B
Bill Anton
Guest
I got a flat the other day--my first one in about 800 miles. It was my "usual" kind of flat: the
tiny piece of glass that sticks in the tire and goes unnoticed for tens or hundreds of miles until
it finally wears its way through the Kevlar belt. So far I've got 1000 miles on the back tire (the
one that flatted) and 600 miles on the front tire that I installed when I went to the 26x26
configuration. So far I'm quite pleased with the speed, traction, and longevity of these tires, if
not the price, which is as expensive as car tires. Based just on my own visual inspection, it
appears I can expect to get another 1000 miles out of my back tire, which carries 65% of my 220
pounds. Based on what others have written on this and other boards, I wasn't expecting the Stelvio
to be a 2000 mile tire, yet so far they're wearing better than the 700c touring tires I used to have
on my upright bike. I also wan't expecting to go 800 miles between flats since switching from the
(much slower) 1.5" Marathons.
Anybody have similar experiences? Just how important is this TPI rating of the casing? Does this
number tell the whole story? For instance, I found an old post from Cletus (7 Feb 2003) that
compares the Stelvio (67 Ends Per Inch?) to the Continental GP (285 TPI). Somehow I don't think this
number tells the whole story. Does 4x the threads necessarily make a casing stronger? What if each
of the (Kevlar) threads in the Stelvio is 10x stronger than its counterpart in the GP?
--
Bill Anton 2001 Vision R-40 26x26 SWB OSS Lubbock, TX, USA
tiny piece of glass that sticks in the tire and goes unnoticed for tens or hundreds of miles until
it finally wears its way through the Kevlar belt. So far I've got 1000 miles on the back tire (the
one that flatted) and 600 miles on the front tire that I installed when I went to the 26x26
configuration. So far I'm quite pleased with the speed, traction, and longevity of these tires, if
not the price, which is as expensive as car tires. Based just on my own visual inspection, it
appears I can expect to get another 1000 miles out of my back tire, which carries 65% of my 220
pounds. Based on what others have written on this and other boards, I wasn't expecting the Stelvio
to be a 2000 mile tire, yet so far they're wearing better than the 700c touring tires I used to have
on my upright bike. I also wan't expecting to go 800 miles between flats since switching from the
(much slower) 1.5" Marathons.
Anybody have similar experiences? Just how important is this TPI rating of the casing? Does this
number tell the whole story? For instance, I found an old post from Cletus (7 Feb 2003) that
compares the Stelvio (67 Ends Per Inch?) to the Continental GP (285 TPI). Somehow I don't think this
number tells the whole story. Does 4x the threads necessarily make a casing stronger? What if each
of the (Kevlar) threads in the Stelvio is 10x stronger than its counterpart in the GP?
--
Bill Anton 2001 Vision R-40 26x26 SWB OSS Lubbock, TX, USA