Winter road tyres

[Racing roadkill]

I've just put some continental GP4000sII on my winter road bike. They are 25 mm numbers, they do up to 28 mm. The grip in bad weather is astonishing, and I've already had to pull a nail out of the rear, it didn't puncture. They are well worth the money IMO.

 

[ozboz]

Hi all , thanks for the replies . I did read the Cycling Weekly article . The bike I got her is an entry level Cube , incredible value , By Easter I will get the drivetrain updated to a105 set up ready for the summer and the rides we are planning , having never had much to do with road bikes I have soon learned that there is very little tolerance tyre wise , so 25 mm is the max that will go in there according to Cube , so 25 mm it is , Schawalbe's , good puncture resistance etc ,pick them up Monday , also got some Crud mudguards , as she is a full on fitness instructor this is her commute between her varying classes around West London , it's amazing how much time she saves on the road with this bike , keeping as dry is also important
, The pic in the avatar is the model of my new bike ,a Surley Cross Check , it's rolling on 40mm nobblies , I put mudguards on that . And after a bash down the Thames towpath , Putney to Richmond on a wet day The guards did a good job ! It's a quick bike also . I'll not be able to compete with her as her confidence builds ,come the summer I will sort some less aggressive easier rolling tread pattern tyres for the Surley and refit her Cube with the tyres it came with ,

 

[vickster]

Make sure she has a serious D lock and additional cable if she's leaving the bike around W London

 

[ozboz]

Yeah , got a Krypton lock for it , a bit heavy but ,,,,, she is fortunate in the way that as a staff member they can take their bikes into the centres
,

 

[mustang1]

Tyres on 'cross bikes won't necessarily have good puncture protection just because they go off road, and you don't need tread on road tyres either. Personally, I've been using Schwalbe Durano's for the last year and they've been excellent and I would imagine the Durano+ have even better puncture protection.

+1
I had 3 flats in 2 weeks on my conti cx tires before changing to schwalbe marathon supreme. BTW the cx tires were very smooth and despite being knobby were very fast. Alas, no puncture protectionn

 

[Spoked Wheels]

I keep reading exagerated comments on the Marathon + tyres. I thought I was immune to this kind of talk by now.... I heard so many times people saying " 50g or 100g lighter, makes the wheel a lot faster..." or "an extra 100g will slow you down x minutes"..... etc.
I've just read another one on the rolling resistance of the marathon plus. The tyres are undoubtedly heavier and have more rolling resistance but I think the difference is very very small and hardly noticeable. I've only ridden race tyres for the last 6 years, Michelin Pro 2,3 and 4. Only one type of winter tyre.... Gatorskin so I thought I would sure notice any differnce on rolling resistance but in all honesty I haven't noticed a great difference with the 25c 100psi front / 110 psi rear and yesterday I did a little test, not a very scientific one but still.... I wasn't surprised with the result.

The only difference I've noticed so far is a harsher ride, in comparison with my old winter tyres, 28c Gatorskin. The other thing different that I've noticed is in the handling.... I find that these tyres make the bike slightly more difficult to handle and more noticeable when riding with no hands on the handlebars.

The expected difference, acceleration is not as good as a 200g tyre but I was expecting that.

On balance, I'd buy these tyres again for winter and if I was commuting I'd definitely buy them too.