Ok, as a previous thread about multiple bike advantages had diverted into discussions of the merits/demerits of various "puncture proof" and touring /commuting tyres, how about we share our experiences here? (enlightened self interest, I'm interested in a new set sometime in the forseeable future ;-))
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Commuting tyre choices?
(7 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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I'll kick off;
Specialized Nimbus Armadillo 26"
Weight: Don't know the book figure, they're not light but on a lightish x-country wheelset (Mavic X517 rims) they seem reasonable to me.
Rolling resistance; Pretty good new but after a couple of thousand miles they start to square off and mine feel quite draggy and hard work now.
Grip; always subjective, but I've not had any "moments" on the road and on muddy canal towpaths etc they're pretty good, not as good as proper knobblies obviously, but quite rideable.
Puncture resistance; Very good in my experience, one puncture caused by a lump of glass managing to slash the tyre and cut through the inner (that's in 3K miles of lousy surfaces, potholes and *loads* of broken glass.
Wear resistance; as mentioned above, squaring off noticeably on the back after a couple of thousand miles, front is still fine (albeit with a few slashes in the rubber)
Fitting difficulty; Minimal, I used levers not fingers but had no difficulty.
Anything else...?
Posted 13 years ago # -
I commute on the road bike most days and that is with fairly lightweight 700x23 tyres totally slick and never really found they puncture readily nor are they that worrying in the wet though iron work and the little metal bits that mark ped crossing can be a bit scary.
On the mtb i use a pair of ancient Nimbus III's only puncture i've had on them has been some red grit in the rain channel.
I ride almost exclusively on the road so don't need to worry so much about glass etc in fact the last puncture I had was after a PY coffee morning and I came back via one of the meadows paths. Keep the pressure high and avoid deep pot holes and you'll be fine.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Specialized Armadillo All-Condition. Initially 700*28C until the reduced clearance from the thicker band on my replacement front mech required I reduce to 23C.
One puncture in several years' use (from a rose thorn on my front path).
One managed to get me safely to work after a wheel-lockup-rear-skid removed the last of the tread from the fabric over a six-inch arc.Mountability - easy with 28C and fair with 25C but a pain in the face with a 23C with the twenty-year-old Mavic rim on my spare wheel.
Unmountability - levers required, but once two are in the rest is easy.
Durability - they get palpably thinner within four or five months. I tend to try and stick new ones on the back first then use them for an extra couple of months on the front seeing as the back carries more weight and is more difficult to precisely direct through patches of glass.
Comfortableness - running them at the recommended 120psi causes no problems except on really badly-laid cobbles. That said, on the way to TBW this morning I noticed a distinctly lessened sensation of lumpiness on the more rutted sections of tarmac using a brand-new 23C tyre on my spare 32H non-aero-rimmed wheel (whereas I think my normal deep-rim wheel is 24H). I therefore have no idea what these tyres are like compared to other tyres with other variables accounted for. I still like cycling after using them for several years so they can't be bad.
Weight - no idea and don't care; they don't puncture. I usually carry much more than I need to anyway so an extra few hundred grams of tyre goes unnoticed when there's a litre of coffee, over a kilo of camera, a bottle of fruit juice and multi-tool/pliers/pump sitting in my bag. And a D-lock and a long cable attached to the frame.
Grippiness - fine on wet or dry roads, bad on wet manhole covers and pedestrian crossing markers. Fine on gravelly-paths and wet grass, with sufficiently-attenuated power input. I could get gingerly about on the snow with a bit less air in but they didn't handle the rutted ice in the tracks of buses at all well.
Rolling resistance - they seemed to let me do quite well on the Innocent Tunnel Freewheeling Distance Challenge so they can't be absorbing too much energy.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Schwalbe Marathon. Preferably Plus.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Schwalbe Marathon Plus. 26 x 1.75" / 37 x 700c depending on the bike. 4 - 5 Bar.
Posted 13 years ago # -
+1 for Marathon Plus 37x700c at about 5.5 bar.
Just one puncture in 4,000 miles (mostly on the towpath), when I ran over a 4-inch nail which somehow went all the way in. I didn't see it go in, so when trying to remove it, I assumed it was a tack, and was a bit confused as to why it was so hard to pull out...
Posted 13 years ago #
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