Riding Cambered Roads

JimT · February 9, 2018, 10:41pm

GizmoDuck:

I disagree. In my experience, it’s the other way around, round tyres are worse on camber than squarer profile tyres. I recently experimented with rim width: a large volume tyre on a skinny rim (which creates a round profile), and the same tyre on a wide rim (to create a squarer profile), and I’ve found the latter performs slightly better.

The other big factor is tyre pressure- too low pressure and the tyre becomes unrideable on camber.

My conclusion is that it has to do with tyre deformation. In order to go where you want to go, the tyre must keep the same shape. If the tyre changes shape, it will change the intended direction. If you are riding on a flat, uncambered surface, the tyre deformation is symmetrical, so it keeps going in the same direction, which is why you only notice low pressure on camber.

In terms of tyre- camber performance doesn’t correlate well with tyre profile, although I think squarer tyres work slightly better. The main factor for tyre performance is sidewall stiffness. I’ve experimented with the same tyre (Schwalbe Big One) as tubeless, as well as tubed. The tubeless required higher pressure to perform on camber, being less stiff and more prone to deformation.

GizmoDuck,
I have converted from my over simplified observation that rounder tires are better on camber and square tires are bad on camber. In one case that is true, a Coker non-skid totally round profiled tire is not effected by camber and Nightrider more square tire is quite bad on road camber. However the shape of the tire does not seem to be the whole story or maybe not any of the story. It seems to be much more complicated then that.

In this thread: New 36" tyre
OneTrackMind posted some observations and suggested that more study would be needed to better understand the issue.

Of course the other side of the whole issue is that a tire that is not effected by camber also can not make smooth turns just by leaning into the turn. And vice versa, a tire that is effected by camber can make nice smooth turns just by leaning into the turn.

Jim