Long lasting tire

yeah.

[quote=GRHebard]get some friends that work at shops.
get used tires from bike shops
if you have to pay retail, get soma everwears

soma everwears grip alright, and skid smooth.
it just sucks when they start getting flat topped… feels kinda funny[/quote]

Everwears are for people who skid a lot. If you skid a lot (and aren’t getting paid to do so by Cadence or somebody), then you have bad technique.

The major flaw with the soma’s is that they are designed to be a poorly performing tire. They’re made so that you can skid on them a lot, squaring off the tread, and still ride them. But having squared off tread completely defeats the purpose of the majority of the functional elements of a bicycle tire, primarily the ability to provide good grip and a smooth transition when leaned away from vertical. (And what happens if you have only a few skid patches? Does your tire get all bumpy?) I would argue that one of the benefits of having a tire with standard tread thickness is that it would become unrideable due to the likelihood of flats before the tread wears to such an extent as to become unsafe while cornering.

So, in conclusion, if you have poor technique, you should get a tire whose primary function is to encourage your use of poor form at the expense of safety and ride quality. Obviously, the ultimate solution is to mount solid rubber tubes to your wheels. That way you could skid all the way down every hill and never get a flat.

^^woah, serious business

no one pays me to skid. lol
but shops give me tires for free when they get some that are slightly worn,
road riders are weird like that i guess

and, bad technique?
haha i dont skid because i dont know any other way to stop lol
in fact, probably 80% of the time i skid is not to come to a stop, its to have fun and goof around doing those silly skids with my leg through the frame or whatever

maybe i do have bad technique, idk
i could use a few pointers, no one ever really taught me how to ride

but… but… skidding is fun?

[quote=GRHebard]^^woah, serious business

and, bad technique?
haha i dont skid because i dont know any other way to stop lol
in fact, probably 80% of the time i skid is not to come to a stop, its to have fun and goof around doing those silly skids with my leg through the frame or whatever

maybe i do have bad technique, idk
i could use a few pointers, no one ever really taught me how to ride[/quote]

Shit, my bad dude. I was thinking more along the lines of using your bike as a machine to get you from one place to another. I keep forgetting that the kids today just ride them in circles and purposefully perform actions to prematurely break/wear out their components. (can you taste the sarcasm. I could use a snarky little smiley or emoticon, but I am ethically opposed to their use on message boards)

Seriously though, the best riders i’ve seen hardly ever have to skid or skip unless it’s an emergency or a race. Once you’ve been riding long enough, you figure out that you just don’t need to do it very often.

i only do backwards circles.
im not interested in crits or time trials, and i certainly dont ride with a road team weekly.
(can you taste the sarcasm?)

just because i do tricks doesnt mean i dont have a 235 CPM cadence (not that that is crazy impressive, but im proud of it)
oh yeah, and i wear V-necks over my bib when the weather is warm. and hipster sunglasses with my stickered up giro road helmet
ive never taken tips from anyone who acts like a douche. and i dont plan on it

the OP makes a thread asking people if they have any solutions for his issue, which is the longevity of his tire due to skidding.
i posted a helpful response, you come in acting elite.
your so cool man, when i grow up i want to be like you

[quote=TimArchy] the best riders i’ve seen hardly ever have to skid or skip unless it’s an emergency or a race.[/quote] why would they skid during a race?

It’s a reaction I’ve developed to protect my elitest view of the perversion of my passion. Didn’t mean to be a douche. But sometimes I feel like few enough people stand up to the so called “innovations” in fixed gear cycling. A high percentage of the fixed gear riding population have been riding for only a few years, if that. Most of them are still enamored of their ability to skid and like to do it often, even though a lot of experienced riders will tell you that if you are forced to skid, you’ve already made a misjudgment of the situation and, hence, already made a mistake. This can be caused by something beyond your control (i.e. erratic driving) or by going into a situation with too much speed (i.e. racing) or by taking a calculated (or uncalculated) risk in an attempt to clear a situation more quickly (i.e. racing). ((By racing, I mean alleycats of course. Only British and French sprint champions can get away with that shit on the track)) So because of this penchant for skidding, a company comes out with a fixed gear targeted tire that encourages people to skid more often and to use their tires well beyond the point at which they begin to become unsafe. This is marketed as a great innovation that eliminates the drawbacks of more traditional tires. And it is received by the fixed gear community in much the same light, often touted as the “solution” to all of your skidding “troubles”. Unfortunately, they don’t mention that a direct result of the solution to the skidding problem, the tire becomes less rideable and less stable the more it is used for its intended purpose.

I guess I’m seeing this problem through the eyes of another sub-group of rider. I don’t do tricks (the best I’ve done is a few back circles, back when that was the height of street fixed trickery) and I’ve only done extended skids recently during skid comps after races (of course I also skidded a good bit back in the first few years that I was riding. And I thought I was damn cool for being able to do it just like everyone else). So, I suppose this tire just isn’t designed for me, so I should probably just stop talking about it.

All my observations of rider behavior are only valid for those of us who are not making a living on our bikes. Messengers have their own rules.

I like you a lot Timarchy.

i found that the more i rode fixed, even brakeless, the less i needed to skid.

i rarely skid, i have a brake but even when i rode without one for a short period i never used a skid to stop. Honestly theres nothing like a brake to stop u dead before u get hit by a car

thing is i think most messengers will agree with you timarchy. skidding just isn’t zen.

armadillaz

Whipskidzz for days son.

edit: will be receiving some Halo Courier twin rails in neon green & neon pink shortly. I’ll review and see how long they hold up to my sick skids.

This seems like the kind of thread we should just be able to automate at this point. Press a button and you get a “install a brake and stop skidding so much, nitwit” pop-up or something. Surely we have the technology.

This.

I used to skid a lot (49:16 then 50:17). Fucked up my knee (you’ll fuck up yours too) cause I wasn’t ambidextrous with it yet. Went to a lighter gear (50:18) until my knee stopped hurting and stopped skidding, started skipping/resisting ambidextrous. Went back to 50:17, started riding harder and doing less stupid shit and felt I was spinning like mad. Now I ride a stupid gear (50:15), cruise pretty much everywhere (although I’m sure cruising is different to everyone) and can stop myself by resisting (clipless helps) even if I’m hauling ass. I can skid it, but there’s no need to.

Even when I was skidding, the only tire I wore out was a Maxxis Refuse or something like that. Whatever tire they make that’s 30 bucks. I’ve used an Everwear, Gatorskin and now Hutchinson. I’ve had the rear Hutch since December sometime.

i only skid on handmade tubulars

I run a brake and skip. I’ve had a pair of gatorskinz for a while now that still ride really nicely. Granted in November I took them off of my bike because I set it up to do training on rollers. I might start riding it on the street for things other than training here soon but probably not.

panaracer ribmos are where its at. i got a set in november. Ive been riding daily and skid only when its wet for the most part, have a front brake, and they are showing very minimal wear, and, knock on wood, i haven’t gotten a flat since i upgraded.

edit: panaracer- you can deposit that check into my account whenever you get the chance.

i don’t weigh much, so my opinion is slightly skewed, but the rando lasts me at least three months even when i ride brakeless. i’ve been running this one for a few now, with my fb, and it’s still in excellent condition. skip stop when i have to.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW YOU PEOPLES CAN GO THROUGH A TIRE IN 3 MONTHS