Three-season all-road: how to choose tires
Readers have asked, I will answer: how should we think about choosing tires for three-season use?
Note how the question is framed. I was asked to do a ‘tutorial,’ but shy from using that term for fear of coming across as too ‘authoritative,’ but I’m taking the same approach. I’m not setting out to tell you ‘what tires are best,’ or ‘what tires you should buy.’ This sort of content can be found elsewhere on the internet; you didn’t come here for that. You came here for the principles and real-world intel, which can help you think through what you need, for the riding you do, in your region. If I don’t cover the sort of conditions you ride in that’s probably because I don’t have experience in these conditions, and don’t think I have meaningful insight to share. If you spot a gap, throw it my way in the comments, and I’ll take a crack at it.
I try to paint a picture here that’s more about building a holistic understanding of the environment you’re riding, and a degree of ‘mastery’ around decision-making than about telling you which tires you should buy. That’s the last thing I want to do. I want to help you develop a deep understanding of the requirements you’re working with, which you can then assess against your priorities. This will ground good decision-making.
As I write in early March, 2021, riders are venturing out onto the roads for their first time this year. If you’re scrambling to get your bike ready to roll, are in a rush, unsure about what tires to ride, and live an a region like me, which is still getting snow and has lots of ice around, you might want to skip down to the Supporting Cast section below to determine whether you have appropriate tires.
Three-seasons, many use-cases.
I will focus on tire options for regions that experience winters with consistent sub-freezing temperatures, persistent snow, and everything else that goes with these. In my region - Ottawa-Gatineau, Canada - most people tend to think of ‘winter’ as extending from December through February. In reality, we get lots of ‘wintery’ conditions through November and March every year. While we might endure a ‘green Christmas’ here and there, this doesn’t mean we don’t have cold temperatures through late fall and early winter. Likewise, we can experience snow in April, and temperatures below zero during the day during that month are not rare.
To the casual observer, fall and spring seem pretty similar in terms of ‘road riding’, but there are some important differences to consider when thinking about tire choices and road safety. There’s no substitute for taking a short walk outside before riding in the shoulder seasons and winter. This gives you a sense of what happened overnight, and is in process. For example, an evening at above freezing will set up melt conditions that flash-freeze overnight, leading to various ice-conditions on sidewalks and roads. It takes time, with actual observation, to learn freeze/thaw cycles across the seasons, where fall tends to bring rapidly decreasing temps into early evening, and spring tends to be opposite.
Pavement
Fall through spring, paved roads will see freeze-thaw cycles, which cause cracking and potholes. When frozen, pavement tends to be grippy, in my experience. However, tires are affected by the cold, and some compounds harden significantly. It’s nigh impossible to know from specifications whether this will be the case, and I suspect it will be less common with road and gravel tires than MTB tires. More salient, cracked and pot-holed roads are best ridden on higher-volume tires than one might use in summer. My preference is 32 – 35mm. I’ll address ice on paved roads below.
Dirt and gravel
Summer conditions on dirt and gravel roads are primarily driven by three factors: heat, rain, and automotive traffic. These roads are always in flux, in contrast to the relative stasis of paved roads. A ‘fast day’ on dirt or gravel will generally follow rain and automotive traffic, which effectively re-compacts material that breaks up as it dries out. Most dirt and gravel roads see a lot of truck traffic, and these vehicles use rear-wheel drive. They create washboard/stutter-bumps when their rear wheels skip off the road, then land, cutting a trough into the road material. This becomes a positive feedback loop.
Summer riding on these roads will often work best with high-volume tires, to create a large footprint on loose material when climbing. This doesn’t necessarily also provide the most precise steering through turns; it’s a compromise.
For pure paved riding, where there’s literally no chance of encountering ice or packed snow (not my region!), it’s really quite simple: mount fenders, run tires that are more durable than you’d use for summer, to reduce likelihood of puncture. Fixing flats in winter is terrible. Tubeless is great, especially as the tires get larger, as they run lower pressure, which makes sealing punctures with sealant more likely to actually occur. A little bit of siping (lines in the rubber) on the tire, versus a pure slick, will be desirable for grip in the wet. This sort of set-up will work well for lots of rides, as paved roads tend to be simply wet through winter where salt is used. Again, the phasing in the day to avoid early black is in the shoulder periods is a good idea if your region sees overnights drop below zero here and there.
If you’re riding ‘pure paved’ roads through winter in a region that gets snow and sub-zero temps often, you will want to lean toward a tire with the same sort of tread that is effective for cyclocross on snow and ice. The use-case is very similar, given CX courses mix pavement sections with packed snow and ice.
My all-time favourite option for shoulder season and winter is the Continental CX Speed. It’s a classic tire, now discontinued; the Speed Ride uses the same tread, but only in 700c x 42mm. At about 33mm wide, the tire’s flat ‘file tread’ is extremely effective on packed snow and ice, since it maintains a lot of surface contact while also placing many edges onto the ground for grip. This tire has helped many riders experience an effective tire in action, and understand what the elements of an effective 3-season tire are. If you want to ‘cover all the bases’ with one tire, aiming for something as close to the CX Speed as possible will get you there.
To illustrate why shallow treads like that of the CX Speed work well, consider the opposite: mud tires. Spiky mud tires focus pressure on a small number of knobs, which leads to low surface-contact and few edges to interlock with the road. This is why mud tires are awful on all hard surfaces, not least packed snow and ice.
The CX Speed’s ‘flat file tread’ is very long-wearing and supple, and provides predictable handling. It’s definitely the best option for 3-season pavement riding, and only perhaps a little less grippy than a few other options for dedicated packed snow, which isn’t actually a realistic use-case.
Rolling through the seasons
As summer gives way to fall, temps drop and precipitation tends to increase. As this occurs I like to go from my favourite all-rounder summer tire – Rene Herse Snoqualimie Pass (700c x 44mm) – to a smaller option, the 700c x 35mm Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass. This tire feels fantastic on packed dirt roads, and also works well with fenders, while the 44s won’t fit many bikes with fenders mounted. Early fall will tend to deliver the best dirt and gravel conditions of the year.
Approaching winter, riding on all manner of road will not require knobs on tires unless the surfacing materials used become mud that is actually slippery, versus merely gritty. Clay does this, and it’s not used in roads in my region; ours are rather sandy. If your roads get greasy with moisture, tires with at least shoulder knobs will be valuable. In many cases, wet dirt and gravel roads are grippier than when they are dry in the summer, because the road material moves around less under the tires.
The most challenging chunks of the calendar for safe riding is the shoulder seasons, which I think of as the transitions between actual ‘seasons.’ In fall, while temperatures remain above freezing overnight, there’s never going to be ice. As soon as overnight sub-zero temps settle in, the shoulder season begins, and one must be really vigilant. If it’s sub-zero for a few hours overnight in the city, it might well be freezing for twice as long outside town. The longer and colder, the more time moisture in low areas has to set up. If you leave home to ride early in the morning, the sun won’t have hit much yet, so you’ll be in the prime black-ice danger zone.
Black ice is primarily a shoulder season phenomenon, rather uncommon in actual winter. Black ice usually looks like a wet patch of road, being too thin a coating to register as ice. I’ll tend to be so thin it’ll sit on the high-points of pavement, but won’t fill the pores. This is what makes it look like it’s just water.
You can ride straight over black ice without incident, but you definitely don’t want to try leaning a turn over it. If in doubt, slow before rolling onto these patches as much as you can, and don’t brake on top of them.
Black ice will tend to ‘burn-off’ as the sun does its thing. This is why it’s more of an early and late day phenomenon. If you tend to get outside closer to 10 or 11 in the morning, versus 7 or 8, you might never see it on your rides.
The other shoulder season ice phenomenon is flash-freeze. As the days get longer, particularly in February, snow melts during the day and runs water across sidewalks and roads. This water flash-freezes overnight, and usually takes a few hours of sun to melt. But it can often accrete enough to be rather durable. The ‘good thing’ about this sort of ice, which can be found on dirt and gravel roads in winter, but rarely paved roads out of the city, is that it’s pretty easy to spot. There are a couple sections of dirt road north of Ottawa that see this sort of ice-formation, and I always know to look for it as I approach. When it’s crazy I ride really slowly over it. I’ve yet to walk it, but that’s always a good option.
The best way to tune into ice conditions in your locale is to walk outside regularly. Taking walks in the early morning, mid-day, and evening provides many clues about the rhythms of ground conditions, which can then inform your ride planning. It becomes rather handy to have a good sense of how long overnight snow will take to melt off paved roads, or how much buffer you should provide before heading out to ensure there’s no ice lingering.
Are those tires studded?
Studded tires…. I can’t tell you the number of times people ask me, all over the place in winter, whether I’m riding studded tires on my winter rides. The answer is no. Here’s why.
In cities there is WAY more ice around through winter than on rural roads, AND, people tend to ride bikes to work at ‘peak ice periods’. As discussed above, there will always be a higher potential to encounter ice while it’s dark outside, and a lot of the shoulder seasons and winter is spent commuting in the dark. So there’s more ice out, and it’s harder to spot. So yes, studded tires are great for the city shoulder season through shoulder season, roughly November through April (6 months, yikes!). You can run a studded tire up front to cover off steering, while using a good winter tire in the back for longer wear and less rolling resistance. The Continental Top Contact Winter is a phenomenal tire for the back, and any number of studded options up front will do. I would lean toward 38mm and narrower, to cut through packed snow.
Studded tires are DEFINITELY a good idea for riders in some rural areas. For example, in Vermont, around Burke Mountain, there’s lots of ice through the winter, and not a lot of paved riding required to link good dirt roads. I would definitely ride studded tires there, like the 45Nth Gravdal. For city riding, stiff-casing studded tires are great, as they won’t really be ridden at low pressures for grip (you’ll flat on potholes), so the stiffer casing won’t feel terrible. If you do flat, you can ride the tire for a while, which is vital; who wants to attempt changing a tube in the winter? I’ve used the Schwalbe Marathon Winter, and highly recommend it. For riding dirt roads, which will become snirt over winter, I’d prefer a much more supple casing for three reasons: 1) lower rolling resistance; 2) better grip; 3) more comfort.
I don’t ride studded tires for my winter drop-bar riding because a lot of my kilometres are spent on pavement. Pavement grinds studs down, tears them out under torque and braking, and can slide when leaned over or under heavy braking. They roll slower than normal tires, and can even catch on fenders and break them.
I’m comfortable with sliding around a bit on the unpaved roads, but I don’t imagine everyone reading this is. If you want to make your winter riding experience as safe as possible, and don’t have a lot of bike-handling skill to work with, you might want to run a studded front tire for more predictable steering over ice, if not on the back as well. You’d want to take is easy while turning on pavement, and accept that they will be more expensive and slower-rolling than studless alternatives.
Supporting cast: Preparing for gnarly
Fenders need LOTS of clearance around tires to accommodate snow and slush. This is a 38mm Specialized Trigger Pro, which is a solid performer for a stiff-casing tire, generally. But not on packed snow and ice. It looks grippy, but is diamond-pattern tread rounds-off quickly, and the tire doesn’t bite into slippery surfaces well. It essentially becomes a slick in the centre, which reduces your ability to grip while climbing, or brake effectively. As your 3-season tire wears, you want its tread to remain ‘sharp’.
Once the ‘sweet phase’ of fall is over, it’s shoulder season, and there are two important bike set-up elements to address:
1) Fenders. It’s going to be wet and cold a lot of the time, so riding without fenders will be, ummm, crap. I’ve done it plenty, and it sucks. Get fenders onto your bike.
2) Your bike has fenders, super! Now you need to figure out what tires you can fit in. In this order.
Recall, early fall, tires can come down in size from summer for dirt and gravel. Good, this works better for fenders. On a dedicated road bike, which might run 28mm tires in summer, paved riding for winter will go better on 32s if they fit. With fenders.
3-season all-road challenges
For mixing in dirt and gravel roads in regions that see lots of temps below freezing, things get ‘interesting.’
Before the pandemic I tended to mainly drive 40km out of Ottawa to access dirt roads for 3-hour rides. That allowed me to use bikes without fenders, as there was little salted pavement on the route. For our snow-covered-sanded-dirt roads, ‘snirt’, I’ve happily ridden many tires in the 33-35mm range. Larger than that detracted from steering precision, and didn’t offer any benefit. Bear in mind, snirt roads are often smoother than in summer, so high volume for comfort isn’t so much a priority. Steering precision is the priority, as the snow-cover will vary broadly in terms of fixedness, rendering it closer to fast-rolling sand or mud a lot of the time than packed dirt. I’ve had rides that felt like epic cyclocross sessions. Other times, the snow and sand that’s thrown down forms a regular and predictable firm surface, which could be easily ridden on a variety of tires. When the temp is close to 0C, grip will increase, as will the adherence of snow to tires, which brings fenders back into the conversation.
When riding pavement roads to access dirt and gravel – as I’m always doing now, due to the pandemic – tire choice is harder than ever. For the pavement, as I’ve said, virtually no knobs or cut-out tread is necessary. So if you’ll want to weigh your time spend on pavement against time spent off; this informs your priorities. The Continental CX Speed discussed above fits the bill well.
In my case, it’s 40km to get off pavement, and then 40km back. So at least 80km of a winter ride I do north of Ottawa will be spent on pavement. When I’m on the snirt roads I don’t want to crash. So I need to run tires that will give me as much grip as possible without sucking or wearing down quickly on the pavement. My priorities are safety, first, and not feeling like I’m riding a tank on pavement, second. My Continental CX Speeds are worn out, so I’ve ridden a few other options over the winter, with mixed results.
3-Season Tire Guide
I don’t believe 650b wheels and tires offer any advantage for 3-season riding that involves snow and ice. Wider tires do not improve traction on snow and ice, because they spread weight and pressure over a larger surface area, versus ‘cutting’ and gripping. I strongly advise against using tires with solid centre tread. This is intended to wear well on paved surfaces, but won’t grip on snow or ice; it’s unsafe for the conditions discussed here. The Panaracer Byway, right, is an example of the sort of tire to avoid.
Fall
For many regions, medium-volume ‘slicks’ will be excellent for all-road use before the snow and ice come in. These tires will a bit of fresh snow fine in early fall, but not packed snow and ice that comes in through the shoulder season.
Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass (35mm)
A stellar all-rounder, the Bon Jon can serve as a do-anything tire for folks who ride from May through October. It’s plenty fast for paved riding, and works really well on dirt and gravel roads. It’s also the minimum width tire I’d recommend for regular all-road riding, and is particularly effective when the dirt roads are well-packed.
Rene Herse Snoqualmie Pass (44mm)
This tire won’t fit nearly as many bikes as the Bon Jon, but if it fits, it makes for a phenomenal all-rounder once the roads get rough in late spring and early summer. I love this tire for all-road rides, especially as they extend beyond 200km, since they help insulate me from road vibrations, which conserves energy. They are larger than required for fall, won’t fit many fenders, and won’t grip well on snow and ice
Late-fall to spring
These tires will work well once the shoulder season kicks in, and will take you through to spring. Once there’s no longer any packed snow and ice to deal with, you can revert to fall options like those discussed above before transitioning to your summer tires of choice.
Specialized Tracer Pro (33mm)
There are two generations of these tires, and both work really well across 3 seasons. The older version is excellent off pavement in particular, but will wear fairly fast on pavement. The newer version will wear slower on pavement, and provide slightly less bite on packed snow. It’ll be better on ice, however, as it has more edges to work with. These are tubeless, and cyclocross tires.
Continental CX Speed (33mm actual, 35mm nominal)
The gold-standard, a flat file-tread with moderate shoulder-knob. This is a round profile tire, which is very predictable, and stable while leaning through paved turns. Wear is very long. The casing is supple, but it must be run with tubes; the beads will not hold the rim safely tubeless. These are still available online.
Panaracer Gravel King SK (35mm)
These tires have many small blocks, and ‘rails’ along their edges, which make them fairly predictable and grippy on snow and ice. Their compound is relatively hard, so they wear well on pavement, and feel ok on that surface. They are stiff compared to the tires discussed above, which means they will roll slower at lower pressures. They are tubeless, and set up easily.
Continental Top Contact Winter (37mm )
This tire is phenomenal. I’ve used it in the city, love it. I can’t imagine a grippier studless tire, so this is a fantastic option for folks who want to maximize stability while covering all-conditions through the shoulder seasons and winter. The tire is stiff, to allow you to ride on a flat, and requires tubes. So they won’t feel fast; this is not a ‘high-performance’ option. If Conti made these in a lighter tubeless casing, I’d be all over them.
Schwalbe G-One Allround (35mm)
I’ve added this tire to the list without having used it. Schwalbe’s tires are excellent in general, and this tread and construction has all the hallmarks of an excellent 3-season tire. It will maintain working edges until worn to the casing; time to replace it. You’ll note it’s rather similar to the Conti CX Speed, minus the shoulder knobs. If you want to go with a slightly grippier option, the G-One Bite will dig into packed snow a little more, but will be less grippy on ice.
Have I missed anything? Is any of this confusing? Don’t hesitate to comment, this is meant to be a durable resource!
