I don't care for the Ultra Sports, but can they really be that bad? They are a very popular, ubiquitous budget tire.

I have 700 X 32 (I think) Tour Ride and they have been very good - although I don't get a lot of flats with any tire, so I may not be the best person to give my opinion.

That would be me. I ride like that for lack of skills and good enough vision.

But thanks to Schwalbe, I am flat-free. And this is the greatest benefit of technology: it enables people like me to bicycle with confidence.

Aren't the Tour Ride tires Conti's budget (dare I say entry-level) all-purpose, just barely puncture-protected tires?

Could be - I will heve to check what model I have when I get home. Maybe I got it wrong and it is a Tour Ride UltraTough or some such thing, but I have not gotten any flats on that tire, although I don't ride down broken-glass strewn alleys and the like too often.

Michelin World Tour. Have a set of 27in x 1 1/4 that have thousands of miles of on and off-road use and they look like they are going to last many thousands more. I've tried much more expensive tires that turned out to be of lesser quality. You can find them for around $25. They are a bit heavy, but seem to roll pretty fast for a fat tire (at the 85psi max) and corner really well on any surface. There is a 700/35 version.

I ride on the roughest, most crap strewn road in America. I tried Continental Gatorskins, Specalized Armadillos, and Schwalbe Marathon Pluses.

The Gatorskins, as another poster noted, were nothing special, had a few flats, etc. They were slightly better than the Continental Contacts that I had before which in turn were better than the crap Kendas that came with the bike.

Then I tried Specialized Armadillos. I had VERY bad luck - several flats, a gash in the front tire - and worst of all, tread delamination after about 1,000 miles,
maybe a bit less.

Switched to Schwalbe Marathon Pluses a year ago or so (about 1,200 miles). Zero flats or problems thus far.

This is the 21st century, as far as I'm concerned, flats are unacceptable. I haven't had a flat tire on a car in almost 30 years, I
expect the same from my bicycle. I was so mad after the Armadillo experience, that I was ready to switch to solid tires - but
gave the Marathons a try. Definitely far better than anything else I've tried to date. Still, I run heavy duty tubes with slime as
a precaution - they saved my bacon on more than one occasion with the lesser tires, and got me home without the need to
resort to a roadside repair.

I haven't tried the Michelins - with that storied name, I'd expect something good.

If you read the reviews done by people who toured on those tires you will find out they didn't last long as others. Currently the best of the touring tires are Schwalbe Marathon Plus HS348, they not only excel in flat protection but also are head over heels better in mileage then any other tire on the market. No other tire comes close to the HS348 in both categories.

dont worry you arent being condescending, i do always steer away from cracks and bumps whenever i can. if im about to hit a significant bump i usually get off the saddle (not just for the sake of my poor tires, but also for the sake of my a$$).
like i said, the tread on the ultrasports is very very thin. when i got them they were about the thickness of 3 quarters stacked together
after i put new tubes in i even took my rack off and stopped using my saddlebags to avoid loading the rear as much, i switched to a backpack for daytrips.
im convinced its the tires

some online reviews of continental ultrasports
 

well here are some reviews from roadbike review. the conti ultrasports averaged 2.5/5 stars there

review #1

Strengths: Look like tyres

Weaknesses: Punctures, Flats, Wear, Cornering

Bottom Line:
These tyres came with my new bike and as a noob I knew nothing about bikes and even less about tyres.

For the first five or so months I was either incredibly lucky or the wear on the tyre was not enough to let any debris through. Since then I have had a litany of punctures until last week when I managed to get 100 % failure rate.

I suppose as they came with the new bike you could argue they were reasonable value as they were free with the new bike. Or you could argue the bike was free with them in which case they are a total waste of time and money. They are destined for the bin probably by next monday.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

review #2

Strengths: Great for flat fixing practice. So much so I ran out of patches.

Weaknesses: Punctures, not easy to get on. I get less flats on my GP4000s which are thin race tyres.

Bottom Line:
Rubbish tyre prone to flats. The soft but thickish rubber captures glass/rubbish. During the ride feeds it into/through the casing resulting in a flat. Other thinner/harder compound tyres may get cut up by glass/rubbish but most glass gets ejected before it penetrates the casing.
Not that easy to get on/off. I was happy to see these tyres reach the end of their life. Made in Taiwan not up to Continental Germany usual high standards.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

review #3

Strengths: Looks sexy, smooth ride, fast, good breaking

Weaknesses: Flats,flats,flats,flats and really hard to install

Bottom Line:
I have gotten 4 flats in less then a month. Hard to install.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

review #4

Strengths: Well, they're inexpensive, so you won't go broke replacing them so often.

Weaknesses: Weak tires. I can't believe it's debris, I keep finding holes in the sidewall. Replaced tubes, even got a new set of these (like an idiot). One tire will not last 200 miles.

Bottom Line:
They work all right...
...until they blow 100 miles later.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

review #5

Strengths: inexpensive

Weaknesses: Many

Bottom Line:
I bought these as a basic training tire. They are terrible for flat protection. I have had a flat just about every other ride on these tires. Only one of those was caused by something that would have punctured most tires. The first flat I had was within the first 12 miles of riding them. Absolute garbage.

Conti Ultra Sports, as bad as they are, shouldn't even be in the equation since their not touring tires.

well if you didnt read the first posts we're talking about them because they're the tire that came on my bike. the previous owner put them on my bike right before he sold it to me (they were unused)
since i have put 300 miles on them and they have gone flat on me 4 times, the rear 3/4 times.
hence me starting the tread asking about touring tires.
i am definitely not considering getting these again, lol
im going to get the marathon pros

I read the first post, and I read those tires came with the bike, but then it seemed like they came back up again, but I also read you were looking for touring tires, that's why I mentioned the Marathons that you now seem to be considering.

okay i see. im so fed up that i dont want to deal with flats anymore, not at all.
even if they're heavy, even if they dont ride the greatest, im still getting the marathon pros.
i just want the confidence to go on very long rides

The Marathons were designed with that in mind. I do weekend tours for the time being due to time constraints, so I only carry about 30 to 35 pounds of gear on rear, so I went for the Panaracer Pasela TG, a very highly rated tire, cheaper then those other tires in that long list and has better flat protection; but it won't last the miles the Marathon will nor be as tough, but it's good enough for what I use them for. I did add the Panaracer Flat-Away flat protection strip to the rear tire because the rear is where most flats occur and I don't want a flat and have to be bothered with removing the panniers...call me lazy!

By the way, 700cX28 see this: http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/roa...us/schwtyrr200

I use Bontrager T1 tires on my commuter and have put about 250mi on them. So far so good plus they're only $20 a piece.

CORRECTION:

The Conti tire I have is a Conti CityRIDE 700 X 32C. I have had zero flats with it since I installed it.

I have had very good luck with all the Conti tires i have had, but as I said before, I don't get a lot of flats in general.

Poor Cyccocommute and his experiences mentioned earlier are not the norm... Continental does not have a 100% defect rate among the general population. I recall years ago that Contineental TownandCountry tires were super difficult to get properly mounted much more often than you would expect, but otherwise I cannot recall any repeated problems with them.

However, Schwalbe, Panaracer, Vittoria, and Kenda all make good tires. I have heard a lot of people talking about their bad experiences with Kenda, and they certainly don't have the tight quality control of the more expensive tires, but the front tire on my bike right now is a Kenda Kwick Bitumen 700 X 38C and it has been awesome. But it is not the $9 version. I suspect they have different levels of QC for different tires.

I worked for a bike company that specced Kenda tires almost exclusively, and cannot recall any problems (except for road tires with different colours in the tread not lining up quite right - the tires were still nice and round - but if you stared at them while you rode you would get seasick). They certainly had a lower defect rate than Specialized tires - so many treads peeling off and beads ripping out of sidewalls that I couldn't count them all... although the tires that were not defective were very good.

I have had only two different Kenda tires, one set was the Kwest for a MTB, and the other was the Konstrictors for my road bikes. I can say I love those two models. The Kwest lasted 10 years not only for trail use, though I don't like MTB'ing that much so I didn't put but maybe 1,200 miles doing that, but they lasted a very long time on my trainer, probably about 3,000 miles. The Konstrictors surprised me, I got them on a close out of that model for $19 from $44 and bought 4 sets, when I first got them I almost gagged because they were so thin in the tread area! But now I have over 4,000 miles on one set and I've only had one flat, only two very small cuts (one resulted in the flat, I sealed both with Gorilla Glue), and I ride over glass a lot, and they still look good to go for awhile yet! They have great traction in both dry and wet conditions, I would not hesitate to buy another set of the newer model if they went on sale.

I had a friend that bought a set of Kenda Kaliente Pro's this last spring due to me having such great accolades for mine, and now he's hooked on those.

Problem with Kenda, and this is true with any brand, is their cheapest tires are junk, to go out and buy a $10 tire and expect it to be a great tire is not fair to judge any brand of tires with. While it may be true that Veloflex doesn't make bad tires they also don't make anything less then a $45 tire so yeah, the entire line will be good; but when a brand like Kenda or Continental, Michelin, Vittoria, etc makes tires from $12 and up you're going to have issues with the lower costing tires.

thats a steal! what's the difference, just that they say 'london' on the sidewall?

Yup, that's the only difference, but for those prices I would buy a set that said "London", wouldn't bother me the least bit. Besides, the poster is using them for touring, people will think he came all the way from England!!

One thing I forgot to mention to the Mdsanic13, make sure you have a spare tire when you go, and a couple of spare tubes, along with a couple of patch kits and boot patches...I know some of that is obvious but you would be surprise at how many people don't think about a spare tire or more then one tube. People that go on long touring events into sort of remote areas will usually carry two tires and 4 tubes; but if you're going on a tour where cities and towns are always nearby then just one tire and two tubes should suffice if you you're well acquainted with using tube and tire boot patches.

The question for a lot of tours on carrying spare tires is how to fold a wire beaded tire so it will store in a pannier; well here's how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INIG3NRTbEE AND: http://home.comcast.net/~mandmlj/tirefolding/index.html
Vittoria Randonneur Pro tire is a touring tire that does fold flat instead of the way a wire beaded tire folds, but it is a lighter weight tire with excellent but not great flat protection, and will wear out fast if used for long distance touring. But could be a good way to have a emergency use only spare that takes up minimal space and weight.

I have over 2000 miles on my cheap Michelin World Tours 32-700. They are wearing well and I have not had any flats with them due to road hazards. I did have 2 tubes that split along the seam.

-G

Conti sport contacts are good so far, very fast tire but haven't ridden them enough to make any claims yet.

I did have a langster with over 2000 miles without a flat. Stock specialized armadillo tires. I would buy them again in a heartbeat. I didn't realize specialized made a 26" version of it until I was talking to the bike mechanic after the build was finished. I would have gotten those.

I do tend to like a smooth tire with nearly 0 tred.

Actually, there are several Germany-based webshops that sell Marathon Plus tires for slightly less, and ship worldwide without the Parcelforce abuse.