Ultimate Tyre Comparison!

velo.2010

Well maybe not. Sorry if its been done before but I was bored and needed something to keep my mind off my injury. I've been reading various mags with their reviews and so on and found this most interesting, not least 'cause it reviews the Bontrager R4-similar to the tyre I had on when I came off.

The test covered all areas concerned with tyres including weight, price, grip, rolling resistance. All tests used the same bike, a Canyon CF SLX w/ Mavic R-SYS wheels. All surfaces were used as well as testing in wet and dry for measuring cornering grip. A 'scientific' element included a test on rollers for each tyre at the same speed of 30mph, same pressure and same gear on a Powertap rear hub for wattage comparison. Although the results showed a difference far wider than one would normally expect it broadly correlated with what the testers felt out on the road.

I won't include every tyre and will leave out the TPI. I'll summarise grip/RR(rolling resistance) in a line or two from what they said.

Schwalbe Ultremo ZX HD £37.99
Weight 197g
Wattage 127W
Fast, super grippy with better protective layer for more life. Top all-rounder. Test winner!
5 Star

Continental GP 4000S £39.95
Weight 204g
Wattage 138W
Fast and grippy with Vectran layer for protection. Good on rough roads. Second only to Ultremo above.
4 Star

Bontrager R4 £39.99
Weight 174g
Wattage 161W
Lots of features but average performance. Fast in straight lines and decent through clean corners but grip is sketchy in greasy/dirty conditions(now they tell me:rolleyes:). Not as aero as claimed.
2 Star

Panaracer Race Type L £34.99
Weight 186g
Wattage 164W
Less puncture protection keeps weight down. Grippy through corners and on greasy roads but feels slower than average in a straight line.
3 Star

Vredestein Fortezza Tricomp £35
Weight 226g
Wattage 143W
Slightly heavy but easy fit gives supple ride with excellent traction. Good rolling speed with legendary reliability and puncture protection. Scored well alongside Conti's.
4 Star

Michelin Pro 3 Light £35.99
Weight 179g
Wattage 138W
Increased performance over Pro 2. Sticky compound glues you to road. Downside is this tyre will pick up debris very quickly and disentegrate on the road. Very much a race day tyre.
3 Star

Honourable mentions for Ritchey WCS Race Slick Open. Not light but supple and quick. Vittoria Open Corsa Sc and Veloflex Master 22 are similar in decent performance and puncture resistance. Keep clear of Kenda and Deda.

The results are not so surprising perhaps. The Conti's are well regarded on this forum and performed well on the test. New HD version of Ultremos brings the reliability and less tyre shredding the rubber needed to bring it into this class. My similar Bontragers(level below in terms of TPI) to the ones above are probably more suspect when it comes to grip and the wattage needed to keep them at the set roller speed compared to other tyres is incredible. A good 30 Watts more than the best performing tyres. Wattage results, as stated before, are beyond what you expect on the road but its still clear that some tyres offer much better rolling resistance than others.

Hope this was helpful if only to back up what you perhaps already knew.

mahoo

37 watts in the difference! thats way more than i would have expected. . now i have something else to blame my sluggish pace on

Lemag

Interesting although you're a day too late

Incidentally, I went with the Michelin Pro 3 Grip. Were they tested for this report? Which mag was it in?

velo.2010

It was the Light version of the Michelins.

Oh yeah forgot to mention its from Cycling Plus magazine.

Lumen

Lemag wrote: »

Incidentally, I went with the Michelin Pro 3 Grip. Were they tested for this report? Which mag was it in?

I have used them for racing and commuting. They're one of the only tyre types I haven't crashed on.

manwithaplan

I like my GP 4000S (s) but others here have complained of weak sidewalls. I didn't pay much heed but my rear tyre blew out at the sidewall on the WW200. Didn't have a huge distance on it. Might have had it 5 PSI above normal (maybe 115PSI). It was an extreme sort of day and their grip in the wet was first class but it does seem that you pay a bit for the light weight. Still think I will buy another one as a replacement.

Lemag

Excuse my ignorance here, but are these sidewall blowouts not perhaps due to having the brake pads aligned wrongly throughout or at some stage i.e. rubbing off the sidewall of the tyre rather than just on the braking surface of the rims?

Lemag

Lumen wrote: »

I have used them for racing and commuting. They're one of the only tyre types I haven't crashed on.

The only criticism I could really find about them is that they aparantly tend to cut up quite easily. An important aspect to consider but 'twas a good price sure.

kennyb3

Lemag wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance here, but are these sidewall blowouts not perhaps due to having the brake pads aligned wrongly throughout or at some stage i.e. rubbing off the sidewall of the tyre rather than just on the braking surface of the rims?

You would think that but my brake pads were perfectly aligned and i had 2 sidewall bulges on GP4000's, but others have had none and love them. I ve prob just been unlucky or something.

manwithaplan

Not in my case but I can't speak for others. It wouldn't explain why people report it as a particular issue for the GP4000S.

Lumen

mahoo wrote: »

37 watts in the difference! thats way more than i would have expected. . now i have something else to blame my sluggish pace on

Yeah, but that's at 48kph, where the extra 37 watts would only get you about 1kph.

Bunnyhopper

This is from a few years ago now but it's interesting all the same:

http://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-1503651.html

Their tubular results
http://ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/0/02/72/10/tubular-specs.html

and clinchers
http://ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/0/02/72/10/clincher-specs.html

EDIT: I notice they have a report on the Michelin Pro 3 (Race not Grip) here: http://www.rouesartisanales.com/article-18510115.html

chakattack

Lemag wrote: »

Interesting although you're a day too late

Incidentally, I went with the Michelin Pro 3 Grip. Were they tested for this report? Which mag was it in?

I've used the Pro 3 light and standard Pro 3

The light version is noticeably lighter in your hand but no noticeable difference on the road/hills. They puncture much more easily than the standard Pro 3 and don't last long. Not worth the hassle.

The standard Pro 3's develop nicks quickly but very rarely puncture and I got very good mileage from them. The light version got some very bad gashes that rendered it useless in the space of a couple of months.

browneire

manwithaplan wrote: »

I like my GP 4000S (s) but others here have complained of weak sidewalls.....

Im another complainer then - blow out with less than 500Km.