Continental Tour Ride tyres - a warning..

[wafter]

I had Continental travel contacts on my tourer because I like the dual tread and what I thought were quality tyres at £35 a peice. Well the 37c measured 34mm and the tread has come apart on the centre line. I replaced with a 42c comes out at 38mm ! And over a few years the bead has separated from the side wall.
Not happy, contacted Conti UK and all they could offer were different model tyres no cheaper than I could get online.
Rubbish quality tyres made in India.

Crikey - that looks pretty nasty

I've had similar experiences with other tyres, which I think in my case at least was maybe the result of running the pressure too low and causing excessive sidewall deformation.. something I'm actively trying to avoid.

For the sake of balance I do have Conti Sport Contact IIs on the Genesis which are a great good-condition "gravel" tyre IME; slick, and fast-rolling.. I did have a failure like the above after about 4k miles, but again I think this might have been my fault to some degree.


In a fit of indignance I did email Continental to complain about the Tour Ride experience; and this was the response I got:

Hi Wafter,

Thanks for the email and pictures.

The Tour Ride was discontinued about 6 years ago, there are versions that are much older though.

That tyre was made using much older moulds made with very old measurement standards and also designed to be fitted to narrower rims.

The current version is called the Ride Tour it is made using exact ETRTO standards as are all the rest of our tyres.

I would be very interested to know who is selling old Tour Rides if you would like share that with me.

Best regards,

...

At first I thought this was pretty reasonable, however the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like b*llocks. Natural fitment variations excepted tyres should be true to stated size regardless of their age or standard to which they're supposedly made.. besides; these stated both "700x32c" and "32-622"; the latter of which I believe is the ETRTO designation.. so by the rationale above they should be true to size.

I also didn't much like the accusatory comment towards those apparently selling old tyres; as if they were committing some kind of moral crime in doing so. I assume Continental don't have a returns policy to allow their dealer network to return all of their old, unsold stock when it suddenly, inexplicibly becomes unfit for purpose due simply to its age..

I've responded pretty much in this vein and quelle surprise, I've had no response... needless to say I remain unimpressed

 

[Jameshow]

Always an exception to the norm. I'm just thankful in that case as an Engineer i work in absolute knowns; and to the mm maximum. More often than not microns.....

Wood sounds like Tyre's: a random 'sheit-show'..........

Yeap how about a custom dinning table that someone has made which becomes a banana as they turn up the heating....

Or buying hardwood which has big Beatle larva in it....

Not my experience just from another forum.