Touring Tires
 

Continental Town & Country C-139?Attachment 65232

Hi I used the older version of the Town & Country on a 5 month tour and they worked well. I still have one of the on my city bike! The new sidewalls will be much better than the old style.
Gordon P

I have heard that the latest breed of Conti town and country's are badly made, and do not last as long as they used to. I use Conti Travel Contacts at the moment, and they're very good.

I feel pretty good about them (I better because I aint got any money to get others)

The tires are 26"x1.9" is that too thick? I have seen most bikes with 1.35"-1.5

no, thats fine.

Too bad they got worse instead of better! I also just upgraded to Conti Travel Contacts hope they are as good as I heard. Gp

The tyre has a good reputation, never tried them myself.

I'd go with narrower, but the wide tyres will be more comfortable and not too much slower. Also better if you end up on dirt or grass. Don't worry if you've already bought them. I don't think you need wider than 1.5 on road, though.

I think it give you an excuse to hit up some trails when you are passing through :)

Excatly my point, I find them to be just right, not too fat like some 2.1" pair I saw (freakin motorcycle tires) and not too thin so I can shred a little and keep the comfort level to a max. The treads are only on the sides and they are recessed, so on smooth road I have a really sexy ride. They also disperse water well (I got to test them in the rain today). Good purchase I must say.

They are great tires - I have them on my bomber Trek 970 rig and they are tough and roll well. They also spec them on a lot of the police bikes around here so they must be pretty tough - those guys are jumping curbs all day long.

Good to hear. I have already given them some abuse and they have passed with flying colors, they are really good off road.

I got 3000 miles on a pair of Conti Travel Contacts. I am very pleased and impressed with their performance both on and off the road. I expect another 3000 miles from them. Mine are 26 x 1.75.

I had a pair of 700X32 Security Contacts that I picked up this summer while on tour. They were supposed to be the best touring tires the shop had. They were very poor with regard to wear. The rear one lasted around 1000 miles and the front around 2000 miles. I considered them very unsatisfactory.

The Contact Security tires are designed for use in factories... that may ave something to do with your crappy wear.

The Travel Contacts are a different animal. I use them on all of my bikes and have had 1 flat tire in the last year. The also roll great and wear has been negligible on my most-used bike - over 3k miles on 700 x 37's and they still look new. I run 26 x 1.75's on my other 2 bikes and they roll like 700's. The 1.75's actually measure 1.6 on 27mm rims.

Best tires ever.

I haven't tried Conti's. I tried Armadillos, and then Schwalbe Marathons. I've stuck with the Schwalbe's for some time now, and can't imagine a better tire. I'm curious about those who have tried both the Schwalbe and the Conti.

i got some travel contacts great tire when new i got nearly 3000k with 1 flat, but i had to swap out the front and rear after 2600km due to really excessive wear. so i figure with the swap ill get 6000k or so, which i guess is pretty good, they roll pretty fast and if im honest i like them

Interesting. I'm not sure how the Security Contacts relate to the Travel Contacts. Looking at Continental's web site they seem like different tires for different intended applications.

I think the same applies to Schwalbe tires...Namely, you have to get the exact model for your intended application. For instance, there are several Marathon tire variants so make sure you get the one you need. There are quite a few previous threads talking about this.

Also, few shops are knowledgeable about touring so "...the best touring tires the shop had..." doesn't mean much in all too many instances. Best to check things out on BF, first.

conti has better touring tires than the town and country in the original post.

conti has a few 'layups' of tires and the T&C's have a rudimentary but fairly effective plastic ply barrier also seen in their lower end 700C tires. Many manufacturers use a version of the plastic 'flatbreaker' in their tires.

The Travel Contact has a rubber safety barrier and kevlar sidewall protection that is more in line with the Schwalbe Marathons. They are also introducing a Vectran flatbreaker in their 2008 top of the line touring tires. This is an expensive fabric but produces very supple and responsive tires. Schwalbe has also gone to Vectran flatbreakers in their 'supreme' tire.

The Conti Security and the Marathon Plus tires use a very thick and heavy rubber flat breaker and will tend to ride like bricks.

conventional wisdom is the Conti rubber wears faster than the Schwalbes but tires are disposable so 2000 versus 3000 miles to me isn't a big concern. I've ridden long enough to waste tires after a couple hundred miles on road debris, so longevity of a tire is really a crap shoot IMO.

Conti has switched many of their 2008 tires to a new 'black chili' compound which rides nice, is grippy and lower rolling resistance. I believe Schwalbe has upgraded their tires with a similar rubber technology as well.

I've ridden the Conti Travel Contacts thru miles and miles of very rough roads and find them to be very robust touring tires. They are interesting in ride- at slow speeds the side knobs give a little bit of tread 'squirm', but having pushed the tires up to and over 50MPH down several mountain passes, the handling gets MORE solid as speeds increased over 30. I found it a curious (and reassuring) performance characteristic.

Does anyone find that tires with tread tend to pick up and hold bits of glass, sharp stones and such like? I'm curious because most times I've flatted it's been the result of something picked up in the tread. I've gone to slicks for lower rolling resistance and the fact that they pick up less debris. Anyone have similar experiences?

^
I've had similar experience, in picking up debris in the tread. It seems like that's the only time I get flats, and I can't really feel too bad about it considering how long the little piece of glass or metal probably had time to bore a hole into the tire.
Curiously, I've never flatted on the slick tubulars that I run on my Sutter, but that bike came with wire gaurds that attach to the brake bridges and brush off any debris that might get stuck in the tire. The wire gaurds wouldn't work with a treaded tire because of the resistance the tread would create on the wire.
By no means am I advocating tubulars for touring, though. But the wire guards, I could see being useful for those who use slicks. I doubt they're available any longer though. They create a little resistance, that can be heard if not necessarily felt by brushing the tire.

conti top touring 2000

I second that. The top touring is a great tire.

yeah, unfortunatley Conti hasn't produced the TT2000 for 3 years now.

Ya, that's a shame. In the last five years, anytime I found any shop with stock of them in my size...I cleaned them out.