I am working on getting a 36er and if I have the option to get both which is better for distance riding on a road
I have no experience with the Coker tire but I would be willing to bet that the Wheel TA tire would have slightly less drag due to its smooth profile. Suposedly it lasts a lot longer too.
The TA seems to have more rubber on it. With a smooth tread to start with, you won’t have the same problem I had with my aging Coker tire, in that it started to get really sensitive to road camber. This is a problem if you like to ride along the sides of highways where the pavement is always going to be slanted. When I switched to a new TA, this problem went right away!
so it sounds like the Wheel TA is the way to go (unless coker comes out with a new awesome tire)
I’ve ridden both pretty hard on the road and I haven’t noticed much difference in performance. The Coker tyre will wear away much quicker though. I wore down the knobs in half after only a days riding.
But everyone knows you can do donuts around most bicyclists. 
Very few people seem to have tried both tyres.
I’ve only ever ridden the TA, but I’ve found it to be smooth, nice handling, and almost silent (except when you ride on wet surfaces, at which point it makes some fairly weird gurgling noises).
When I chose the TA for my new 36er, I had the vague impression that more people liked it for road riding than liked the Coker tyre. The Coker is lighter though and potentially better offroad. People also seem to get phenomenal mileages on their TA rubber before needing a replacement.
I’ve been riding my Wheel TA tire since I got my 36er in December 2006 and it hasn’t even shown signs of wear (this is also after this year’s RAGBRAI). Also, it seems to even perform very well (as well as can be expected on a coker) on snow and ice.
I had a chance to ride a little bit on the coker tire a few days ago, and I would agree that there’s not a ton of difference in the feel of them (though I, admittedly, was not able to test the coker to its limits like I wanted to). But even so, the knobs do seem like they’d wear out pretty quick, and the pattern doesn’t seem at all useful. But that’s only speculation; take it as you will.
Ive also ridden both tires and my TA has about 900 miles on it and still looks new with minimal wear. The coker tire still rides pretty smooth despite its tread pattern but it seems to wear out quicker in my experience. I recently had a coker that I was fixing for a friend and his coker tire showed serious wear and only a couple hundred miles on it.
thanks all
Just to add further confusion. First, I have tried both tires extensively, and for road riding I now use the TA exclusively. Much smoother ride. And it fits all rims.
Second, I weighed several of these tires, and some TA’s are actually lighter than the Cokers. Any time someone offers an opinion on weight of a component, ask them if they have actually seen the weights. Too often weight claims are made with no personal knowledge.
Third, I am currently riding a shaved TA, having stripped off the outer 2 tread ribs, leaving only the center 3. Not only a lighter tire, but I noticed that I didn’t really ride on the outer ribs anyway, so why have them?
Pete
how’d you shave them
hmmm…Pictures?
I’ll take a pic & post back soon.
Here’s my first shaved tire. The outer ribs on each side manually removed with a razor knife. Not perfect, but it proved the concept. This tire is just one of the modified components in my lightest 36er wheel ever built.
what else have you done?
Drilled out Airfoil rims (<1100g), 700c x 44mm tubes, high flange hubs, 14g spokes with alloy splined nipples.
On the latter item, I used to use Sem’s 12g brass nipples drilled for 14g spokes, but 36 of those weighed 72g. 36 alloy nipples weigh 20g. 62g (2.2 oz) lighter on the nips alone. I have yet to have the threads on them strip out.
I know alot of you don’t care about wheel weight, but once you try a superlight wheel, you would understand. I find the light wheels faster, and less fatiguing. When you get tired, you have less “almost UPDs”, because it takes less pedal force to make a balance correction.
So, for this thread issue, I would say the tire weights are not really different enough. The benefit of the TA for road riding is in the slick tread.
I love how you push the technology, unisk8r!
Did you have the nipples made for you, or what did you do?
That sounds so bad 
I know a good plastic surgeon who could make them for you.
Pete- I’m conviced about shaving the tyre now…both you and Sam Wakeling have done that. Should save a lot of rolling weight.
Weight makes a HUGE difference to how well the wheel rides. The so called flywheel effect will still be there…it’s such a big wheel and big tyre volume that I’m sure you can shave up to half the weight off it and it will still ride like a tank.
Ken - Tire rubber is indeed heavy. Each of those 1/4" strips of tread on the TA weighs 100g.
Dave - I cannot publicly disclose my out-of-production nips…I’m sure you can understand.