Grand Marquis

My dad has a shogun mixte from the 1980s that has been an excellent road bike for him and has never given him a problem. Unfortunately he got a flat on the rear tire and i noticed that the Vittoria Phoenix Competition 32 kevlar belted tires were completely worn out with the cords showing. These tires rode hard and were very fast and never had a flat in over 7 years using the mfr reccomended max pressure of 120 psi.

Unfortunately the Vittoria Phoenix tires are impossible to find (i liked them so much i wanted to order a pair for my Peugeot UO-8) so i assumed any 27 x 1 1/4 tire would work since the old tires were fine at 120 psi, so we got some forte GT2s, but much to our amazement as we removed the worn phoenix tire i noticed the rims are not hook-edged which surprised me since the phoenix tires never had any issue whatsoever with 120 psi. Sure enough the Forte GT2 lifted right off the rim and blew the tube seconds after it was inflated to 90psi (sidewall says 95)

Would i be correct in assuming that the wire bead construction of the Vittoria Competition Phoenix 32 was what allowed it to stay on a rim without a hook?

What tires available now are able to be a worthy replacement for the Phoenix 32s? it seems like over the past 5-7 years the amount of quality 27" tires has desceased, especially ones that work so well with straight side rims.

Charles Wahl

Click for Pasela TourGuard wire bead. Nice tires; good price, kevlar belted (puncture resistance, not kevlar bead, though they make those too).

Grand Marquis

thanks for the quick reply. i have a panaracer pasela TG wire bead on my UO-8. i just mounted it today on a brand new 27" weinmann rim with a thorn resistant tube. it seems to be recommended by most people on the forums. so far (10 miles) its been fine for me and it mounted in less than 5 minutes i think the thick tube made it easier to mount. i'll reccommend the paselas to him

BeretCyclist

I would opt for the Continental Gatorskins...I haven't used them on the 27 inch, but for 700c they're near perfect. $45 a tire..but if its good qaulity and duribility you want, this may be the ticket. However, it does seem panaracer's are highly recommended by a lot on here...

kendall

Second the conti's, Run them on two bikes with 110psi and they stay nicely on the straight sided rims.
Put 240 miles on them in two days a week after buying them. Didn't have any problems with the tires, did get caught in rain at about the 80 mile mark heading up though.

Ken.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

If you want an inexpensive light tire, the Bontrager Sport comes in 'Skinwall' (looks sorta like gum wall) and has a kevlar strip much like the Pasela TG. I commute on a set. They get the job done just fine.

geekrunner

+10000 on the Paselas! The 27 x 1 1/8 Tourgard from Niagara was only $19 each. Too bad I had to wait two weeks for shipping.

geek

top506

I've run Gatorskins at 100 PSI on old straight bead Weinmann rims for several years now.
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