Road Cycling - Tire life...

How long should one expect a bike tire to last? (At 1700 miles, my "armadillos" are pulling apart).

Hi,
how long do you want your tires to last?
A tire I like would be something like the Fortezza. It's designed to go about a 1,000 miles. SO it's not high mileage, but it has a sweet ride, and really nice handling. As you get higher mileage you get harder, thicker rubber. This means weight, and a loss of ride quality. But the answer to the question I think you were really asking is the Conti Top Touring.

There are so many variables (road conditions, rider weight, inflation maintenance) about tire life that I don't think there is any one answer. Specific tire is an issue of course. I've had the Fortezza and got about 1000 miles on the rear. Would have gotten more but I got a cut that went through the casing and their was a noticeable bulge there from the tube. Front Fortezza is going strong at 1200 miles. I replaced the rear with a Specialized from my LBS (didn't have a spare tire around and they dont' carry fortezzas). It runs a lower pressure (100 psi vs 140 for the fortezza) but so far I'm satisfied on the ride it provides and what little tread wear I've seen after 175 miles. And the price was right at $15. It has a kevlar belt which may or may not be worthwhile but a wire bead. Seeing how I don't carry spare tires, just tubes, foldability of a kevlar bead is not an issue to me nor is the little bit of weight the wire bead adds.

On my road bike I seem to get about 1500-2000 miles on rear tires (Conti Gator Skins or GP Four Seasons). The fronts I never wear out. I have 4000+ miles on my road bike and still have the original front tire.

My experiences with Armadillos is that they often start to show cracking and even a bit of "delaminating" near the beads, but they still hold together, even if it looks like they are falling apart. My last set of Armadillos lasted me something like 5000 miles, and they still have life left!

My experiences with Armadillos is that they often start to show cracking and even a bit of "delaminating" near the beads, but they still hold together, even if it looks like they are falling apart. My last set of Armadillos lasted me something like 5000 miles, and they still have life left!

That's good news for a man with no money - I'll ride mine awhile more!

I will second that info on the Armadillos. I thought mine were shot when they starting doing the "shedding" thing near the bead. Pulled them off and could fine nothing else wrong. Have been running them on the trainer since (about 3000 miles plus the 1500 on the road before) and can't seem to wear them out. I now run the Armadillo Turbo Lites and they seem to be as flat resistant as the others, but considerably less weight. I have not had a flat on an Armadillo tire in five years and 15,000 miles of riding. That is not something I can say of any other tire I have ever run.

I had bad luck with Armadillos. I had 2 catastrophic failures with them. Neither failure caused anything dangerous. It was just inconvenient as all get out. The side wall on the tire split over a pretty long distance about 8" and more than I could cover with a boot or even a dollar bill (which makes a handy emergency boot). So that left me afoot. So I gave up on armadillos.

As far as mileage goes for a rear tire, I get between 1200-3000 miles on a tire depending on the make. My continental 25 mm ultra 2000s give me about 2000-2500 miles.

I think a rider's weight and riding style affects wear quite a bit. Light riders can often get 3000, 4000, 5000 or even more miles on a rear tire.

FWIW, some of the early Armadillos were defective. The newer ones do this 'delaminating' bit that looks bad, but it just seems to be an extra protective layer coming off. Not pretty, but sofar, not unsafe, either.

I am using Armadillos on my MTB for the road and trainer. No problems for about a year now.