knoxtnhorn

My road bike tires are starting to look pretty crappy. I'm going to order a new set. Starting with the fact that I am far from a professional rider, how much does the quality matter? I guess there are two factors I'm curious about when it comes to deciding on, say, a $29 tire and a $99 tire.

1) Performance. I know that some bike components make a huge difference here. Do tires really make a difference? I mean, a cheapie and an expensive tire are probably extremely close in weight.
2) Quality. I'm sure that cheaper tires probably wear out quicker. No big surprise here.

So, when I buy a couple of new tires this week, am I just paying for tires that will last longer or is there a noticable performance difference between the cheaper and more expensive tires?

gregbj8

I am probably a similar rider to yourself and I ride with a group twice a week so I can gauge my progress on the bike. Have have a CAAD10-5 that came with Lugano tires and when I switched to Conti GP4000S the change was remarkable. The bike FELT much better, was more responsive, and gauged against the group I picked up some speed. The switch was some of the best money I have ever spent anywhere. Your can buy GP4000S from Wiggle for about $35 each.

Leinster

I'm on gp4000s too and they feel like a big upgrade from the worn down gator skins I was on before. Where I particularly noticed a difference was on downhills where I don't top-out speed wise as early. Getting your pressure right is more important than the rubber itself.

StanSeven

There's a pretty significant difference in rolling resistance between tires (that term is relative). Getting tires like GP4000S is one of the best bang for your buck you can make. The downside is they aren't as durable or flat resistant as some others.

By the way some higher priced tires often wear faster because the compound is softer for better adhesion.

FrenchFit 

I hate the retail price of GP4000s and Ultremos, but the improvement in ride quality - yikes.

merlinextraligh

^ look around enough, and you can typically find top line tires below $50, rather than retail approaching $100.

Mountain Mitch

+1 - check out the UK sites. Probike, chain reaction, wiggle etc.

Hiro11

I'll go against the grain. I personally can't tell the difference between a cheaper tire and a more expensive one assuming they are both slicks. Maybe there is a difference, but it's pretty small. I can tell you that inch-long, ride-ending, call-of-shame-provoking sidewall cuts are a serious bummer. I can tell you that I've had that happen twice with GP4000s tires and never with any other tire. I'll take the slightly heavier tire with the tougher sidewall every time in a training / club tire.

I agree that pressure is a much larger component of tire comfort than the rubber itself.

seymour1910

Just go on eBay and get some decent tires, I get Michelins really cheap on there and I have them in a couple days vice weeks from the UK. As for the tires being worth it...I really wouldn't cheap out to much because you can get Michelins (good tires)for $28 each.

cvall91

I think I could tell a difference. I had a GP4000s in the back which I ruined by locking up the tire avoiding a crash (better the tire than me) and swapped out to an old endurance tire. The first couple of rides after that I felt like the bike had gained 20 lbs. Felt very slow and unresponsive. And that was just from swapping out one tire. Could've been mental, but I definitely felt a difference.

JerrySTL

Cheaper tires often have less TPI (threads per inch). Think of TPI is the difference between a shirt made with large strings versus one made with thin strings. Large strings don't flex as easy so tires with less TPI ride and handle rougher. Also having less TPI means there's bigger gaps where things like wires and shards of glass can get through. Of course WHAT the string is made of can make a difference just like a cotton shirt versus a silk shirt.

Unfortunately TPI isn't all that easy to figure sometimes. Gatorskins have 3 layers of 60 TPI belts so they kinda call it 180 TPI. The Grand Prix 4000 S features three fabric plies of 110 TPI for a total of 330 TPI. To me the GP 4000 tire rolls and handles better than the Gatorskins.

It's possible to find tires as low as 33 TPI which usually are very cheap tires.

TPI isn't the end all when buying bike tires, but something to seriously consider.

Looigi

Pro4s from Ribble ftw.

Phantoj

I haven't been able to tell a ride quality difference with cheap tires, but I have had tire failures with them. The performance upgrade with quality tires is actually pretty good in terms of $/watt and $/lb.

You can't get cheap tires for less than $10/each or so, and you can get good tires for around $30/each if you look hard enough.

therhodeo

Heavier with no flats > lighter with flats in my book. I run gatorskin 25's on handbuilt 105 hub/open pro wheels so I'm much more into durability than those few ounces I could save.

elcruxio

this is not per se a difference between different road tires of two qualities but I though I'll chime in.
So I've been running the tubeless intensive 25c tires (in reality 21mm) and the handling is suberb, fast, extremely good grip, comfortable and all the good stuff people say about tires. But the thing I notice now is the responsiveness of the handling.

Last ride I decided to try a bit of gravel grinding with a different set of tires (specialized captain CX) which is a pronounced profile CX racing tire with a squareish middle profile. The handling difference compared to the intensive's is massive! with the intensive's the bike just turns on a whim, but with the CX tires turning on asphalt was... interesting. When going into a turn the CX tire is first like "no no nooooo! I don't wanna turn!" and then suddenly it's like "OK! have it your way you brute!" and massive oversteer.
Going straight did not really notice a difference, apart from the noise of course.

TromboneAl

Same here. I tossed an almost new Conti GP 4000s because it got a slash in it, replacing it with a Bontrager flat-resistant tire. On the next ride, I'd forgotten that I made the change. Didn't notice any difference.

For me, variability from one ride to the next is significant, even with exactly the same equipment. Temp, sun, wind, road surface -- but change a tire, and most riders will believe any changes are due to the tire.

Velo Dog

Me, too. I've tried everything from $9.99 PBS clearance-sale tires (in the old, $9.99 tire days) to high-end Contis, Michelins and others. Sometimes I can feel a difference, sometimes not. I've done the same 25-mile RT commute 75-100 times a year for more than 20 years, on all kinds of bikes and tires, and there's almost no correlation between tires and speed. My fastest time ever was on an old Bridgestone mountain bike with 1.4 combination tires.

bonz50

I'm swapping tires this winter from the Vitorria Rubino's that came on the bike to some GP4000s's, based on just the weight alone I'm going to drop ~1/2lb from the wheels right there. I've got not gripes with the rubinos, they are basically indestructo, but they are stiff monkeyfighters and I look forward to the swap to the conti's based on what everyone has said about 'em. PBK has the 2pk for sale at $76+/- doubt I could go wrong there.

Hiro11

This is correct. This may be correct but is very hard to quantify and probably negligible. I'm not sure this is true and it disregards an important benefit of low TPI tires: better cut resistance. In my opinion, punctures from a thorne, metal shard or sharp stone are largely unavoidable. Some tires might be slightly better at avoiding pinpoint punctures, but given a sharp enough object any tire is going to puncture. Happily, small punctures are no big deal: swap or patch the tube, inflate and you're back on the road in a couple of minutes. Cuts are a much bigger deal. Given that almost no one trains with a spare tire, a good cut can end a ride. Even if you can boot them on the road, you still have to throw the tire away when you get home. Lower TPI tires are generally more cut resistant that high TPI tires. As such, low TPI tires may actually be preferable for some riders.

This is very true and even misleading from Conti. TPI should be a measure of the fineness of the thread in one ply.

StanSeven

Here's results from an older test and the tires aren't really around any longer. But it shows large differences between tires - 20 watts at 18 mph at the extreme. The point is by careful selection and buying tires at the best deal, you can save 5-10 watts

https://www.terrymorse.com/bike/rolres.html

dave1442397

As for longevity, it probably depends on your weight and riding style to some extent. I'm 155lbs and have 5,000 miles on my GP4000s tires. The wear indicators on the rear tire are almost gone, but it looks like I'll get another 1,000 miles or so out of it.

knoxtnhorn

Awesome. Thx for all the info. I worried that it was a stupid question.

cvall91

Nothing is a stupid question on BF.

Cookiemonsta

I think it matters, but in my experience not as much as some people here say it does. Assuming of course, they are a similar type of tire.

One other thing that matters, though this is not only related to overall quality but also just what kind of tire you are using, is that some tires may be more prone to flats than others. This is possibly the biggest concern for me when picking a tire. Like most people here, I have most experience with the Continental GP4000s, which is a decent tire by all standards. But when I get other tires on a new bike for example, I have always just used those until they needed replacement and generally been pretty happy with anything I tried.

PatrickGSR94

Well I just switched out my bike's original Vittoria Zaffiro wire-bead 26 TPI tires for some Conti GP 4-season tires with 430 TPI.

I don't have enough miles on them yet to really tell, as I've only done one real ride with them since I switched, but that ride was one of my fastest average moving speeds to date.

I'll know more after a couple of weeks of 30-mile round trip commutes if they really make much difference or not. They are saving me 280 grams total rotational weight from the old tires.