Originally Posted by
3speed
Thanks for all of the suggestions.
Has anyone used both the Vittorias and the Paselas that could give a comparison of the two? Those are the two that are seeming attractive to me at the moment.
I've ridden Specialized Turbo with Armadillo and took them off because of the dead, harsh ride. From what it seems to me, the Gatorskins will probably be a very similar situation to the Armadillos. I briefly road the Schwalbe Marathon Plus on a test bike and they felt dead and blah.
In my experience, the Vittoria Hypers are a much nicer riding tire than Pasela TGs. My Hypers are 32s and my Paselas were 28s, so they aren't directly comparable. However, my problem with the Paselas is that they had a lot of rolling resistance, and my average speeds dropped 1-2 mph as soon as I put them on my bike. They were comfortable and durable, but slow -- which drove me crazy. Why ride with tires that are going to make you go slower? That also means you are working harder. In contrast, the Hypers roll almost as fast as much narrower tires (25-28s), even though they weigh 50-100 grams more per tire. I do notice their extra weight on the hills, but they are relatively light (350g) for 32mm tires (and mine actually measure 34mm wide).
My problem with Gatorskins is that they were rough riding, and I seemed to feel every bump on the road with 25s. They rolled nicely and were reasonably light weight, but just rode harshly -- which might have something to do with Conti tires tending to run narrower than advertised. I also have some Conti GP 4 Season 28s, which I have commuted on for several years, and they ride much better than the Gatorskins, but they are also wider (altho they still run narrow, about 26.5mm).