Conti Top touring 2000 .. air pressure

Thomas Wentworth said:

I am thinking of getting a couple of these tires for my Canondale Touring
Bicycle.

Question: I looked up on Nashbar and it said PSI .. 60-80. That seems to
be kinda soft. It that the correct PSI?

Any other info on these tires?

There is another Conti Touring tire and it is $45 per... what's up with
that.

The model I am putting on is the 700X32 .. should be fat enough.

I've used these tires for years, and they've been utterly reliable,
durable, and resistant to flats. I inflate them to 95psi, using Mavic
touring rims. I weigh 215 lbs.

There's a version of the TT2k that has reflective sidewalls that really
make your bike pop visually to drivers turning towards you at night.

RichC

I put 80 psi in my WTB 700x32 for my Trek 520. Plenty hard.

Thomas Wentworth said:

I am thinking of getting a couple of these tires for my Canondale Touring
Bicycle.

Question: I looked up on Nashbar and it said PSI .. 60-80. That seems to
be kinda soft. It that the correct PSI?

Any other info on these tires?

There is another Conti Touring tire and it is $45 per... what's up with
that.

The model I am putting on is the 700X32 .. should be fat enough.

Thanks for the info ..

I run Conti TT 2000 on 4 bikes:

My touring bike, 700x35 : 60-70 psi
My commuter, 700x28 : 75-85 psi
Wife's touring bike, 700x32 : 70-75 psi
Wife's utility bike, 700x28 : 90 psi

All work, all are fine. The tires themselves are a bit hard and bulky,
the lower pressure works fine. I like the lower pressures - helps to
smooth out those rough roads and trails.

- rick

Rick said:

I run Conti TT 2000 on 4 bikes:

My touring bike, 700x35 : 60-70 psi
My commuter, 700x28 : 75-85 psi
Wife's touring bike, 700x32 : 70-75 psi
Wife's utility bike, 700x28 : 90 psi

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

Also, what's the usual load on these bikes? IMO a 150lb rider will have
very different experience with a given tire at a given pressure than a
220lb one. When I run at lower pressure, my incidence of pinch flats
goes up.

RichC

rdclark said:

Rick said:

I run Conti TT 2000 on 4 bikes:

My touring bike, 700x35 : 60-70 psi
My commuter, 700x28 : 75-85 psi
Wife's touring bike, 700x32 : 70-75 psi
Wife's utility bike, 700x28 : 90 psi

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

No problems at all. Most of the folks I have heard whom have had
sidewall issues were using them on tandems.

Quoted message said:

Also, what's the usual load on these bikes? IMO a 150lb rider will have
very different experience with a given tire at a given pressure than a
220lb one. When I run at lower pressure, my incidence of pinch flats
goes up.

Load varies, but never below 155-160lbs (rider only). On some tours
the loads were well over 200 lbs, probably pushing 220-230 or maybe a
bit more on my bike at times. My usual commute load is probably
180-190, grocery runs can push it way over 200.

As for flats, any kind, let's just say they are rather rare since I
started riding the TT2K's. Never a pinch flat, the few I have had
have been caused by things like 16d nails ;-)

- rick

Rick said:

rdclark said:

Rick said:

I run Conti TT 2000 on 4 bikes:

My touring bike, 700x35 : 60-70 psi
My commuter, 700x28 : 75-85 psi
Wife's touring bike, 700x32 : 70-75 psi
Wife's utility bike, 700x28 : 90 psi

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

No problems at all. Most of the folks I have heard whom have had
sidewall issues were using them on tandems.

I definitely had sidewall issues. This was on a long, self-contained
camping tour. I was pretty heavily loaded.

I built new wheels for that tour and put those tires on. I took no
pressure gage, and learned - the hard way - that I was no good at
judging tire pressure with unfamiliar tires & pump. I was certainly
inflating them past 80 psi, maybe past 100.

In any case: I started with the wider ones, (35 or 37?) the widest
that would clear my chainstays, giving about 2 mm to 3mm per side
clearance. In two weeks, they wouldn't clear any more - the tire had
grown in width until I had less than a millimeter of clearance. I
never knew tires would get wider from being ridden.

I switched to 32s so as to clear my chainstays. After about, oh,
another 1000 miles, I got weak spots in the sidewalls i.e. visible
bubbles. I wrapped my inner tube with duct tape at those spots to take
some of the stress off the tire casing, until (hundreds of miles later)
I got to a bike shop. And I bought a tire gage at that shop.

Unfortunately, there's no way to know how much I might have been
overinflating the tires. But I really doubt it was beyond, say, 110
psi.

The tires were good in other respects. Oh, except I thought traction
in the rain was a bit iffy.

- Frank Krygowski

"rdclark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

I have a bulge in my sidewall after just 5 months of riding on them. I keep
the pressure at 85. I think I'm going back to Avocet Cross.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

Claire Petersky said:

"rdclark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

I have a bulge in my sidewall after just 5 months of riding on them. I keep
the pressure at 85. I think I'm going back to Avocet Cross.

Your and Frank's responses are interesting. I have well over 10k miles
spread over two pairs of these tires, which I inflate to 95, with nary
a problem.

But I have always used the reflective-sidewall version, which I believe
are made in Maylasia, not Germany. I wonder if there's an actual
structural difference, or whether it's related to the rims (mine are
Mavic 520/719s).

RichC

rdclark said:

Rick said:

I run Conti TT 2000 on 4 bikes:

My touring bike, 700x35 : 60-70 psi
My commuter, 700x28 : 75-85 psi
Wife's touring bike, 700x32 : 70-75 psi
Wife's utility bike, 700x28 : 90 psi

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

Also, what's the usual load on these bikes? IMO a 150lb rider will have
very different experience with a given tire at a given pressure than a
220lb one. When I run at lower pressure, my incidence of pinch flats
goes up.

I'm a fairly large rider ( ~200 lbs ) and I keep mine pumped fairly high.

Front - 700c x 28 - 100 psi
Rear - 700c x 28 - 110 psi

I haven't had any problems with sidewalls on them in the last 15000 miles
or so.

--
Dane Buson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
You will never amount to much.
-- Munich Schoolmaster, to Albert Einstein, age 10

"Dane Buson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

rdclark said:

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

I'm a fairly large rider ( ~200 lbs ) and I keep mine pumped fairly high.

Front - 700c x 28 - 100 psi
Rear - 700c x 28 - 110 psi

I haven't had any problems with sidewalls on them in the last 15000 miles
or so.

I haven't had this problem either and have been very fond of these tires..
I'm just over 200 and keep mine at the recommended pressure. However, I did
a search on "side wall failure" on the touring list archives (the "phred"
lists) and I did find seveval mentions of TT2000 sidewall failure there.
This historically has been a popular tire among bike tourists.

"rdclark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

But I have always used the reflective-sidewall version, which I believe
are made in Maylasia, not Germany. I wonder if there's an actual
structural difference, or whether it's related to the rims (mine are
Mavic 520/719s).

I've got the reflective-sidewall version, too.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

rdclark said:

Claire Petersky said:

"rdclark" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Have you ever had sidewall problems with the TT2k? I've always wondered
whether their reputation for this issue isn't attributable to the low
recommended pressure.

I have a bulge in my sidewall after just 5 months of riding on them. I keep
the pressure at 85. I think I'm going back to Avocet Cross.

Your and Frank's responses are interesting. I have well over 10k miles
spread over two pairs of these tires, which I inflate to 95, with nary
a problem.

But I have always used the reflective-sidewall version, which I believe
are made in Maylasia, not Germany. I wonder if there's an actual
structural difference, or whether it's related to the rims (mine are
Mavic 520/719s).

I ride the black-walls. I have and have had tires made in Germany,
Thailand, and ??? Have not had problems with any of them over many,
many thousands of miles. The tires on the bikes right now have
something like 2.5K, 5K, 5K, and 4K miles on the sets, have run up to
7-7.5K+ on a set, no problems. FWIW we run T520/A719, MA3, Campy, and
Velocity Dyad rims - no differences.

- rick

rdclark said:

But I have always used the reflective-sidewall version, which I believe
are made in Maylasia, not Germany. I wonder if there's an actual
structural difference, or whether it's related to the rims (mine are
Mavic 520/719s).

I've always used the non-reflective sidewall version.

--
Dane Buson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives.