700c tyres:advice

bcmf

OK so after 18 months getting my legs used to turning on a hybrid after many many years I feel the time has come to start putting in serious miles (well I am after being talked into joining a club and doing club racing for a year then joining the vets open road).I have bought a nice road bike but wanna put some new rubber.
Want a fairly decent tyre 700x23 or 25.Good rolling puncture resist etc.
Am impressed with the reviews of the Conti 4000S Black Chili or would Armadillo Gatorskins be the man.Also Best (online?) place to buy.
Ta in advance

TinyExplosions

I use the Conti 4000 myself, and have no problems with them. I got them from Wiggle, but paid a little over the odds -think chain reaction have them cheaper

rflynnr

I'm open to correction on this but I think you're conflating Specialized Armadillos and Continental Gator Skins. The former are bulletproof (I've literally never had a puncture with them) but are discernably slower than other tyres regardless of whether you're buying them for 700c or 26'' wheels. Gator Skins have less rolling resistance (i.e. are faster) and although they offer less puncture protection than Armadillos they're certainly more punctured resistant than most. It depends on whether you value speed over reliability.

blorg

Armadillos are also slippery as hell in the wet. Utterly bulletproof, used them for many years and got over 20,000km out of one, but also came off twice due to the slipperyness. Conti Gatorskins offer a good compromise and I have them on my tourer; have Schwalbe Ultremo tyres on my racer which are an utterly phenomal tyre for something that weighs under 200g - have had to replace the back recently due to a blowout on that crazy hill we went up last weekend, but had around 4,000km on it at that stage.

Kinetic^

I gots armadillos, 700*23. They're fine for my commute as it's about 99% straight road so even in the rain I'm not affected.

Lilphich

The new conti 4000s (s for sport I believe) seem to go alright. I haven't done many miles on it yet. They are reasonably expensive though but quite light. They are meant to offer less rolling resistance if you want to believe the hype.

Poncherello

I have the Continentals since May and have not had a puncture yet, definitely noticed a difference in rolling resistance with the standard tyres that came with my bike

snubbleste

I have a newbie question
My bike has 700x23c tyres and I need to replace them. The ones i want are only available in 700x35c - what's the difference, will they fit my wheels?

DirkVoodoo

Nope. Do you know what wheels you have? The 23 and 35 refer to the width of the tyre in mm, I don't know of a wheel that would accept such a broad range of tyre widths.

Just buy another 700x23 from the usual spots; Chainreaction, wiggle, PBK, etc. Vittoria, Continental and Schwalbe are all good tyres. Choose one that best suits your needs (i.e. racing, commuting, weight, grip, puncture resistance).

Any more questions feel free to ask!

ROK ON

OK, kiss of death time.

I use Armadillos on my weekend bike for spins. I have not (yet) fallen off on them. A few weeks before Christmas I was up in the Sally Gap on ice filled roads and climbed and descending on them without an issue. (Now, I was aware of the ice and took reasonable care.) I have used them throughout our incredibly wet summer & Autumn and have not come off (yet). Hope it stays that way.

I do not dismiss other folks issues with them.

On the gatorskins, got some for my commuter bike. Two punctures in the first four days (front and back tyres).

DirkVoodoo

I am torn between armadillos and gatorskins, I really don't mind puncture resistance but I am concerned about grip. Which would be the grippier of the two ROK for commuting about Dublin?

ROK ON

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I am torn between armadillos and gatorskins, I really don't mind puncture resistance but I am concerned about grip. Which would be the grippier of the two ROK for commuting about Dublin?

Cant really say, as I have been using the gatorskins for only two weeks, and use the armadillos on on w/e spins.

I do not notice a difference as of yet. In saying that, last week and week before I commuted in combinations of icy roads and very wet roads. I did not feel vulnerable on the gatorskin. Nor did I skid majorly. I did a little skid in the park one morning, but that was down to ice on the cyclepath I would say, rather than the tyre itself. While I skidded, the bike did not fall from under me.

The armadillos seem to have good grip for me. Have been up and down wicklow direction in wind, rain, freezing fog and ice. Only time that i ended up off the bike was that the wind blew me off. Hardly the tyres fault.

Lumen

snubbleste wrote: »

I have a newbie question
My bike has 700x23c tyres and I need to replace them. The ones i want are only available in 700x35c - what's the difference, will they fit my wheels?

35mm tyres will fit a normal road rim. The problem (on a road bike) is usually squeezing them into the frame and brakes.

23mm-35mm is a big change in width.

blorg

For grip, I would not be looking at either Armadillos or Gatorskins, get a race tyre like the Schwalbe Ultremo, Continental GP4000, etc.

xz

Gatorskins offer great puncture protection, but are scary as hell in the wet, just replaced mine with Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case tyres, supposed to offer good puncture resistence and grip, and so far, so good, I used to get rear wheel slip on Gatorskins when I climbed out of the saddle in wet, so far I haven't with these.

(replaced the Gatorskins, because they just plain wore out, but got over 4,500kms on them, well the back one wore out, the front one is still in very good condition)

steinone

Ok well I have bought my first pair of 700c wheels(queue applause) which came on my Fuji track, I have heard loads of complaints about the tyres being too plasticy that come on the Fuji.
I have rode(very hard) only in winter on these tyres and havent slipped once, so no complaints. They are pretty much slick....(as new) I do skid quite allot since I ride fixed and like to mess around:D
The back is getting quite bald and has a hole in it that nearly reaches the tube:S

Any recommendations?

Home:Ballyhoura

5 pages of discussion on this topic here which may be of some help to you! I like the Vittoria tyres from PBK (nice and cheap too!)

Also...ProBikeKit have the best price on tyres anywhere 99% of the time. You can get £5 off orders over £50 too...let me know if your interested!

DirkVoodoo

5 pages!! Can't you condense it for me or do I have to wait for the tv movie to come out?

I got a Vittoria Corsa on my back wheel after a blowout, great tyre compared to the crap stock ones on the Ridley, very soft rubber compound. However I have Vittoria Zaffiro on my commuter which have stood up remarkably well to the hazards of cycling on glass strewn paths, however I dispute their claims about them being good in the wet, they do slip quite a bit and I had a nasty fall around a bend at christmas (brake hoods kicked me in the ribs, pain there for about 3 weeks).

Thanks for the link H:B.

steinone

Yeah cheers HB, at least I know where to get them cheap, I am going for the luminous green motif for my Fuji, I think it will come out well as an accent, for some reason I always think that race tyres will be too soft for fixed fun:P. I might just bite the bullet and buy a single coloured tyre, sure if its good on the back of a fixed gear set up to have 3 skid patches it will be good on anything.:D

AstraMonti

Quick thread hijack!

My tyres are losing 30 to 40psi per week.. is that normal?

Gavin

AstraMonti wrote: »

Quick thread hijack!

My tyres are losing 30 to 40psi per week.. is that normal?

No ! Slow puncture, get the aul puncture repair kit and basin of water out.

AstraMonti

Gavin wrote: »

No ! Slow puncture, get the aul puncture repair kit and basin of water out.

On both tyres? :O Feck..!

blorg

I would suspect a slow puncture would see you flat in a shorter period of time.

You can lose a certain amount in a week, esp if pumped up to 110 PSI, you could be down to 70-80 in a week all right.

AstraMonti

blorg wrote: »

I would suspect a slow puncture would see you flat in a shorter period of time.

You can lose a certain amount in a week, esp if pumped up to 110 PSI, you could be down to 70-80 in a week all right.

Ah yeah, thats the case.. i generally pump them up to 115 or so and they get to 70-80 in a week.