Best tyres for commuting?

fat and old
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby fat and old » Thu Mar 26, 2015 3:50 pm

warthog1 wrote:2036 km from the randonneur and the red line was almost continuous around the tread. Ditched it and on with the schwalbe lugano.
Famous last words but I am done with leather tyres. The bike feels so much more lively without a thick heavy rear tyre on. The heavier/thicker the tyre, the more it sucks the life out of the ride. I think I'm with SSScott here,
singlespeedscott wrote:life is too short to ride heavy tyres
:)
I reckon a durano plus is as thick as I'll go in future.
I use Schwalbe ones. first one lasted about 7-8 weeks at best. :lol: , but it rolls, is smooth and handles well. Puncture resistance on sub-standard bike paths: Nil :lol:

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby warthog1 » Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:23 pm

Bugger :x Too exxy for that sort of life span. Durano plus seems a good compromise, worth a try anyway.
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biker jk
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby biker jk » Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:41 pm

fat and old wrote:
warthog1 wrote:2036 km from the randonneur and the red line was almost continuous around the tread. Ditched it and on with the schwalbe lugano.
Famous last words but I am done with leather tyres. The bike feels so much more lively without a thick heavy rear tyre on. The heavier/thicker the tyre, the more it sucks the life out of the ride. I think I'm with SSScott here,
singlespeedscott wrote:life is too short to ride heavy tyres
:)
I reckon a durano plus is as thick as I'll go in future.
I use Schwalbe ones. first one lasted about 7-8 weeks at best. :lol: , but it rolls, is smooth and handles well. Puncture resistance on sub-standard bike paths: Nil :lol:
What exactly happened to it? I've heard of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres being destroyed after little use. Some objects will kill any tyre, so that your experience might not be indicative of poor puncture resistance. Another case in point is a puncture I suffered on a near new Vittoria Rubino Pro when a thin 1cm length of wire went straight through the middle of tread. This is a training tyre and the same thing would have happened to a race tyre like the Schwalbe One which also provides more grip and less rolling resistance.

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singlespeedscott
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby singlespeedscott » Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:52 pm

Wire will penetrate any tyre under the right conditions. That's why I don't bother with tyres that have a puncture belt. If your going to flat your going to flat.

I use to use 28mm Rubino's for commuting. My experience was good milage and few punctures. However they didn't roll the fastest and the certainly left little to be desired when it came to wet cornering grip.
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rusty842
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby rusty842 » Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:13 pm

I'm about to start riding in the morning for my first winter. Assuming wet weather grip is a priority is the gp4000s ii folding tyre the best option for a daily ride of 50-70kms in the morning at 5am?

fat and old
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby fat and old » Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:00 pm

biker jk wrote:
What exactly happened to it? I've heard of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres being destroyed after little use. Some objects will kill any tyre, so that your experience might not be indicative of poor puncture resistance. Another case in point is a puncture I suffered on a near new Vittoria Rubino Pro when a thin 1cm length of wire went straight through the middle of tread. This is a training tyre and the same thing would have happened to a race tyre like the Schwalbe One which also provides more grip and less rolling resistance.
Went over a little twig, it ripped the outer layer off the tyre so you could see the fabricry stuff underneath (almost a square centimetre), went through that in one area. Really thin outer layer. Done similar on GP4000s many times and not had an issue, but its luck of the draw I reckon. It was already starting to square off a little, I'd have to look carefully but I think it did maybe 1,800 k's. I'm sure I wrote it down somewhere. The One's replaced a set of worn GP4000s that had done maybe 7k (again I could be out 1k either way, I'd have to check) and were getting a puncture in the rear almost every second time I rode the bike. First set of One's the LBS matched the online sales (40 bucks per), second set I wore $75.00 per....then found them on sale for 45 bucks on a local on-line somewhere the day after. :lol:

The bike came with 23mm Rubino Pros. Fat blokes and Rubino Pros = issues :lol:

Edit....the Ones were already pretty cut up, also. But comfy as :D

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby warthog1 » Fri Mar 27, 2015 1:27 pm

singlespeedscott wrote:That's why I don't bother with tyres that have a puncture belt. If your going to flat your going to flat.
those vectran belts, or kevlar, or whatever they are seem to stop glass pretty well. You can still get a fairly supple tyre with that sort of protection. i don't know how they ride compared to the tyres you use though as I haven't used challenge tyres.
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby skydance » Fri Mar 27, 2015 3:28 pm

rusty842 wrote:I'm about to start riding in the morning for my first winter. Assuming wet weather grip is a priority is the gp4000s ii folding tyre the best option for a daily ride of 50-70kms in the morning at 5am?
Wet asphalt - OK. Puddles - no thanks. Better with something else.

Another big issue is green paint that covers cycleways. Rain + green paint + GP4000s2 + turn = disaster. Last December I crashed twice in 15 minutes, both times doing 4-5 kph. No grip in turn. None at all. Had to take the road and ride next to a cycleway... may be just my karma.

And they don't last long. Rear gave up after ~3.200 km, front held until ~4.500 ish.

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rusty842
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby rusty842 » Fri Mar 27, 2015 8:30 pm

skydance wrote:
rusty842 wrote:I'm about to start riding in the morning for my first winter. Assuming wet weather grip is a priority is the gp4000s ii folding tyre the best option for a daily ride of 50-70kms in the morning at 5am?
Wet asphalt - OK. Puddles - no thanks. Better with something else.

Another big issue is green paint that covers cycleways. Rain + green paint + GP4000s2 + turn = disaster. Last December I crashed twice in 15 minutes, both times doing 4-5 kph. No grip in turn. None at all. Had to take the road and ride next to a cycleway... may be just my karma.

And they don't last long. Rear gave up after ~3.200 km, front held until ~4.500 ish.
Good to know. I don't think there is much green cycle paint on my routes. The mileage I'm happy to give up if that means grip. I'd rather buy an extra set of tyres a year if that means saving one fall.

What else is worth looking at?

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Drizt
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby Drizt » Sat Mar 28, 2015 8:55 am

4 seasons are a better around commuter tyre than 4000s. Same levels of grip, fantastic in the wet, only a slight weight penalty.

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rusty842
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby rusty842 » Sat Mar 28, 2015 8:07 pm

Drizt wrote:4 seasons are a better around commuter tyre than 4000s. Same levels of grip, fantastic in the wet, only a slight weight penalty.
Is there something I'm missing or are you saying they are the same besides weight penalty which means it's a price decision ?

Sorry I am new to tyre choices.

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Drizt
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby Drizt » Sat Mar 28, 2015 8:33 pm

4 seasons has two layers of puncture protection compared to one in the 4000s.

They both use the same compound of rubber and as such have the same levels of grip. There is no reason to choose the 4000s over 4 seasons other than the very small weight difference (22 grams)

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kb
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby kb » Sat Mar 28, 2015 11:34 pm

Suppleness? (not that the GP4000s are especially supple..)
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby simlin » Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:25 pm

I've been running the GP4000SII 25s commuting...no problem...and the green paint around these parts has sand or grit mixed in with it so no issues with grip. Just received GP4000SII 28s from wiggle this morning so will be putting those on this week as my current front has a nasty gash on the side of it which I am sure will start causing me issues soon.

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby warthog1 » Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:20 pm

I just stay off the green paint, grit added or no. They tend to put it where it is unsafe to ride where I live. At the outside of the lane on approaches to roundabouts and in the door zone :roll: :x
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MattyK
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby MattyK » Mon Apr 13, 2015 10:14 am

Currently up to about 6000 km on my Marathon Supremes (nearly 2 years). Still have tread on the rear (getting close to wearing smooth, but still not near the belts). Zero punctures. (for reference, 3 punctures in 2000 km on my road bike over mostly the same roads)

Will buy again.

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby PiratePete » Thu Apr 16, 2015 2:53 pm

MattyK wrote:Currently up to about 6000 km on my Marathon Supremes (nearly 2 years). Still have tread on the rear (getting close to wearing smooth, but still not near the belts). Zero punctures. (for reference, 3 punctures in 2000 km on my road bike over mostly the same roads)

Will buy again.

+1 on the Marathon Supremes, got pounced on for this photo to show good wearing:

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=82924&p=1242543#p1242543" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No punctures, on the way to 5000km so far, grip well wet and dry, roll well.
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Drizt
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby Drizt » Thu Apr 16, 2015 5:41 pm

Great tyres

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby tomlaulau » Thu Apr 16, 2015 11:50 pm

Schwalbe Durano Dual Compound. Never had a puncture ever since using them. A set usually last around 3500ks. Previously had Gatorskins which lasted a little bit longer but the ride quality of the Duranos are far superior than Gatorskins and not to mention they are lighter and has dual compound (softer rubber on the side for cornering).

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Best tyres for commuting?

Postby PiratePete » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:34 pm

Out on Monday in the rain and heard a clicking sound. I stopped and found this in my rear tyre (Schwalbe Marathon Supreme):
Image
Image

I pulled it out expecting a rush of air, but nothing. Rode home no problems. Out again on Wednesday and was nervous that my rear tyre was going to let go at any moment as the nail MUST have done damage to the tube...

Just took the tyre off to inspect, and yes the nail did go all the way through, but it must have squeezed around between the tube and the side wall. There is a rust mark on the inside of the tyre and on the tube. No damage to the tube what so ever [emoji1]

I popped one of those self adhesive patches on the inside of the tyre to stop grit, etc. from getting in and all's good.

Tube is a Schwalbe as well.
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby eldavo » Thu Apr 30, 2015 3:42 pm

You must be the benevolent Pirate to have that much good karma PiratePete :)

Summarising my solid tyre transition for sealed surface urban use. Now have car level tyre reliability is a new cycle transport paradigm I'm enjoying. Now it's just accidents and personal illness/injury that will keep me from my ETA.
Tannus best sourced from Wiggle after prolonged difficulties directly with the Aus importer. Wiggle stock is slow to build up with the new 1.1 generation compound. I got a second 32c pair in their batch of first stock. They still have 700x23c and 16 inch stock, out of 32c at the moment.

32c - Carbon fork, Ti frame, Thudbuster ST is good all round. 32c choice for 19mm+ inner width rims.
28c - With Alu fork/frame porteur bike and Thudbuster LT is closer to the 23c for harsh, worse in alu fork, velvet rear from the ThudBuster LT.
23c - with Zertz carbon fork/frame. I don't ride drops or have any other road bike, it's off the scale my harshest bike with GP9000S, so still off the scale now, but reliable as my 6.7kg speed cruiser.

E-magzing - Moved from 26in to 29er mag wheels to use the 32c with dual suspension frame. Electric assist. Smooth comfy car replacement with car tyre reliability. New wheel's rear bearings were notchy out of box, so waiting for replacement return/re-send transit (highly recommend cyclingdeal's communication and service in the turnaround). Since it's up to a 10,000km commitment with a solid tyre, you don't want wheel issues. Electric assist can afford to ditch spokes to try cheap mag wheels (only $50 more than the pair of tyres).

Following Hamster's lessons, keeping to as small a tyre as will fit the rim to eliminate the ill handling of solid tyre large profile. For me means the wide rims with 32c handle well and are comfy, my commuter pick. Solid tyre caveats for spoke/rim maintenance before fitting, they are laborious to fit but you do it once, and they don't offer the variety of performance/traction available from pneumatic. Not for offroad, use more caution cornering on wet etc.

The couple of new bad reviews on Wiggle cover numpty fitting failure, and a Brompton folder travelling to train station who didn't have puncture problems in 18 months not liking the performance drop from Schwalbe. I love my Schwalbe Marathon varieties and Big Apples too, so if you don't have puncture problems in your commute or rare flats aren't critical, then getting solid tyres is not wise.

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby eldavo » Sun May 03, 2015 5:04 pm

Too late to edit above, but the rear mag had bad bearings and they were out of stock for replacement wheel, so resorted to using a new rear wheel from new wheelset.

E-magzing now with only half the magz but both wheels with solid tyres now.

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby __PG__ » Mon May 04, 2015 9:47 am

Continental GP4 seasons has two layers of vectran and the Gatorskin dura-skin sidewall reinforcement.
GP4000S II has a single layer of vectran and no sidewall reinforcement. It also has a 'black chilli' rubber compound to lower rolling resistance.

The fact the Continental advertise the GP4 seasons as a 'winter' tire which gives added grip c/f the GP4000S II in cold weather makes me think that at lower temperatures (perhaps < 5 degrees C?) the black chilli compound has worse grip than a standard compound.

However they do make MTB tires with black chilli that have no such temperature advice on it.

I'm commuting on the Continential Top Contact II (700x37). No dramas yet, we'll see how it goes in winter.
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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby Thoglette » Mon May 04, 2015 5:03 pm

__PG__ wrote:I'm commuting on the Continential Top Contact II (700x37).
I'm still using ETRO 630x32 aka 27" x 1 1/4 and am now struggling to find stock of decent (supple, not armour-plated :) ). reasonably priced tyres. Any leads? Moyuya seem to have some Schwalbe Marathon but they're a little more armour than I need.

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Re: Best tyres for commuting?

Postby singlespeedscott » Mon May 04, 2015 9:13 pm

Can't go past the good old Panaracer Pasela if your running 27" wheels
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