9/28/13 10:18 PM

Hey Sparky,

Sometimes you say inverted tread. Is this what you mean? Front and rear

I know, terrible image. I think the lens was smudged, I know it wasn't set for macro.

9/28/13 10:39 PM

as opposed to having protruding knobs.

grooved vs. knobs is a chicken/egg thing...at some point the ratio of tread area to groove area tips from being considered grooved to knobbed.

9/29/13 12:28 AM

Yes

EDIT: got out and looked at the last set we still have. These are 26x1.5 Trek Invert 2K. Always liked them, the 2.0 set we had left inventory on the Roland Tandem we sold in TN before we came here. The 1.5s are on Elaine's Karakorum MTB, soon to get MTN tires back on it.

Last edited by Sparky on 9/29/13 9:57 AM; edited 2 times in total

9/29/13 7:38 AM

And just to throw my two cents in, I've been using one or the other form of inverted tire (including the ones that actually say "invert") for a long time on mountain bikes that are used for back roads and trails and non-technical stuff, and they are both quieter and faster, but still not bad on dirt and grass.

10/11/13 12:03 AM

I bought a half-ass "cyclocross" bike at Goodwill that came with old Avocet inverted-tread tires on it. I think Avocet may have invented the term in their advert's from the early '90's.

Anyway, the ~20 year-old tires have worn very well, as there is a lot of rubber on them.
I rode it for most of one season, a lot of off-roading thrown in, and liked the "35mm" tires with a modest 50psi in them.
I raced it in the CX "B" class to spare my good bike from the extremely wet conditions, and took the measure of the field. It was a nice end to a race on a course that ominously abutted a cemetery and had water crossings (3 per lap) with mud so deep that it took rider's shoes!

I hosed it off, re-greased the hubs, serviced the cables and took a picture. The old Avocet "inverted" Cross tires are still going strong:

10/11/13 6:13 AM

I like the suspension seatpost. Watch out for sidewall rot on the tires, though!

I'll bet that would make a nice tourer, too.

10/11/13 2:03 PM

It's definitely stiff enough to handle touring loads, and is stable as a mountain bike.
The tubing is oversized "Infinity MTB", DB Cr-Mo. The stays are short enough for offroad traction, so I guess somewhat short for touring with full-sized panniers.
Low gear is a 30/34 F/R, and it has enormous-reach dual-pivot (bmx?) calipers with 135mm frame spacing in back.
Gruppo is an unusual Shimano "500CX" with 30/40/50t chainwheels.

It's a useful, forgiving bike that probably falls out of the marketable range just like most hybrids did. The stem decal said "Road Hybrid" and that's what this bike is.

The PAIR of these (2 bikes) was priced at $80, so I handed the Goodwill clerk a $100 bill and left the change as a donation.

Oh, and at this point, I'm not trusting these ~85psi-rated tires with more than 50psi. When new, they could have supported a tandem.

10/11/13 2:40 PM

Looks great to me!. ;)

10/12/13 3:58 PM

I have Panaracer Pasela 700x37 on my Surly tourer, and those tyres have what I would call an inverted tread. My observation is that this style of tread pattern is more likely to pick up small pieces of glass which sit in the narrow slots in the tread. Whenever I clean the chain I check the tyres, and there is nearly always some glass to remove. However, so far I haven't had any punctures from this.

10/12/13 4:28 PM

I had Pasalas and the invert style is more open and has a lot more room in the tread to self clean IMO.

Never saw and rocks or glass in the inverts on two bikes over long time. The Pasalsa wore and tool cuts more like a road tire, mine did anyway...

10/12/13 8:14 PM

The last time I rode it, I got a metal-head thumb tack straight-on into the rear tire, came right back to the house and popped in a huge-ish 700X40 tube, then headed back out.

Later I again heard clicking and found many rocks in the tread, which never happened before, but then I saw that I had apparently run over a bunch of sticky tree sap or fruit-tree droppings and that's what was retaining the gravel.