Matched Tyres or Not?

sdavies13

Hi all, question for you...

Had a puncture the other week, what looks like a partially flattened staple went through my rear Gatorskin Ultra and ended up walking home as couldn't repair/replace the inner.

But in the lead up to this I had had a few scary moments with my rear slipping on wet manhole covers and the like.

I've bought some Schwabe Marathon Plus tyres but so far have only replaced the rear. Should I run the same tyres front and back or am I ok to run the Marathon Plus on the rear and continue with the Gatorskin Ultra on the front?

It was a 'mare to remove/refit the Gatorskin, though strangely the Marathon Plus seemed far easier to fit and remove...

Cheers.

esuhl

I can't see it causing any problems. I read on a cycling forum a while back that people sometimes use different front/rear tyres on mountain bikes - a thin one at the front to slice through mud and a thicker one at the back to maintain traction (since most of your weight is on the rear tyre) was the approach taken by some people... I've no idea whether it makes much difference or what the "pros" would say the best combination is...

Nebulous2

You can certainly mix and match tyres, just keep an eye out for differences in handling, but generally the best one should be on the front.

A front blow out is more dangerous than a back one, although the rear tyres wear faster. A lot of people put a new one on the front and move the front one to the rear.

Wester

I use a Schalbe City Jet 12 rear tyre and a Continental Travel Contact front tyre and they work fine together

Avoriaz

Might there be a problem with different levels of grip front and rear when cornering?

I suppose that would only really matter if you were pushing speeds around corners to the limit which I certainly never do. I value my skin and bones too much for that.

custardy

Avoriaz wrote: »

Might there be a problem with different levels of grip front and rear when cornering?

I suppose that would only really matter if you were pushing speeds around corners to the limit which I certainly never do. I value my skin and bones too much for that.

rear end slide isnt as bad as a front end wash out


@sdavies13 You will get slides from slicks on wet manhole covers etc
dont power over them. free wheel or keep a steady cadence

Avoriaz

custardy wrote: »

rear end slide isnt as bad as a front end wash out..

I hope never to find that out for myself again. :eek:

I still carry the scar on my knee from a crash when I was cycling to school at aged about 12. That taught me not to try revising French homework while cycling. :rotfl:

I've only recently got back into cycling at aged 61 for the first time since my teens apart from a day or two on hired bikes on holidays.

custardy

Avoriaz wrote: »

I hope never to find that out for myself again. :eek:

I still carry the scar on my knee from a crash when I was cycling to school at aged about 12. That taught me not to try revising French homework while cycling. :rotfl:

I've only recently got back into cycling at aged 61 for the first time since my teens apart from a day or two on hired bikes on holidays.

I recently had a very lucky escape
front end washed out on a drain and the rim scraped over the cover
very lucky to stay upright

sdavies13

Thanks for the advice all.

Did my usual 28 mile commute on mixed tyres today and so far so good.

Had two slight slides on the rear in the wet. One whilst changing gears and the other when I hit the ridge of a wet manhole cover but no where near as scary as previous incidents. So apart from the ride being a bit harder on the Marathon Plus tyre (compared to the Gatorskin Ultra) so far so good!

Though have been wondering if I should swap the SPD pedals for the standard ones if the weather gets any worse...

armyknife

By the sounds of it, worth making an effort to avoid all road ironwork wherever possible?

custardy

armyknife wrote: »

By the sounds of it, worth making an effort to avoid all road ironwork wherever possible?

thats great
so how do you do that and not get knocked over by traffic?