I had Ultremo R's in 09 when they had the bulging problems and had to send them in. The replacements came the next year and they have been very nice. Of course no bulging. The tires have a great round profile that I thought enhanced the cornering feel. I have fewer punctures than with the specialized turbo. The Ultremo's work well at 145 lbs of psi.
best high pressure tyres?
- Thread starter dixie134134
- Start date
Keep in mind that theory and "how things are meant to work" is all well and good, actually testing product and getting results is even better. The German magazine "Tour" did some extensive tests a couple of years ago, including tires mentioned above, and the GP4000S came out on top for puncture resistance, rolling resistance and grip...
Personally, I think that if someone asks for recommendations for a good fast tire then they're in the market for something that's a good fast road tire. If they were in the market for an uber lightweight competition tire they they'd likely have done a bit of research or asked specifically.
Tour weights their results according to their priorities. Their test methods have their own idiosyncrasies. It's not like Tour is an actual functioning lab that adheres strictly to scientific method.
My experience with Conti GP4000s--the two time I've tried them--were less than happy experiences. Their puncture resistance was no better than Vittoria Corsa EVO tubes (the old style, not the new, 300+ TPI versions). Cut resistance was the same, and the Vittorias had more durable sidewalls. Wear on the Contis was nothing special, and grip was ok. Quality of construction for the Contis was **** with threads continually shedding from every pair I tried.
My experience with Conti GP4000s--the two time I've tried them--were less than happy experiences. Their puncture resistance was no better than Vittoria Corsa EVO tubes (the old style, not the new, 300+ TPI versions). Cut resistance was the same, and the Vittorias had more durable sidewalls. Wear on the Contis was nothing special, and grip was ok. Quality of construction for the Contis was **** with threads continually shedding from every pair I tried.
Tour uses Conti's tire lab but their own "engineers." So they do have access to one of the better tire test labs. In a prior test at the Conti facility, Tour rated the GP3000 as ****, something which I'd heartly concour with.
I go through a few sets of 4000S's a year and the only problems I ever run into are wiping the enormous grin off my face and having to resist the urge to climb another darned hill and dealing with the frown when I spot that the back tire's cross section has a nice flat top worn on it. I've never had a Corsa EVO CX on the bike long enough to see what the wear was like but the 4000S wear better, for me at least, that something like the Pro3. In the past two years I could count the number of punctures per year on one finger... This year it'd take two.
I go through a few sets of 4000S's a year and the only problems I ever run into are wiping the enormous grin off my face and having to resist the urge to climb another darned hill and dealing with the frown when I spot that the back tire's cross section has a nice flat top worn on it. I've never had a Corsa EVO CX on the bike long enough to see what the wear was like but the 4000S wear better, for me at least, that something like the Pro3. In the past two years I could count the number of punctures per year on one finger... This year it'd take two.
Like I said in an earlier post that a Conti is a large German company, thus those tests could be skewed to favor Conti tires. The other test I gave was not skewed and they tested a lot more tires then the German test did.
This is probably the test, which included assessing rolling resistance, weight, grip in the wet, and puncture protection.
http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/general/downloads/download/tourtest_gp4000s_en.pdf
Yep, the GP4000Ss definitely wear square on the back, which is a bummer. Concerning punctures, I've had a good run with them, but I ride on pretty good/'clean' roads. They're not necessarily my first choice, but every time I go online to order new tyres, there never seems to be any similar tyres available, such as Diamante Pros or Veloflex Paves
http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/general/downloads/download/tourtest_gp4000s_en.pdf
Yep, the GP4000Ss definitely wear square on the back, which is a bummer. Concerning punctures, I've had a good run with them, but I ride on pretty good/'clean' roads. They're not necessarily my first choice, but every time I go online to order new tyres, there never seems to be any similar tyres available, such as Diamante Pros or Veloflex Paves
Here's a real test results again, and not being advertised on some bike tire company thus not skewed: http://www.biketechreview.com/tires_old/images/AFM_tire_testing_rev9.pdf
I'm such a geek that I cut up a version of that list without the tubulars, with is probably a breach of copyright
Slightly bigger version (if you click on the pic):
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll85/registered-user/tryedragallononepage.jpg
Slightly bigger version (if you click on the pic):
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll85/registered-user/tryedragallononepage.jpg
I'm still spewin that they stopped making Pro Race 2s! Why would they do that?! I'm so naive that I thought when Pro Race 3s came out, that PR2s would still be available. In my opinion, they're very different tyres, so it wasn't like they were replacing like with 'better like'
I wonder how many milliseconds I'll spend shedding tears over the 2 watts difference between a tire that I've suffered numerous cuts and punctures in a couple of weeks and almost sh1t my pants due to iffy "at the limit" cornering (corsa Evo cx) and one that I can wear out without and flats and get massive smiles per mile when descending like a loon (gp4000s)? Oh... None, because standing at the side of the road replacing tubes, searching for little pokey things and the ensuing 3,000,000 strokes of the mini pump when it's over 100F just screams "FUN!" 2 watts. I'll just remember to keep my elbows tucked in and save 10. I though you were talking about some huge difference. There's a time and a place for trying to eek that last nth percent and I've not ridden a very short distance timetrial in a long time and sadly I don't have a team car with masses of spare wheels. If I were to start riding short TTs I'd be using HED wheels that oddly enough are designed with conti's in mind.
Unfortunately, being done in a good lab does not mean that a test is done well, that the data isn't skewed (not necessarily by choice but by poor test design), and that the data is interpreted correctly. Don't forget: Pons and Fleischmann had access to great labs, and each had a wealth of experience. We've seen before how data collected purportedly scientifically has conflicted with data collected by others. A perfect example is how data from Zipp, Hed, and Bontrager don't agree even though a lot of the same wheels are compared. Tour is the same magazine whose engineers (I'm assuming) came up with a metric, from test data, for "comfort", which is a subjective parameter. Tire testing results from other agencies support this idea.
I wouldn't cry over a couple watt difference in rolling resistance either. One of my favorite tires is the Maxxis Re-fuse, and I'll bet it'd be lucky to finish in the 50th percentile of most CRR tests. That's ok, 'cuz much like comfort, how someone ranks tires they've used is dependent, in part, on subjective observations by that person.
The subjective views of others might be different, but I'll always ache because no one every published pictures of wardrobe malfunctions, nipple slips, or pantiless moments by Raisa Gorbachev.
Maybe Tony Martin winning the World Time Trial Champs on Conti clinchers with more "guts" (vectran puncture protection) in them than those listed by you would lead credance to a statement saying that even the World TT Champ thinks you're full of sh1t.
The new conti TT tire will be out next year and is based on the 4000RS tire that was a limited release. From the nuggets of info I can gather, that means a casing and vectran layer like the 4000S but with less rubber tread.
Just think - Martin could have fulfilled his sponsorship requirements with some of the lighest and finest tires ever made - including the uber sexy Continental Olympic tubular (185 grams - 220psi max pressure)... but instead chose a clincher dismissed by some experts on cyclingforums as ****
Cav and Matt Goss however, used standard issue Conti road tires that Froze would deem as heavy and **** to claim gold and silver at the world road race champs.
I agree, I don't care about rolling resistance because I'm not racing. I care more about buying a quality tire on a discount closeout sale so I can spend less the $25 for a tire that retails for $40 or more and the reviews are decent for the tire. The rest is just fluff. Cheap aren't I?
Personally, I value my skin and noggin more than saving $20. It's been years since I've had a fairly heft "off" that's required hospital assistance but there's been a few times that if I hadn't been running a damned good tire that I would have (not could have) been in a world of hurt.
Figure that the tire is the only point of contact between your bike and the ground. I'd say that this was the last place to skimp.
Figure that the tire is the only point of contact between your bike and the ground. I'd say that this was the last place to skimp.
By the way, a world champion rides on whatever tire sponsor him, so to say a world champ rides on ABC tires doesn't mean he would not have been a world champ on XYZ, or any other tires. Talk about someone being full of shitony.
Try re-reading what I wrote:
"Just think - Martin could have fulfilled his sponsorship requirements with some of the lighest and finest tires ever made - including the uber sexy Continental Olympic tubular (185 grams - 220psi max pressure)... but instead chose a clincher dismissed by some experts on cyclingforums as ****
"Actually, for the worlds, riders can ride whatever the fark they want. It's typical for a pro to ride his regular team bike because that's what he's used too. Even during the regular season pro's have been known to use other gear - Cav often uses Zipp wheels despite HED being listed as the perferred wheel vendor.
Folks like Christophe Moreau were infamous for riding re-sprayed/re-badged frames because he just wanted to race his custom Cyfac frame rather the usual frames handed out by "manufacturer x" each year.
Shitony - is that something you normally order on your pizza?
I am shocked to hear it even suggested that someone would rebadge another manufacturer's product with the logo of a rider's or team's sponsor. Surely this couldn't be the case. I cannot believe that people would frequently rebadge Vittoria tubulars with their tire sponsor's name. I cannot for an instant believe that anyone ever rebadged a Litespeed, a Calfee, a Serotta, a Cyfac, or any other frame just to appease sponsors. What a horrid idea. I'm shocked.......and shocked.
It did seem rather obvious from the disputed post that the "" symbol indicated some amount of tongue in cheekiness was in play.
About two weeks after getting back from Ecuador, I was plagued for about 5 days with shitony. Very nasty business. Extremely watery with very short notice before critical pressure was achieved. Also, in the movie, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", there was a scene with lots of shitony:
It did seem rather obvious from the disputed post that the "
" symbol indicated some amount of tongue in cheekiness was in play.About two weeks after getting back from Ecuador, I was plagued for about 5 days with shitony. Very nasty business. Extremely watery with very short notice before critical pressure was achieved. Also, in the movie, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", there was a scene with lots of shitony:
