national historic parkway.

Slightspeed

I live in LA county where all thev roads are bad. Throw on a set of 25s or 28s if they will fit, and just ride. Keep your pressures up. Should be fine. I've never had a Mtn bike or hybrid, been riding road for over 50 years.

jefnvk

What pros use for a race rarely makes good advice for what commuters should do in day-to-day use.

That said, I have plans on riding P-R on the "amateur" ride the day before the race one of these year. Definitely taking a bike with beefier tires.

coominya

Yes, this is no doubt the best answer for a cash stretched commuter like @rogc97

coominya

Well keep an open mind, the world has changed a lot in 50 years.