# Are entry level tyres any good ?



## Marky-boy (30 Apr 2012)

Morning all, just wandered if these entry level tyres are any good? My new bike is a specialised allez triple which comes with specialised esoir sport tyres and is was wandering if its worth spending £20-£30 on a pair of new tyres as an upgrade and have seen a lot of schwalbe lugano and blizzard sport tyres, are these worth the money or would it be worth leaving the current ones on the bike ??

Any idvice gratefully recieved,
Cheers,
Mark.


----------



## black'n'yellow (30 Apr 2012)

I suppose it depends what you mean by 'any good'. Every tyre is a compromise between performance, grip, weight, reliability and durability - it depends what your priorities are and what kind of riding you do...


----------



## Judderz (30 Apr 2012)

Stay away fro Schwalbe Blizzards....one word....crap


----------



## Kiwiavenger (30 Apr 2012)

i swapped the spec tyres on my allez for luganos, ive done 1000 miles on them so far and only had 2 punctures (3-4 mill bits of glass forced through in the wet) roll really nice and where relatively cheap. plus they colour code well with my black and white allez!! lol.


----------



## Marky-boy (30 Apr 2012)

Hi b&y, at the moment im doing a daily commute of around 15 miles, with a bigger sunday morning run of around 30-50 miles and i have enterted my first sportive which is in july ?? Nothing to serious but i realise you get what you pay for.
Thanks again.


----------



## Marky-boy (30 Apr 2012)

Kiwiavenger said:


> i swapped the spec tyres on my allez for luganos, ive done 1000 miles on them so far and only had 2 punctures (3-4 mill bits of glass forced through in the wet) roll really nice and where relatively cheap. plus they colour code well with my black and white allez!! lol.


I agree with you, its all about the black and white !!!
LOL..


----------



## black'n'yellow (30 Apr 2012)

Judderz said:


> Stay away fro Schwalbe Blizzards....one word....crap


 
I'm not sure I agree with that. I rode over 2,500 miles on a pair of Schwalbe Blizzards in the worst of this winter without a single puncture. Although the rear is now junk, the front is still good - but for a pair of tyres that cost me less than £20 that can't be bad. Just goes to show that impressions can be different, I guess...


----------



## Marky-boy (30 Apr 2012)

black'n'yellow said:


> I'm not sure I agree with that. I rode over 2,500 miles on a pair of Schwalbe Blizzards in the worst of this winter without a single puncture. Although the rear is now junk, the front is still good - but for a pair of tyres that cost me less than £20 that can't be bad. Just goes to show that impressions can be different, I guess...


Yeah fair point, thanks for your time.


----------



## black'n'yellow (30 Apr 2012)

Marky-boy said:


> Hi b&y, at the moment im doing a daily commute of around 15 miles, with a bigger sunday morning run of around 30-50 miles and i have enterted my first sportive which is in july ?? Nothing to serious but i realise you get what you pay for.
> Thanks again.


 
Something like the Vittoria Rubino Pro or Conti Gatorskin would be my choice - probably in 25c width for a bit of added comfort...


----------



## Judderz (30 Apr 2012)

black'n'yellow said:


> I'm not sure I agree with that. I rode over 2,500 miles on a pair of Schwalbe Blizzards in the worst of this winter without a single puncture. Although the rear is now junk, the front is still good - but for a pair of tyres that cost me less than £20 that can't be bad. Just goes to show that impressions can be different, I guess...


 
I bought a pair too, rode them a couple of times, and it was like riding on glue, a couple of others on here said the same, so swapped them back for Continental Ultras, which I have never had a problem with. Personal preference I guess.


----------



## Marky-boy (30 Apr 2012)

Found some continental ultras i think on ebay,a pair for £27 and i can have them in white !!
Happy days,
Thanks again.


----------



## green1 (30 Apr 2012)

I'd stick to black rubber, Carbon Black which is the pigment used in black rubber reinforces the rubber and makes it more resistant to wear and UV degradation.


----------



## jay clock (30 Apr 2012)

black'n'yellow said:


> I'm not sure I agree with that. I rode over 2,500 miles on a pair of Schwalbe Blizzards in the worst of this winter without a single puncture. Although the rear is now junk, the front is still good - but for a pair of tyres that cost me less than £20 that can't be bad. Just goes to show that impressions can be different, I guess...


I have two pairs of Schwalbe Blizzards and ditto tons of mileage with virtually no problems. One "event" that I think was a badly installed tube- by me! They seem have far fewer cuts and nicks in them than most other tyres get. So I recommend them, and mine were £6.99per tyre and that was the folding one


----------



## T.M.H.N.E.T (30 Apr 2012)

black'n'yellow said:


> I'm not sure I agree with that. I rode over 2,500 miles on a pair of Schwalbe Blizzards in the worst of this winter without a single puncture. Although the rear is now junk, the front is still good - but for a pair of tyres that cost me less than £20 that can't be bad. Just goes to show that impressions can be different, I guess...


I have two road bikes both with Blizzard's fitted(Changes from Spesh All-Weather on my Allez). Sportive a couple weekends ago,up over gravelly road every other gateway had an upside down bike in it with a puncture getting fixed. My Blizzards are still running the same pressure today and through 6inch puddles,never gave any sort of bad feedback. Maybe I was lucky,maybe it was the tyre,maybe the guys with punctures were unlucky. Maybe they were riding on blizzard's too :P

(I've never understood why people rate tyres on the number of punctures they get. Surely if your tyres (any tyre) have picked up glass then you are riding somewhere you shouldn't be and/or are not paying attention to what you are riding on.) Often wonder is the rider crap opposed to the tyre 

Oh and btw: Hi


----------



## Marky-boy (30 Apr 2012)

Hi T.M.H.N.E.T, and thanks for your reply. Great point about how you can judge tyres by how many punctures you,ve got, i guess a lot of it is just down to preference i suppose.
Thanks for your time.


----------



## Enw.nigel (30 Apr 2012)

If I were you I would go with the tyres that come with the bike to begin with and get yourself familiar with your new steed. If you then become interested in trying to make your times quicker(which will happen anyway as your fitness improves)then I would consider changing the tyres for a pair with less rolling resistance. When I had an Allez a few years back now I remember changing the Specialized Mondo's that came with the bike(they were quite worn by now) to Continental GP 4000s and was amazed at the difference it made to my times. The downside is you are looking at spending £55-60 for a pair of tyres.
I changed the tyres on my current bike after a month to Schwalbe Ultremo zx's and again noticed the difference in times.
Anyway enjoy your Allez.


----------



## cyberknight (30 Apr 2012)

I tried blizzards as a winter training tyre and it is a bit slower than some tyres but for the price you cant complain.Normally i run gator skins and when i swapped back on the commuter as an experiment the bike felt livlier.
Originally ran ultra sports on the weekender but found the grip in the wet shocking so a tyre that feels like glue was a good way to go in winter , now the better weather is here i intend to put the ultra sports back on or if i feel brave some ultremo r1`s that look so thin i am not sure i trust them


----------



## biggs682 (30 Apr 2012)

Judderz said:


> Stay away fro Schwalbe Blizzards....one word....crap


 i have run both blizzards and luganos with no problems at all


----------



## Boris Bajic (30 Apr 2012)

Marky-boy said:


> Morning all, just wandered if these entry level tyres are any good? My new bike is a specialised allez triple which comes with specialised esoir sport tyres and is was wandering if its worth spending £20-£30 on a pair of new tyres as an upgrade and have seen a lot of schwalbe lugano and blizzard sport tyres, are these worth the money or would it be worth leaving the current ones on the bike ??
> 
> Any idvice gratefully recieved,
> Cheers,
> Mark.


 
I'd stick with what it came with until they are worn. If it's a new bike they will be in good condition. There aren't many 'bad' tyres on the market today.

I do not know the tyre you mention, but it's unlikely a firm like Spesh would market a new bike with poo tyres.

There are people out there who fascinate about bottle cages to match their frame and who change their bar tape when it gets scuffed or grimy.

If you are one such, then yes... Do change the tyres. Change them right now. Delay not!

If you just like to go for a ride on a bicycle, then change them when they're worn out.

I hope this helps.


----------



## pepecat (30 Apr 2012)

I have an entry level bike, that came with bontrager select tyres as standard. I found them absolutely fine for riding longer distances (30/40 miles plus) and the sportive i did last year. I have now upgraded to schwalbe ultremo zx tyres which are slicker (? - appear to have no tread on them anyway), and for the type of cycling that i do, these also seem to be fine. The lack of tread bothers me slightly (hills / corners / wet) but so far, so good. I only changed tyres cos the others were getting worn, apart from that, i had no quibbles with the entry level tyres at all.


----------



## HovR (30 Apr 2012)

I've researched and looked at reviews for quite a few entry level tires, and the ones that have come up best under £25 are the Vittoria Rubino's, available from Amazon for about £12 as tire.


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (30 Apr 2012)

pepecat said:


> The lack of tread bothers me slightly (hills / corners / wet) but so far, so good.


Don't let the lack of tread bother you.

As anyone who follows motor racing knows, a slick tyre is the fastest and grippiest tyre available but they will aquaplane in the wet. Racing bike tyres on the other hand are very thin and the contact patch is oval rather than oblong so they don't suffer from aquaplaning (at least not at the speeds any cyclist can manage) so don't need the grooves to disperse water.

If you compared a slick and a grooved bike tyre of identical sizes and rubber compound, the grooved one will actually have slightly less grip on wet tarmac as there is less rubber in contact with the road.


----------



## dave r (30 Apr 2012)

I run Bontrager Race lite Hardcases on both my bikes, when I brought my Kilmeston, about 18 months ago, I swapped out the standard tyres straight away for the hardcases, the standard tyres are still hanging up in the shed, so far, I'll probably jinks myself now, no punctures, about 2500 miles covered.


----------



## Jdratcliffe (2 May 2012)

Boris Bajic said:


> I'd stick with what it came with until they are worn. If it's a new bike they will be in good condition. There aren't many 'bad' tyres on the market today.
> 
> I do not know the tyre you mention, but it's unlikely a firm like Spesh would market a new bike with poo tyres.
> 
> ...


+1 leave the originals on to get used to the ride i brought my new spesh in dec just swapped the tyres out for Continental GP 4000s after 5500miles due to increase in visits from a certain fairy and cuts but tyre is good done few 00 miles on these and tbh i dont really see what the ££ is for atm dont think ive bedded them in yet might go cheaper next time as these currently dont feel any different.


----------

