Road Racing Tyres

dave2pvd

I don't understand the idea of training on ProRace 3's. I use them for criterium racing (on Ksyriums). Read: cornering grip absolutely critical. They are a soft, gluey tyre with lots of grip. They wear fast. Like many race tyres, their cornering performance when they wear can be abysmal, particularly if they develop shoulders (from training use). Their rolling resistance is medium (they claim it is low). Their puncture resistance is poor. IMO, they are responsive tires that are good at cornering hard, and that's it. Oh, and they're expensive. Even more than ProRace II was.

I know I sound opinionated here, but come on, don't be wasting your money.

PBK have an excellent Vittoria Winter training tyre that is Kevlar belted. Zaffiro Pro; price is mid-teens, IIRC. It's a 60tpi, durable foldable tyre. I use them all the time in the off-season. So far, I've never had a puncture. And that with thousands of miles on less than optimum roads.

Tau

dave2pvd wrote: »

I don't understand the idea of training on ProRace 3's. I use them for criterium racing (on Ksyriums). Read: cornering grip absolutely critical. They are a soft, gluey tyre with lots of grip. They wear fast. Like many race tyres, their cornering performance when they wear can be abysmal, particularly if they develop shoulders (from training use). Their rolling resistance is medium (they claim it is low). Their puncture resistance is poor. IMO, they are responsive tires that are good at cornering hard, and that's it. Oh, and they're expensive. Even more than ProRace II was.

I know I sound opinionated here, but come on, don't be wasting your money.

PBK have an excellent Vittoria Winter training tyre that is Kevlar belted. Zaffiro Pro; price is mid-teens, IIRC. It's a 60tpi, durable foldable tyre. I use them all the time in the off-season. So far, I've never had a puncture. And that with thousands of miles on less than optimum roads.

Any other recommendations for a cheapish tyre with which to replace the ultra-cheap ones that came on my beone storm 2.0?

I'm not going to be racing any time soon, but I still want to be fast, but I definitely don't want punctures...

Home:Ballyhoura

Yes, the Vittoria Rubino Pro has been very good to me during training and racing. The Michelin Krylion Carbon would be another great puncture resistant tyre!

dave2pvd

Tau wrote: »

Any other recommendations for a cheapish tyre with which to replace the ultra-cheap ones that came on my beone storm 2.0?

I'm not going to be racing any time soon, but I still want to be fast, but I definitely don't want punctures...

I've always had great luck with Vittorias over the years. Sometimes they can be hard to get on to the rim though...the bead is pretty tight. Lately, all the performance tyres I have used have been Michelin PR 2 and 3 and Maxxis Courchevel. Maxxis Detonator is a great training tyre. Are Maxxis available in Ireland? I hope so. They're unbelievably good value.

Fast tyres are unfortunately not so puncture resistant. Of course, new tyres are more resistant than old ones.....

Don't worry too much about your tyres slowing you down. They come in well outside of the top 10 of things that slow you down. My advice is to save money on Winter tyres and put it towards the #1 performance enhancer there is: a professional bike set-up. Done right, it takes around an hour.

I really shake my head at some teammates' ability to waste money. I see them training on tubular Zipp 404s some days My value-oriented Winter setup up is Aksiums with Zaffiro Pros. Usually on my 1x10 cyclocross bike. Quite the contrast to my Summer racing bike!

Home:Ballyhoura

I remember someone saying that no Pro teams use coloured tyres, but I just saw in the Tour Of California that the Bissell Pro Cycling Team use red tyres. Pictures can be seen of these on their website

blorg

Murph100 wrote: »

Aye I hear ya ! You did bloody amazing with that Archon, what a sweet deal ! BTW how are you finding those Mavics ?

The R-SYS were really nice, very smooth, light and mega-stiff (absolutely no possibility of brake rub) while not being harsh. However the front having to go back due to the possibility of it exploding was a bit of a downer So I have my DT Swiss RR1450s on it at the moment.

Home:Ballyhoura

If anyone is interested, I just got a stock notification email that Continental Attack Force Black/Black Twin Set Chili tyres are back in stock for €55.45 (only 2 per customer!)

bryangiggsy

Bought a pair from Probikekit about 2 months ago and had only done about 300k on them when while up in the mountains had 2 blowouts on them. I could not believe this happened. Pressure was below 120. The tyres went all hairy and wore right through and are for the bin. what a waste of money. Will not be buying them again.

Bryan

Home:Ballyhoura

bryangiggsy wrote: »

Bought a pair from Probikekit about 2 months ago

What tyres are you talking about here?

Smithzer

Michelin Pro 3

Its in the header

alfalad

Smithzer wrote: »

Michelin Pro 3

Oh dear i just bought a pair!!

Smithzer

I actually seen Bryan's tyres myself and they are in a bad way and I'd day if there was 350KM's on them it would be max. They have worn right down and the front is just as bad as the back (did use on the Turbo Trainer). Anybody else have this prob with Pro 3's.

zzzzzzzz

Smithzer wrote: »

I actually seen Bryan's tyres myself and they are in a bad way and I'd day if there was 350KM's on them it would be max. They have worn right down and the front is just as bad as the back (did use on the Turbo Trainer). Anybody else have this prob with Pro 3's.

If you return the tyres to whatever shop you bought them from I'm fairly sure you're entitled to a refund. 350k for a set of tyres is ridiculous.

As I mentioned before - i'm using the Pro3 race for racing. I probably only have about 150km on them at the most. Still look ok but we'll see when i've got some more mileage (or kilometerage even) on them.

Murph100

Jaysus, they sound knackered ! Did they do much on the turbo trainer ?

I've about 1,000 Km on mine, in all sorts of crap roads here in Kerry and they have also seen a fair amount on a Tacx Fortuis & they still look fine, never had a flat either.

Cant explain that sort of wear at all, but regarding punctures, perhaps the tube could be a major factor that we're overlooking. I'm running my Pro3s with some run of the mill oem tubes that came with the bike originally, might be a lot tougher than the ultra-light tubes that others might be using.

dave2pvd

I raced 3 criteriums over the weekend. Used my PR3s. Those tyres corner so well, it seems that they defy physics. It's fantastic to be able to dive for the inside line and pull back 5 or 6 positions. There's no way I could do that on my training tyres (Vittoria), or on TT-specific tyres, like the Zipps.

I truly believe that they are criterium tyres. Given that almost every race in Ireland is a road race, are PR3s appropriate? Perhaps if there are a series of sharp turns in the last few K, I could see that cornering grip could be the number 1 concern. But outside of the Stephen Roche Grand Prix, where would you need such a soft compound tyre?

If you happen to work for Michelin, please don't come after me

Gavin

I was going to start a new topic, but this seems relevant.

I get nervous when going around a corner that my wheels are going to slide out. Both on the mtb and the roadbike.

Does this actually happen much? Is it a matter of experiencing it happening in order to determine how far you can lean when taking a bend?

It seems to be common on the mtb, the back wheel sliding out, but bends tend to be sharper so the bike straightens up quicker. The road bike though, with long sweeping bends where you just have to commit to it, if the wheel goes, surely there's not a lot one can do?

Am I just a pansy? (only answering the above questions allows this question to be answered)

dave2pvd

Gavin wrote: »

I was going to start a new topic, but this seems relevant.

I get nervous when going around a corner that my wheels are going to slide out. Both on the mtb and the roadbike.

Does this actually happen much? Is it a matter of experiencing it happening in order to determine how far you can lean when taking a bend?

It seems to be common on the mtb, the back wheel sliding out, but bends tend to be sharper so the bike straightens up quicker. The road bike though, with long sweeping bends where you just have to commit to it, if the wheel goes, surely there's not a lot one can do?

Am I just a pansy? (only answering the above questions allows this question to be answered)

Gavin,

You are a pansy

On a road bike, if your front wheel goes, it probably won't be catchable. With the rear, it's possible, unless you are off camber, or the surface conditions are sh1te/wet.

Personally, discovering where the limits of adhesion are has been learned by going past them. But I was young then. The years have dulled the pain. Thankfully.

Great tyres can help. For example, a sticky tyre will give some feedback before it slides; it will 'squirm'. It's not always possible to identify that feeling though. Road surface conditions need to be smooth. And dry.

How about following an experienced rider down a twisty descent? That would probably get you within sight of the limit. Unless you have good visibility, you probably don't want to get too close.

Dave

Gavin

dave2pvd wrote: »

Gavin,

You are a pansy

haha I thought so

How about following an experienced rider down a twisty descent? That would probably get you within sight of the limit. Unless you have good visibility, you probably don't want to get too close.

Dave

Ok fair enough, seems to be a good idea alright. Cheers for that

Home:Ballyhoura

Hi guys, my Pro 3 Races have probably done a bit over 500km now and they have picked up a few cuts along the way. Just looking at them there and I noticed a deep one as seen in the picture below. Do you think this tyre should be thrown in the bin straight away or can I keep riding it (or is there some way of repairing it)? I really don't want to be thinking of this with fear of it blowing out on me descending or just going fast! What do ye think? Cheers

dave2pvd

I'd bin that. Strange place for a cut. When I get cuts they always seem to be small nicks on the gray part of the tyre.

Home:Ballyhoura

dave2pvd wrote: »

I'd bin that. Strange place for a cut. When I get cuts they always seem to be small nicks on the gray part of the tyre.

Thanks for that, does everyone think the same?

short circuit

I have 2 or 3 similar ones on my rear Schwalbe Ultremo since the first 300kms on them ... they are not on the sidewall, but on the patch which comes in contact with the road.

I have 2000kms on them so far with no issues ... but then I don't change tyres till I get a couple of punctures within a fortnight ... but I do clean them of all puncture wounds every week or so.

Home:Ballyhoura

short circuit wrote: »

I have 2 or 3 similar ones on my rear Schwalbe Ultremo since the first 300kms on them ... they are not on the sidewall, but on the patch which comes in contact with the road.

I have 2000kms on them so far with no issues ... but then I don't change tyres till I get a couple of punctures within a fortnight ... but I do clean them of all puncture wounds every week or so.

Are you saying to replace them or just keep on going with them? €25 is a lot to throw out after just 500km. Should a deep cut on the sidewall be treated any different to one on the contact patch? When yours go, do they blow-out or just slowly lose pressure. I might glue up the hole and use it just for training, but I would hate to think it could blow out just because I was too mean to get a new tyre!

short circuit

Home:Ballyhoura wrote: »

Are you saying to replace them or just keep on going with them? €25 is a lot to throw out after just 500km. Should a deep cut on the sidewall be treated any different to one on the contact patch? When yours go, do they blow-out or just slowly lose pressure. I might glue up the hole and use it just for training, but I would hate to think it could blow out just because I was too mean to get a new tyre!

Neither ... I am not telling you what to do at all ... ... just my experience.

Same cuts on the contact patch with Ultremos for the last 1700kms ... nothing has happenned ... no punctures ... nothing. No blowouts ... no bulges ... no leaks

Then I am giving an idea of how tight I am by saying that I will only change mine if I start getting weekly punctures ... these will stay on till that time.

Home:Ballyhoura

short circuit wrote: »

No blowouts ... no bulges ... no leaks

I just noticed there that there is a slight bulge at the cut, but nothing major! What does this mean, does it make a difference, like more serious or what? Sorry for all the question!

dave2pvd

With training tyres, I'll change them when the rolling part of the thread gets very thin. Hopefully right before the multiple puncture phase begins. By that time, there are lots of little nicks and cuts visible.

With racing tyres, well before that point. Once they develop shoulders, they're gone.

To rephrase: I'll prolong the life of the $12 tyre for thousands of miles, but the sticky race tyre lives a short but exciting half season.

Chips Lovell

Bulge = new tyre. Unless you like surprise blowouts.

Hungrycol

@Home:Ballyhoura
Why not send an email off to Michelin ask them. If it was me I'd bin it and get a new one, too risky.