2_i 

This is to report experiences with Continental TopContact Winter tires. So far I have ridden for 2 weeks under conditions ranging from occasional snow and ice patches to uniform layer of snow or iced snow, with one such tire mounted on the front and a regular tire in the rear. The latter was either Marathon XR or Conti TT 2000 and all tires were in 700C/35-37 size. The TopContact Winter has no studs but some sort of grain particles embedded into the rubber. Otherwise, presumably the rubber formulation is different than for the regular tires.

My idea of getting TopContact Winter has been to cover the times when there is some ice and snow on the ground but otherwise plenty of bare pavement. Up to that point I have been riding with Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 at least in the front under such conditions that had an unpleasant aspect of being excessively slowed down. Under tough snow and ice I would normally switch to Hakkapeliitta W240. Due to laziness with switching of the tires, I ended up riding with my TopContact Winter/regular combinatio even when the ground was covered with a uniform layer of 1-2 inches (3-5 cm) of snow or snow completely iced over after melting and/or frozen rain.

One issue when getting the tire (second is in the mail) was whether vendors actually sell the Winter or regular version of TopContact, due to confusing info on the websites. The Winter version has 'Winter' printed on the opposite side of 'TopContact' on the tire. Otherwise, the tire sounds differently than regular when rolled over the floor, as if fine sand was sprinkled over the floor (cellophane crackling). The tire is equipped with a white reflective strip.

The regular tire in the rear gave me a reference for the performance of TC Winter. I have not fallen during the 2 weeks with the combination, although I had 3 near-fall experiences. I definitely owe the ability to recover to the grip provided by TC Winter. The grip is not as firm as of Haka 106 but turned out to be good enough. Two of the experiences were classical, involving a sharp turn over what turned out to be slippery surface covered by a thin layer of snow. In one of those cases, the surface underneath was a smooth sheet of ice. The rear tire went sliding, but the front held enough to allow me to recover. The third case was a slippery groove between slabs of concrete, covered with snow. Besides the above, I had some cases of hesitation, usually but not always, involving just the rear tire.

On the bare pavement, TC Winter feels just like regular tire. Presumably it is a bit slower but I really cannot tell. Once you put on some heavier clothing you are not that much into speeding.

So far this winter I have been either riding W240 or TC Winter but not W106. In the end, it looks like TC Winter is edging out W106. As I mentioned, I ordered already a second TC Winter.

XR2

If you don't mind what do they measure installed?

2_i 

Its nominal size is 37. I measure it as 35mm wide and extending 34 mm out from the rim. At this point it is presumably inflated up to 5.5 bar/80 psi. I now noticed a warning on the tire "Mount only on hooked rims".

2_i 

By coincidence, shortly after I finished with my report, the second TC Winter tire arrived. This one is commonly advertised as TC Winter II, although the name of the tire is stated simply as TopContact Winter (now written together). The thread is very different from that of TC Winter I. The latter tire has a thread that is typical for touring tires and even Haka W106, with just a touch some finer mesh substructure. In TC Winter II a fine mesh structure dominates the whole thread. There is some medium-scale structure and no larger structure in the thread. Very interesting and contradicting the expectations of the ice-bike site as far as what thread would perform best in winter. My report on this update to the tire will obviously have to wait at least couple of weeks...

rm -rf

Official web site: TopContact Winter II

coldfeet

I look forward to the report. One thing, on the web i see no reference to the new tire having any of the "grit" in the rubber, can you tell if they have done away with that?

2_i 

The tire still makes funny noise when you try to turn it on the floor, but I really cannot tell whether this is not just due to those fine structures that they call lamellae, rather than any particles. On Winter I, they wrote about embedded microspikes but on II such an inscription is missing. I wonder how long those lamellae will last given that they approach the level of hair sticking out of the tire.

AEO

I think those particles are the same sort of nylon plastic that you can find in adhoc winter shoes.

coldfeet

I seem to remember that they were crushed walnut shells, could be wrong.

AEO

it's kinda like having permanent sand in the tires, isn't it?

irclean

I dunno if I'd trust anything but studded tires for my winter commute, although I suppose running one of those TC Winters on the rear wheel might be okay. Besides, if I'm gonna spring for a second set of tires for winter cycling, and the TCs cost 60 bucks apiece anyway (https://www.slanecycles.com/continent...D&delivery=223), why not get some studs? I suppose if I lived in an area which rarely saw ice they would do, but I wouldn't chance it around here.

wolfchild

I also use studded tires...but they are "not an absolute neccessity" for winter cycling. There are a lot of very experienced cyclists who never use studs and they get around just fine. Not having studded tires shouldn't stop anybody from winter riding.

irclean

Oh, agreed; that's why I used the words "I" and "my". As people are fond of saying on these forums, YMMV.

2_i 

As the outer layer of the center of the thread has by now rubbed off a bit in TC Winter I, I can see under illumination shiny tiny shards of some glass embedded in the tire. Given how systematically they are spread out and my regular rate of picking pieces of glass, they are not likely to come from the surroundings.

2_i 

UPDATE: Now I have ridden for over 2 weeks on TopContact Winter II and have to say that in practice I cannot sense a difference between I and II. By eye, winterization of I is likely to last longer because shards of glass in I are distributed throughout the volume of the rubber while the lamellae in II are just on the surface.

Otherwise, summing up, I've tended to ride in lighter conditions with two TC Winter tires or TC Winter in the rear and Haka 106 in the front. Two TC Winter tires are good for: transitional weather with occasional freezing, flat patches of ice, light layer of snow. Haka + TC Winter is good for moderately iced up deformed surfaces in addition to thin layers of snow. I have pushed that latter tire combination even when riding over heavily built up mounds of ice, at times wet, but that was stretching it - in fact I've fallen a couple of times during 4 days of such riding. However, I was too lazy to change tires particularly that weather was mellowing.

TC Winter is not good in deeper snow and as a front tire for prolonged stretches of ice. It is well superior to the studded Haka when there are prolonged stretches of bare pavement. Overall, getting two TC Winters has been a good investment. As a result I do not think I will be ever using two Haka 106 at once.