Pricey tires. Dollar$ to ______ ratio
 

When you purchase pricey tires, what are you purchasing? Are you looking for flat protection? Weight? Ride quality? Handling? Longevity? Probably some combination of these (and other) factors, right? Well, my question is how do you quantify that in terms of dollar value? What's your ratio? The reason I ask is that I scored a pair of Schwalbe Ultremo DD for the price of a single a while back, and I'm trying to decide if I would buy these again at full retail price. So yeah, let's talk about how you expect tires to act in a dollars to whatever ratio.

i have a pair of "race tires" and really what i like about them is handling i cant notice weight and considering how i had my first flat on them i would say that there any more less flatable (notice my creation of words, ill soon be a bf superstar ha).

Great subject. Tires are subjective. Some say one brand is terrible others love it. I think handling is greatly due to rider confidence. A good rider could likely ride a cheapy drug store gumwall tire just the same as a fancy kevlar/vectran tire. Bad luck will influence the opinion of riders.

The famous line "the tire slid out" Descending too fast and crashing happens on good tires or cheap tires. I think the Schwalbe line of tires are absurdly priced. The web-site is all self righteous user testimony.

Don't get me wrong...Scwhalbe are great tires but expensive. If you choose a tire under 300 grams you are going to have less tread life. More rubber is not necessarily a bad thing.

My preference is for a slightly wider tire at 90PSI. I have used all brands of tires and discovered that skinny race tires are stupid. I won't go lower than 25's...28 is the ideal tire size for performance oriented road riding with a little extra width to keep traction in horrible pavement.

20-30$ tires work just as well as the 50-70$ tires. The only difference is marketing and packaging. Expect less mileage from race oriented tires. The worst value is cheap sew up tires. They are lumpy, hard to mount and just don't work worth a continental.

Just stock up on Conti GP4000's at PBK when they go on sale (around $35 shipped) and you will get the best of everything for a great price.

+1

+2

GP4000's are fantastic tires. What makes them fantastic, you say? I've not had a flat on mine yet; they have good grip; seem to be lasting a long time.
The only thing that I do not have any experience with is how they are in the wet. It doesn't rain that much here in the Phoenix area, and when it does, I'm not generally too psyched up to ride in it.

just get the conti 4000s and forgetaboutit!!!

Depends on the bike I put them on and the intended purpose.

+3

My first day with the Attack/Force combo saw a pretty good amount of rain - the tires were fantastic.

My second day with the Attack/Force combo saw debris - tires didn't do so hot, here. Flatted, took about a 2mm cut through the middle of the tread. I'm hoping that it was an anomaly and that the next couple thousand miles are flat-free.

I replaced a pair of low/mid cost Continental Ultra Sport with Vittoria Open Corsa Cx 320tpi which cost +$100 for the pair. What did I get for the premium price? The ride was more comfortable, the grip was superb and less rolling resistance. It also had that tubular look when installed to the wheels. I dont have a long ride time data yet as to it's puncture proof ability.

But just for the reasons mentioned above, it was worth it and would not evaluate it's $ to whatever ratio. I am happy with it and that's it.

Are they actually 320tpi?

I have the Attack/Force combo on another bike and haven't had any problems so far. They don't get ridden as often as the 4000's, however. But so far, so good.

It's also hard (for me) to determine if something that cut a tire or something that caused me to flat would have done so no matter what tire I would have used (Gatorskin's and Armadillo's aside). I used to have a set of Vittoria Rubino slicks and it seemed like they flatted a lot.

yes, the old ones had only 290

Yeah, if you're 1000 miles in to the tire, it's easy to dismiss... but when you're less than 100 in... eesh - it shakes the confidence, but I'll continue to hope for the best.

agree.

I can't tell a substantive difference for my style of riding between the GP4000s and the much cheaper Conti Ultrasports ($22 LBS retail). They are definitely heavier according to the specs, so should be slower, but my perceived and recorded speeds haven't been any different. Admittedly, I don't race crits or ride fast-acceleration type rides where tire grip and acceleration speed becomes crucial, so I probably can get away with the cheaper tires since I tend to get up to speed and stay there for awhile.

I had some Ultra Sports as cheap training tires and the rear was worn out in fewer than a thousand miles. A "heavy" tire ought to last.

yes, you can only appreciate those performance tires at fast turns and straight line speeds. At low speed, the difference in negligible.

exactly my experience

That's what she said.

i agree that you should select a tire you like, and then keep an eye out for sales on that tire.

i currently really like the gp4000's and the vittoria open corsa's & diamantes. all three are excellent, the OC's wear fast but handle better.

i keep an eye on the popular UK sites and buy a few extras when they go on sale. generally i can get them for the same price i'd get lesser tires at the lbs, so its a win win really.

After using cheap tires for years I finally got a pair GP4000s and haven't tried anything else. Grip is good enough for racing. A rear tire lasts 3-4000 miles and then I buy a new one for the front and rotate the front (which barely has any wear) to the rear. I've gotten about 5 flats with 4 tires so far. All were really sharp pieces of metal that would pierce any tire. And I just picked up one for $30 at PBK

GP4000's - +eleventy

I could tell within 3 pedal strokes how smooth they were, as compared to my pro3's. I will try Vittoria's Secret tires next, but with the PBK (or Ribble!) prices for the GP4000's, I don't think anything can beat them.

I like rubino pros for the price.