Durable 23c or 25c Road Tires - Recommendations?

Steve Sr. wrote:
Hello,

I am looking for some recommendations for some durable road tires that
are fairly resistant to punctures and more importantly avoiding tube
pinches. The roads that I ride on are mostly rural with varying
surface qualities. The worst being tar and gravel.

I only weigh about 160 pounds but the bike has a fairly upright riding
position which transfers most of the weight to the rear tire. I am
finding that this leads to pinch flats even with tires inflated to
120psi which is the current tires maximum. I think the issue on the
tire is too many pounds and not enough square inches to distribute it.

Any preference between wire bead (non folding) or kevlar (folding)
bead types? I guess the folding variety weigh less but may also have
limitations on how much pressure they will hold.

Any particular brands/styles of tires to avoid?

It also wouldn't hurt if they were periodically on sale at a place
like Performance. : - )

Thanks,

Steve

Continental Gatorskin tires. 23, 25, 28 mm widths available in wire
bead. Or the expensive kevlar bead version they call 4 Season I think.
Extra, extra tough sidewalls on these tires. I just replaced the
front tire after putting it on in August 2001. Since then it went
across/around the states of Iowa, North Dakota, Kansas, Wisconsin,
Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana. About 4,000 miles. Add
another 2,000 brevet miles. Plus several more thousand miles of
general riding. I can't complain. The sidewalls did look ragged at
the end. But still tough. The tread was split and coming off the
casing so I pre-emptively replaced it. Rear tire did not last quite
that long. It did give several thousand miles before I picked up
something in the tread I could not get out so I had to toss the tire.
It was near its end by then.

Bad tire is the Vredestein Fortezza Tricomp Hand Made in Holland. Very
short tread life on the rear. Feels underinflated and squishy even
when its at 140 psi. Sidewall and tread blew out on the front tire.
Can't wait to use up my awful stock. I'm too cheap to toss the new
unused awful tires.

Continental Ultra 3000 is cheap. But not durable. Easy to cut
sidewall. Does not resist flats very well. But its cheap ($11) so I
don't mind tossing them if they pick up something I cannot get out of
the tread.