Hybrid tyres

My hybrid came with Cheng Shin OEM 700x38 tyres and they've got to go (I
guess the shop had to compromise somewhere). Just about all of my riding is
on bitumen, except maybe for the gravel bike path around the lake near where
I live, and I live in a city with a real winter so wet weather handling is
an issue. I'm doing my homework and I've come up with a list of tyres that
I'd like opinions on, for or against:

700x28 Continental Sport 1000 350g
700x28 Continental Top Touring 2000 430g
700x28 Continental Ultra Gatorskin 320g
700x28 IRC Road Winner II Duro 290g
700x30 IRC Tandem Duro 305g
700x28 Michelin Dynamic 380g
700x28 Michelin Transworld City 390g
700x28 Schwalbe Marathon 510g
700x28 Vittoria Randonneur "double shielded" 490g
700x28 Vittoria Zaffiro 350g

Right now I'm leaning towards the IRCs largely because of their weight.

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In article ,
says...
My hybrid came with Cheng Shin OEM 700x38 tyres and they've got to go (I
guess the shop had to compromise somewhere). Just about all of my riding is
on bitumen, except maybe for the gravel bike path around the lake near where
I live, and I live in a city with a real winter so wet weather handling is
an issue. I'm doing my homework and I've come up with a list of tyres that
I'd like opinions on, for or against:

700x28 Continental Sport 1000 350g

I really like these on my Tourer (though I use the 25mm size). I can't
comment on the others because I haven't tried them.


700x28 Continental Top Touring 2000 430g
700x28 Continental Ultra Gatorskin 320g
700x28 IRC Road Winner II Duro 290g
700x30 IRC Tandem Duro 305g
700x28 Michelin Dynamic 380g
700x28 Michelin Transworld City 390g
700x28 Schwalbe Marathon 510g
700x28 Vittoria Randonneur "double shielded" 490g
700x28 Vittoria Zaffiro 350g

Right now I'm leaning towards the IRCs largely because of their weight.



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"DRS" wrote in message
...
My hybrid came with Cheng Shin OEM 700x38 tyres and they've got to go (I
guess the shop had to compromise somewhere). Just about all of my
riding is
on bitumen, except maybe for the gravel bike path around the lake near
where
I live, and I live in a city with a real winter so wet weather handling
is
an issue. I'm doing my homework and I've come up with a list of tyres
that
I'd like opinions on, for or against:

700x28 Continental Sport 1000 350g
700x28 Continental Top Touring 2000 430g
700x28 Continental Ultra Gatorskin 320g
700x28 IRC Road Winner II Duro 290g
700x30 IRC Tandem Duro 305g
700x28 Michelin Dynamic 380g
700x28 Michelin Transworld City 390g
700x28 Schwalbe Marathon 510g
700x28 Vittoria Randonneur "double shielded" 490g
700x28 Vittoria Zaffiro 350g

Right now I'm leaning towards the IRCs largely because of their weight.

I've had bad experience with severe sidewall cracking on two IRC's; viz:
26 x 1.5 "Smoothy" and 20 X 1.125 Roadlite EX's. On the other hand I've had
a couple of cheap Cheng Shin 26 X 1.5 semi slicks on a touring equipped MTB
for several years with no problems -not even a puncture!

How important is weight to you?

All the best,

Roy

araby wrote in message
. rogers.com

[...]

How important is weight to you?

It seems to me all I ever do is add weight to the bike. If I can reasonably
take some weight off I would like to do so. After all, the difference
between 510g (Scwalbe Marathon) and 290g (IRC Road Winner II Duro) may not
seem like much but it's 220g more per tyre I have to pedal around over who
knows how many thousands of kilometres.

OTOH, the shop where I bought my bike has the Radonneurs (490g) discounted
and will waive the fitting fee if I get it done at the same time as my
scheduled service. :-)

--

"I'm proud that I live in a country where witnessing two hours of bloody,
barbarous torture in gloating detail is considered indicia of religious
piety, whereas a mere second gazing upon a woman's breast is cause for
outraged apoplexy."
Betty Bowers, http://www.bettybowers.com/melgibsonpassion.html

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 08:02:46 +1100, "DRS"
wrote:
How important is weight to you?

It seems to me all I ever do is add weight to the bike. If I can reasonably

Same here.

take some weight off I would like to do so. After all, the difference
between 510g (Scwalbe Marathon) and 290g (IRC Road Winner II Duro) may not
seem like much but it's 220g more per tyre I have to pedal around over who
knows how many thousands of kilometres.

That weight savings is nearly equal to a set of Planet Bike Freddy
full coverage fenders with mud flaps, or a rear rack, or any of a
million other items you might hang on the bike (per your comment
about adding weight). A pound is nothing to sneeze at, especially
when it's as inexpensive as a set of tires that you need to buy
anyway.

OTOH, the shop where I bought my bike has the Radonneurs (490g) discounted
and will waive the fitting fee if I get it done at the same time as my
scheduled service. :-)

By "fitting fee", do you mean that if you bought other tires from
them, they would charge you to mount them while you've got it in for
other service? That sounds a bit out of line.

Any comment from the LBS people here? Would you charge for mounting
a tire bought at your shop while already charging for some other
service?
--
Rick Onanian

Rick Onanian wrote in message

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 08:02:46 +1100, "DRS"
wrote:

[...]

take some weight off I would like to do so. After all, the
difference between 510g (Scwalbe Marathon) and 290g (IRC Road Winner
II Duro) may not seem like much but it's 220g more per tyre I have
to pedal around over who knows how many thousands of kilometres.

That weight savings is nearly equal to a set of Planet Bike Freddy
full coverage fenders with mud flaps, or a rear rack, or any of a
million other items you might hang on the bike (per your comment
about adding weight). A pound is nothing to sneeze at, especially
when it's as inexpensive as a set of tires that you need to buy
anyway.

Yep, 440g is pretty close to a pound.

OTOH, the shop where I bought my bike has the Radonneurs (490g)
discounted and will waive the fitting fee if I get it done at the
same time as my scheduled service. :-)

By "fitting fee", do you mean that if you bought other tires from
them, they would charge you to mount them while you've got it in for
other service? That sounds a bit out of line.

Ok, my bad. The service is free, part of the warranty on the bike. Please
don't beat up on my local bike shop, I like them. :-) Normally there's a
fitting fee if you only buy the tyres.

Anyway, does anybody know anything about the Randonneurs? Apparently
they're fairly new and I can't find reviews on them anywhere.
http://www.vittoria.com/index3.asp?lingua=en then Products City Trekking.

--

"I'm proud that I live in a country where witnessing two hours of bloody,
barbarous torture in gloating detail is considered indicia of religious
piety, whereas a mere second gazing upon a woman's breast is cause for
outraged apoplexy."
Betty Bowers, http://www.bettybowers.com/melgibsonpassion.html

"DRS" wrote in message
...
My hybrid came with Cheng Shin OEM 700x38 tyres and they've got to go (I
guess the shop had to compromise somewhere). Just about all of my riding
is
on bitumen, except maybe for the gravel bike path around the lake near
where
I live, and I live in a city with a real winter so wet weather handling is
an issue. I'm doing my homework and I've come up with a list of tyres
that
I'd like opinions on, for or against:

Have you looked at the Avocet Cross II's? I have those (700x38C size) on
my Shogun hybrid, and I've been happy with them.

-- Paul

Paul A. Steckler wrote in message

"DRS" wrote in message
...
My hybrid came with Cheng Shin OEM 700x38 tyres and they've got to
go (I guess the shop had to compromise somewhere). Just about all
of my riding is on bitumen, except maybe for the gravel bike path
around the lake near where I live, and I live in a city with a real
winter so wet weather handling is an issue. I'm doing my homework
and I've come up with a list of tyres that I'd like opinions on, for
or against:

Have you looked at the Avocet Cross II's? I have those (700x38C
size) on my Shogun hybrid, and I've been happy with them.

They're nice and light at 350g (Cross IIK 700x28) but it's hard to find
anyone here in Oz who actually sells them. The list I gave are all tyres I
know I can get. I'm also not sure I want or need a true "cross" tyre. 99%
of my riding is on bitumen - I live in an area that's very popular with
cyclists because of the quality and extent of bike paths and bike friendly
roads, and as I said before, the closest I come to off-road riding is the
gravel bike path around the lake near where I live, which is why there's a
number of road tyres in the list.

--

"I'm proud that I live in a country where witnessing two hours of bloody,
barbarous torture in gloating detail is considered indicia of religious
piety, whereas a mere second gazing upon a woman's breast is cause for
outraged apoplexy."
Betty Bowers, http://www.bettybowers.com/melgibsonpassion.html

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004 09:23:31 +1100, "DRS"
wrote:



Anyway, does anybody know anything about the Randonneurs? Apparently
they're fairly new and I can't find reviews on them anywhere.
http://www.vittoria.com/index3.asp?lingua=en then Products City Trekking.

I'll jump into this thread for a moment-

I had the Randonneurs on a city bike. Bianchi Volpe used for
commuting. The shop told me that they were popular with commuters and
messengers. They were the right size so I tried them.

I was very unimpressed with their ride quality. Very dead no matter
what the pressure. And for some reason I never figured out, I could
almost feel them fighting me when accelerating. Hard to explain,
know. I have some 700 gram tires on a 26" commuter and they don't feel
anywhere near as hard to accelerate as the Randonneurs were.

If you need lots of puncture resistance and ride quality is
secondary.... uh, tertiary? then go for them. Other than that, I
would not recommend them.

"DRS" wrote in
...
Paul A. Steckler wrote in message

"DRS" wrote in message
...
My hybrid came with Cheng Shin OEM 700x38 tyres and they've got to
go (I guess the shop had to compromise somewhere). Just about all
of my riding is on bitumen, except maybe for the gravel bike path
around the lake near where I live, and I live in a city with a real
winter so wet weather handling is an issue. I'm doing my homework
and I've come up with a list of tyres that I'd like opinions on, for
or against:

Are those knobbies or like that? I did well with Cheng Shin Nylon's
700 x 35 front and back for about 3 years. They are not knobby, just
simple "street" type tread, but tough and long lasting. Had to
replace the rear only because the sidewall got cut while riding on
railway ballast.
BTW the replacement tire lasted only one winter and was clearly done
in. It was a cheapie, but not worth using. I ordered another Cheng
Shin.
BTW the originals were also OEM on my Marin hybrid.

Regards,
Bernie