Originally Posted by
ryandd
As a clyde tires are an important item...really no matter what your size. When i bought my bike at the end of the 09 season i put some new tires on it and choose continnetial GP 4000....at the begining of the season i noticed what appeard to be dry rot cracks just where the tread meets the sidewall. these tires had less than 300 miles on them at that point and the nipples were still on the front tire. I was somewhat worried and took the tire off and looked on the inside and it looked good. Getting the bike ready this season and it looked worse and there are strands of what appear to be reenforcement shreading off the tire. I contacted continential last year and got no response....going to trash these tires i think .They other than this issue they have given me no issues and i really like them but am possibly gun shy on the brand especially at $140+ per pair not counting tubes. What to do? Anyone else have issues with their Conti's? Any one want to rec. a good 700x23?
Just because you bought new tires, doesn't mean they are fresh tires, tires begin to age the day they are manufactured, they go from manufacturer, some Conti's are made in Germany, some in Taiwan, they wait until they are sold to a distributor, then they are shipped to the distributor, they sit at the distributors until they are sold to a dealer, then shipped to that dealer, where they sit until they are sold to you. This could be anything from a couple of months to a couple of years after they are made, if at some point along the way they were improperly stored, they could crack like that, very expensive tires are more likely to sit for a while then cheaper tires. If I bought new tires in the fall and found them cracked in the spring, I would contact the dealer first, often the dealer can deal with the company. Mind you, I am unlikely to actually buy tires in the fall, unless the bike is going on the trainer, and then I'll make the old tires do for the winter. Heck, I have an old 27" wheel on the back of the road bike right now, because I have old 27" tires I want to wear out, before wasting good tires....