Calgary Clyde

Can anybody confirm that Continental tires run smaller than advertised. In particular, I'm looking at the following tires:

Ultra Sport 700 x 28c
Ultra GatorSkin 700 x 28c
Contact City/Trekking 700 x 32c

Thanks in advance.

CC

jackcoke

I have Contact 32's on my cross bike at the moment. I have never measured them but I remember thinking they sure don't look 32mm wide. I'll try and measure them.

Skewer

The "Contis run smaller" generalization does not hold true for a couple of Contis I just measured. I measured 26.5mm on a 700*25 Grand Prix 4000 and 25mm on a 700*25 Grand Prix 3000.

CastIron

Tire sizing is a bit nebulous across the board.

jimisnowhere

Tire width is effected by rim width. On my rims my 23mm Gatorskins are exactly 23mm. On your rims, who knows?

caloso

I'm a geek: I measured mine. 700c x 25 GP 4000: 25mm dead on (Mavic CXP 22 rim). 700 x 23 GP 4000: 23 dead on (Mavic Ksyrium SL rim). And the 24mm Force is dead on 24mm. So, at least in my experience, the measurements are true.

Retro Grouch 

Yup. I've got identical sets of 28mm Gatorskins on two bikes. The tandem has Velocity Dyad rims, the other bike has Velocity Arrowhead rims. I forget the actual measurements but the tires measure a couple of millimeters wider on the wider Dyad rim.

Incidentally, the Dyad rim has an especially deep center section. That makes installing and removing tires an absolute cinch even without tools.