I've never run that particular combination-- slick and knobby-- but do usually run a more aggressive tire in the front than the rear on mountain bikes.
When I ride off pavement on slick tires (38 mm Compass, 42 mm Soma Shikoro) it's only in especially snowy or muddy conditions, going uphill, that I would tend to break traction on the rear wheel. Much easier to lose grip on the front wheel when cornering. I think that's the logic. So based on my experience, I would go with the traditional setup-- slick in the back, knobby up front. John On Friday, January 25, 2019 at 4:39:39 PM UTC-5, Collin A wrote: > > Oh Hey, > > I was curious what folks run in regards to a mix-n-match tire combo for > minimal pavement riding. I understand a traditional setup is to have the > knobby tire up front and a slick in the back, but when traction is > concerned (and why you would have a knobby in the first place) all of the > drive force is put out through the rear wheel, so having the rear as the > slick seems somewhat counter-intuitive and would still result in poor > traction. On the other hand, having the knobby tire up front gives better > control when in loose conditions and reduces the chance of sliding out. I'm > mainly asking because tire clearances are slightly different between the > front and rear of one of my bikes that would allow for a bigger (or > knobbier) tire in the back. > > What are people's thoughts or experiences? > Collin > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
