bijan

So I was adjusting the brakes on my bike. I just had to adjust the amount of slack in the rear brake cable. Before the adjustment pushing the rear brake lever as hard as possible barely slowed the bike down.

So I adjust the cable and then try locking the rear wheel, as usual it works but I find that the rear wheel skid jerks the bike more than usual. I just chalk it up to the fact that I am riding on studded tires in an indoor parking lot with really smooth paving.

Then I think wait the front brake is kind of loose too, I wonder if I can brake hard enough so that I start to lift the rear wheel... Dumb move, the front wheel skidded and the bike slipped right from under me... Ouch!

I don't know if the fact that the tires were studded had anything to do with it but I don't recall having this problem testing out my brakes in the same garage in summer.

gerv 

Was the concrete slighter darker than normal? Although I have never had a problem on black ice.

bijan

Oops, I definitely didn't give enough details.

No there was no ice, this was a heated indoor parking garage. The surface is so smooth because it's a pretty new building, there's little traffic and no heavy vehicles. If it had banked turns it would make a nice velodrome

Edit: I haven't had problems on smooth ice, just very rough or rutted ice.

jeffpoulin

I commute to work and park my bike in an indoor parking garage. The smooth concrete floors are indeed quite slippery with studs, so I have to be careful there. Roads, even smooth ones, are generally rough enough to maintain normal traction with studs.

skijor

Yes, the studs were to blame. It's the equivalent of a dog with long nails on a linoleum floor. Especially if you had the tire pressure on the high side.

bijan

Ah yes I was running on higher than usual pressure (75-80 psi).

Fizzaly

Im going to chalk it up to the combo of studs and if that garage is that new the sealant that stuff can be kind of slick for a number of years til it "breaks" in.

hubcap

You haven't ridden around much on concrete or other hard/smooth surfaces with studs yet, have you?

Yes, it will be squirrly. Take care on those surfaces.

The dog reference will be lost on most without dogs.

AEO

concrete and steel don't offer much traction on each other.

look up "friction coefficients"

PaulRivers

Ok, to be fair -

This summer I read a description from someone riding a non-studded summer knobby tire on their new indoor parking garage surface where they also unexpectedly found themselves "no longer upright" out of nowhere (well, they were either braking hard or trying to make a hard turn, I'm not sure which).

I don't disagree that studs require slightly more careful handling in braking and everything, but new indoor garage floors seem to be particularly slippery. And if you have knobby tires on a smooth surface, the results can be rather odd as well.

electrik

To begin with this, studs are ok on asphalt because it isn't smooth, but concrete in a garage is probably polished smooth. Rubber works better because fine particles stick in the rubber and provide you with grip on the tiny concrete pores which your studs tend to just slide over top of.

Anyways, skidding your studs causes premature wear and could pull one out... though i had to do it today because a 5lb urban rodent wasn't on a leash and almost met carbide studs, 44t chainring, and then carbide studs.

sknhgy 

I've never found studs to lessen traction on pavement. I run Nokia M&G's.

MilitantPotato

No issues with traction using studded tires here. Concrete is just slippery. I'd put smooth concrete almost even with wet metal in terms of traction.