Conti Top Touring Tires $15!
 

Hey guys,

In case you are looking for some new tires, I bought 3 continental top touring 2000 tires (700x28c) this weekend at a local supergo for $15 a piece (Tucson, AZ). It looks like they are about $20 on the supergo website, but still a great deal!

Cheers.

Have they fixed the problem of spltting along the sidewall yet? Touring France last year mine split as did the Conti of another cycletourist. Seen as a common problem in the UK and as a result I've now switched to another brand.

I have used two sets of conti top touring tires.

The 700x32s on my touring bike showed sidewall splitting by 1000 miles, and I gave up on them by about 2000 miles. The tread was still OK, but the sidewalls looked bad. Now I use Vittoria Randonneurs for my touring bike.

The 26x1.75" tires on my commuter look great, although the tread is finally starting to show wear. But I've used them regularly for almost 2 years with only a couple flats.

Sounds like a good price but a very sus tyre. This tyre is a 5 ply, 213 tpi, with the usual 3 layers for a carcass and two additional layers under the tread. My guess (and that's all it is) is that the sidewalls are made of 30 tpi material, and the extra two layers of 60 tpi material (3 x 30 + 2 x 60 = 210). As a comparison, Schwalbe Marathons use either 50 or 67 tpi in three layers.

I emailed Schwalbe about Continental's rating system, saying: how come your tyre's are 50tpi and Continental uses a big number such as 213? His response (in German English):

"We have a denser carcass, as Continental, therefore we need not so much plies."

I think he is saying Schwalbe uses thicker ply for its 3 layers, whereas Continental have chosen a thinner ply and need more of them.

Continental is phasing out these tyres. This is a quote from: http://www.conti-tyres.co.uk/conticycle/, describing the CONTACT tyre:

"Designed to be the long term successor to the Top Touring 2000 in the Continental range"

I suspect this is because the TT2000 has such a poor reputation. What convinced me to avoid TT2000s was this email from a user I contacted:

"I only have experience with the narrower tires so 700 x 28 or 32's fitted to a touring bike.* The side wall problem with contis only showed up when fully laden....each tire pumped to its max of 85psi gave out after about 500km's.* The Schwalbes went for 10,000 or more.*It appears that contis are ok as long as you do not overload them....but typically that is what one does when touring.* I would not touch them with a barge pole.....Schwalbe are much better....I live in Canada now but was in Germany recently and bought fresh schwalbes and they're great...can now pump to 110psi+.also they have a puncture resistant belt in them.
If you are using much wider tyres maybe the sidewall is not so much of an issue.
I basically cycled from Munich to MElbourne...I got through 8 contis between munich and Istanbul.* I then put Schwalbes on and they got me to Melbourne from Istanbul*plus approx another 10,000km's unladen after that around the bike paths of Germany.
No contest!"

I have to say I have never heard of problems with the TT2000s on this list or the touring.phred list. My personal experience is that I have had great flat resistance from the three pairs of TT2000s I have used in 700 x 32mm size. I see no reason to change from what has been an excellent tyre for me.

Guy, just how much weight was this German character carrying? We have no idea of his riding habits. Were the rear tyres put on the correct way (as in direction of rotation)?

<shrug>

Believe me it matters not a jot how they were fitted or in what direction was the arrow. The tyres have earned a dreadful reputation for sidewall splitting as you will find if you look at any UK forum, eg. cycling plus. Not only is this my personal experience but that of many other users I know.