Tyres

[D4MJT]

Hi,

I currently have Vittoria Zaffiro 700x25c tyres on my road bike, I've just notched up 300 miles on them, my first road bike, they came with it.

I'm looking around to see if it's worthwhile changing them out, or not?

They've been good in the rain, but now that it's been dry for 4 days I'm optimistic for summer, so I have designs in my head for changing them for the slickest, lowest rolling resistance tyre around, which undoubtedly leave me at least 11mph faster average

What's the cruel reality likely to be, and if it's worth changing, what are other people using?

[HurryUpAndWait]

I changed from 25s (Maxxis that came with the bike) to 23s (Conti 4 Season jobbies) last Autumn. I envisaged effortless rides at speeds hitherto unachieved.

If anything, I got slower. But no more punctures

[D4MJT]

HurryUpAndWait said:

I changed from 25s (Maxxis that came with the bike) to 23s (Conti 4 Season jobbies) last Autumn. I envisaged effortless rides at speeds hitherto unachieved.

If anything, I got slower. But no more punctures

Don't tell me that! I want shiny new things that'll make me faster with no more effort! Plus I've not had a puncture yet! Am I correct in thinking that 23c's are even slimmer?


Which is just as well as I still haven't gotten round to ordering tyre levers or any spare tubes yet.


Errrrrrr, you know what's going to happen on tonights ride home!

[Raven Flyer]

I used GP4000S for nearly 3 years and loved them. I would buy another set tomorrow.

My new bike came with Vittoria Open Corsa Evo and I must say they are damn fine too. If the Vittorias wear like the Contis did, they will get my votes in future.

[itsnotarace]

D4MJT said:

Hi,

I currently have Vittoria Zaffiro 700x25c tyres on my road bike, I've just notched up 300 miles on them, my first road bike, they came with it.

I'm looking around to see if it's worthwhile changing them out, or not?

Yes, they are just about the heaviest tyres known to mankind and are similar to riding strips of garden hose. Keep them for the turbo trainer. For summer use go for Continental GP4000S or all year round use, Continental 4 seasons

[HurryUpAndWait]

D4MJT said:

Don't tell me that! I want shiny new things that'll make me faster with no more effort! Plus I've not had a puncture yet! Am I correct in thinking that 23c's are even slimmer?

Okay then. They are slimmer and make you much faster. But not sure if they're compatible with Strava, as my times strangely got no better, weird huh

[yellowjack]

itsnotarace said:

D4MJT said:

Hi,

I currently have Vittoria Zaffiro 700x25c tyres on my road bike, I've just notched up 300 miles on them, my first road bike, they came with it.

I'm looking around to see if it's worthwhile changing them out, or not?

Yes, they are just about the heaviest tyres known to mankind and are similar to riding strips of garden hose. Keep them for the turbo trainer. For summer use go for Continental GP4000S or all year round use, Continental 4 seasons

What he said ^^^^

I had Vittoria Rubino tyres on my bike from new. I found them to be utterly terrible, compromised in every way. They lasted far less than 300 miles before I switched them for Schwalbe Ultremos for summer riding, and Continental Grand Prix 4 Seasons for the other 11 months of the year. The only reason I've not tried the GP4000S from Continental is the fact that I bought a job lot of cheap Ultremo R1s direct from Schwalbe UK when they were running down the stock as they changed to their new Ultremo ZX tyres.

Absolutely worth changing them, IMHO. Keep them as a back-up set, in case of dire emergencies, sell them, or if you have one, keep them for use on a turbo trainer, as suggested.

[BadgerBenji]

yellowjack said:

Ultremo ZX tyres.

Spot on tyre, not had any nasty moments on them yet, wet or dry, even tried them on hardpack snow the other week.

[anonymous-user]

Last week I would have said ContiGP4000s without thinking but one ride on Michelin pro3 race is enough to convert me, £20 each from decathlon and other places as the pro4 is new out. You'll be amazed, especially with the central sticky compound section...

[NitroNick]

imho.. all the top of the range tyres from the top manufacturers are very similar from a performance point of view the only difference seems to be puncture resistance and longevity.
I've had a set of Ultremos blister after ~300 miles while the most recent set have lasted > 250 hours on the turbo, so even within manufacturers you get some batches of tyres that are sub standard and some that are spot on.
In the end of the day I always go with whatever is on special offer so i can change them out frequently enough.

[yellowjack]

BadgerBenji said:

yellowjack said:

Ultremo ZX tyres.

Spot on tyre, not had any nasty moments on them yet, wet or dry, even tried them on hardpack snow the other week.

I'll be moving on to the ZX just as soon as I've worked my way through the stock of R1's I bought last year. This could take some time, as I haven't ridden the road bike since last October

I have recently been getting out for the odd 5 miles here and there on my MTB, thanks to some encouragement from MadDad (Thanks, Lee), so after a bit of a spruce-up (the bike) and a couple more (longer distance) outings off road (me) I reckon I'll be ready to face my demons, and start working my way through ALL of my spare tyres. I weighed myself on a hotel room scales this morning - 77.3kg, or 12st2lb-ish, at all of 5ft6in, and struggling to fasten my trousers. Put into some context, my competition weight for Judo was under 55kg (admittedly in my mid teens) and at 17/18 I was boxing at Featherweight/Junior Lightweight (roughly 57kg/58kg) dependant upon what gap the team needed to fill. I can't believe I'm 20kg over that now - that's nearly a kilo per year increase, although most of it has gone on in the last year or so.

[Matt_N]

HurryUpAndWait said:

I changed from 25s (Maxxis that came with the bike) to 23s (Conti 4 Season jobbies) last Autumn. I envisaged effortless rides at speeds hitherto unachieved.

If anything, I got slower. But no more punctures

You fell into the trap thinking that narrower tyres = faster!

Been quite a lot of research into 23 vs 25 and the results seem to show they are faster due to less deflection of the tyre between the road and rim when compared to 23 meaning the 25 provides less rolling resistance.

[okgo]

Never had issues with gp4000s only had issues with ultremo r1's the sidewalks are utter crap.

Got evo corsa on TT bik and they seem good

[MadDad]

Personally I rally rate Vredestein's, I used the Fortezza TriComp's towards the end of last summer and found them very comfy, very grippy and extremely fast rolling. Then my winter tyre of choice is the Fortezza Quattro TriComp, again very grippy but with a slightly wider centre to the tyre, ribbed surface on the shoulders and a bit more puncture resistance over the TriComp's.

The Ti bike came with a set of Pro3's which were also excellent, although I have only ridden a few hundred miles on them before sticking winter tyres on.