Cracked tyre

I have just checked a pair of exactly the same tyres on my training wheels. Pretty sure I bought them 2 summers ago when I went back to the UK. They have 0615 embossed on the sidewalls. If that indicates the date of production, that sounds about right.

They still look almost as good as new. They must have done at least 1000km by now.

I was using Michelin Pro 4 tyres until last summer, but Iā€™ve had 2 tyres form massive blisters, as in the photo below. The first was after the wheel had been sitting in the boot of my car for 4 days, the second, the one in the picture, happened while the bike was sitting in the apartment, about 5 metres away from the nearest window. I canā€™t remember what mileage theyā€™d done, maybe 2k?
Iā€™ve switched to Continental now.

Yeah, I know. I guess I will still ride them a bit if the shop doesnā€™t do anything about it.

I found 2713 which could be the 27th week of 2013 (car/motorcycle tyres show the week of production, dunno if this applies to bicycle tyres too). :pensive:

That looks bad! interestingly, Iā€™ve found several reports of blisters and cracks of these tyres on internet. Well, I guess thatā€™s normal even if the the product is generally good but there are bad unitsā€¦

I went to the shop yesterday and as I was starting to tell the guy about the problem, he totally knew what it was about. He said that it was a bad batch because they were made with ā€œrecycled rubberā€ and thatā€™s why they cracked. He told me to bring them to the shop and that heā€™ll replace them with something on the same price range.

I donā€™t know if this recycling story is true or not, but I tend to think it is BS. Probably itā€™s just that they were old, but heā€™s willing to change them so Iā€™m Ok with whatever story he tells me.

The shop is Stripe.


Actually I have a problem with this situation. I think I donā€™t want any of the tyres he sells currently. He has the Continental GP 4000, the Vittoria Open course EVO CX, and then a bunch of lower level material. If what i have read is correct, the Michelin are superior to the others in terms of cornering / grip / wet conditions handling, and the Vittoria despite being very good in dry conditions, are a big no no in the wet.

I also liked the white sidewall of my michelin, although I donā€™t dislike the red band in the Vittoria.

Suggestions?

The Contiā€™s are often cited as the go-to choice. Iā€™m very happy with mine

Yeah, people seem to be quite happy with those tyres. Personally Iā€™m very happy with the performance of my previous Michelin, but they donā€™t have themā€¦

I guess I will go with the GPā€™s unless I have a better option. And more colourful :smiley:

Damn, I really want white or red bands in my tyres!

Iā€™m going to post here the pictures of the tyres this shop sells. Iā€™m leaning towards the GPā€™s, but dunno if Iā€™ll go for the 23 or the 25 ones. Which one should have better grip when cornering? The 25?

Iā€™m a firm believer in 25mm, for both performance and comfort.

I actually wanted to give it a shot to 25ā€¦ people praise it and may be for a reason. However, what I want the most is not rolling resistance or even comfort, but grip, especially in the curves, especially in the wet. Dunno what tests say about that.

Itā€™s surely the compound and tyre pressure rather than the width when it comes to grip? i.e. GP4000 will have (pretty much) the same level of grip, but the 25s will have lower rolling resistance and give more comfort (if the reviews are to be believed). I have both and cannot tell the difference, although with slightly lower pressure in the 25s, I guess they are a bit more ā€˜comfortableā€™. (I donā€™t think I would be confident in identifying which is which if I were able to do a blind test.)

I should add, Iā€™ve been riding 23s for the past 15 years or so. Only recently got some 25s to see what all the fuss was about. As I said, I genuinely couldnā€™t ā€˜feelā€™ any particular difference (but Iā€™m an old carthorse rather than a thoroughbred, so hardly a surprise)

Agreed. Iā€™m running Gp4000s and Schwalbe One, both 25s on two different bikes and if you pumped one set to 100 front/back and the other to 90 front/back, Iā€™d immediately be able to tell you the difference when going down hill or on a flat. If both were at 100 front/back I would not be able to tell the difference.

I will also vouch for 25s. Personally, I think they are definitely more comfortable, but thereā€™s a sacrifice in speed compared to 23s.

Only if you run them at lower pressureā€¦

http://pelotonmagazine.com/chatter/wolf-vorm-walde/

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Yeah, Iā€™m sure that those two factors are the most important ones, but I wonder if the shape and circumference of the tyre would also affect cornering. In motorcycles a narrower tyre means more you lean more snappy, but I donā€™t know if it affects grip.

Iā€™m sure there will be people out there saying that they are apples and oranges. I believe you more TBH :smiley:

You mean you can tell both tyres apart, as long as they are at different pressure? I guess that that actually means that you can feel if they are harder or softerā€¦ (more or less inflated)?

I guess I will go with the 25. It seems that you have more margin to play with pressures and so, and itā€™s only 50 NTā€™s more.

Thanks all.

I re-read my post and realize itā€™s a bit weird wording haha.

I mean, I have tested tire pressure on both my Contis and Schwalbes and they feel the same when pumped to the same pressure.

That makes sense. Someone recommended me the Schwalbes over anything else because of the way they wear (evenly) versus how the others wear (developing a flat band). Dunno how true this is.

So I went with the Conti GP 4000S. Honestly, if I could I would just have bought something else somewhere else, for I think that almost ALL the tyres they have in that shop are already ā€œoldā€. No fresh rubber there.

I donā€™t know if it was real or not, but I did feel like even for the same presure (100/90) the vibrations and small shocks are more muted. I think I could feel smoothness and roundness versus the harsh and sharp feeling of the Michelin. I always thought that the Michelin were small even for a 23, so I guess that the change might be more noticeable than from other 23Ā“s.

What elseā€¦ I already went to the ground, coming down a bridge. The wooden ā€œtilesā€ were pretty wet and probably dirty and I kissed the ground. I donā€™t know if this could have happened with the Michelin, probably yes.

Top speed COULD be higher, and I donā€™t think that the ā€œrolling resistanceā€ is a factor as important as the bigger circumference of the wheel with these bigger tyres. Or may be I was extra motivated. What iā€™m sure is that the ā€œhigher air resistanceā€ is BS.

The bike looks nice with bigger tyres, but I miss some white or red touch on the wheels.