Dr1v3n

Tl;Dr - Does a gravel bike with 38c treaded tires that are at about 40-50psi handle significantly better than a road bike with slick tires in wet weather?

I began riding last May, avg 75 miles per week. I had been riding solely a road bike (Giant Contend 3) with 700x28c "slick" tires on it (Giant S-R3). A month ago, I picked up a Giant Revolt Advanced gravel bike which has 700x38c Giant Crosscut AT1 tires on it with a tread pattern.

This entire time, I only rode in wet conditions once with the road bike, and had no problems because the day I did it, was on an asphault bike path where I basically just rode straight the entire time.

Today was very wet out - drizzling and it just started so the roads looked pretty slick. I decided to go out for a "technique/handling" ride to get some practice riding in wet conditions in low traffic and at lower speeds. I took out the gravel bike because one of the main reasons I bought it was to use it to ride in inclement weather instead of my road bike due to its larger tire size and the fact that it's tubeless means I can run lower PSI to get more traction.

I've heard (both online and from friends in person) to basically try to avoid white painted lines, drain covers, leaves, etc in wet weather. I was lucky to have virtually zero traffic on the road with me just now, so I experimented and essentially, I noticed very little handling difference. Since my gravel bike has disc brakes, braking didnt seem to be significantly affected. In fact, braking as normal, I had zero skids at all. I then wanted to up the ante a bit, so I purposely rode over the painted white lines to see if I slid. I did this both while going straight and turning, and also seemed to have no noticeable problem. Albeit, I did not do this at speeds higher than probably 10-15mph. I have slid a bit on those yellow braille boards at sidewalk ramps for the blind folks, but only on my road bike with slick tires, not with the gravel bike and not today.

I did get up to 30mph on straight road and come to a pretty hard brake at a stop sign, again didn't notice many issues.

Is this pretty normal for a gravel bike? I'm asking because I was trying to avoid lines and drain covers like the plague, but realized if I have to pick between going in front of a car coming behind me or rolling over a drain cover or line, I'll have to roll over them. Are they that bad, or just during fast corners?