Thanks guys, those Conty Ride Tour's were the ones I said above that I had considered, but I read an abysmal review (all I could find), and the place I found them for cheap, only has 2 in stock, so i can't hit their free-ship minimum. I might give them a shot, if i can find them at that price, and shipped.
As for the Conty tubes, i have a stash of the house brand tubes from Performance,etc, and when I inflate them to check them out (outside of a tire), they inflate looking like a snake that just ate a rabbit,LOL!!!! I mean, they are bizarrely inconsistent, which doesn't inspire much confidence, but the Continentals I have blow up uniformly, and run like champs (but they came from Merlin cycles in the UK, maybe different country of origin ? I dunno).
edit: BTW, I've read a few reports of sidewall issues with the Michelins Proteks, but those were still a small minority of users, they seemed to get 4-5 stars from 90% of users.
Last edited by Brocephus; 06-15-19 at 12:17 PM.