Tire recommendation

Sheldon said:

I flatted on a pothole Sunday. Today I looked at the inside of the tire,
and found a little cut in the sidewall.

What's a good replacement for this 700x26C Performance Forte (folding)?

Bike is Trek 1420 50cm, wheel is Mavic Module-E, 36 spoke, Velox tape
I am about 140lb.

Just about anything. Ritchey, Conti, Vittoria, Michelin, Performance,
etc.
Find a tire in the price range you want, folding, and it will prbably
be fine. Way to much about this here bicycle tire or that. Hard to find
a really 'bad' tire these days.

"Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sheldon said:

I flatted on a pothole Sunday. Today I looked at the inside of the tire,
and found a little cut in the sidewall.

What's a good replacement for this 700x26C Performance Forte (folding)?

Bike is Trek 1420 50cm, wheel is Mavic Module-E, 36 spoke, Velox tape
I am about 140lb.

Just about anything. Ritchey, Conti, Vittoria, Michelin, Performance,
etc.
Find a tire in the price range you want, folding, and it will prbably
be fine. Way to much about this here bicycle tire or that. Hard to find
a really 'bad' tire these days.

Don't forget to look at Avocet Fasgrip 700x25 tires. All carbon black tires
provide excellent grip AND used by Jobst to helped him handle like this:

http://www-math.science.unitn.it/Bike/Countries/Europe/Tour_Reports/Tour_of_the_Alps_Gallery/tiretest.jpg

My alter-ego reported:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I flatted on a pothole Sunday. Today I looked at the inside of the tire,
and found a little cut in the sidewall.

What's a good replacement for this 700x26C Performance Forte (folding)?

An anonymous poster suggested:

Quoted message said:

Don't forget to look at Avocet Fasgrip 700x25 tires. All carbon black tires
provide excellent grip AND used by Jobst to helped him handle like this:

http://www-math.science.unitn.it/Bike/Countries/Europe/Tour_Reports/Tour_of_the_Alps_Gallery/tiretest.jpg

I too like, use, (and sell a lot of) Avocet FasGrip tires, but if
other-Sheldon wrecked a 26 mm tire on a road hazard, I would definitely
_not_ advise him to switch to a _narrower_ one.

Unless this pothole encounter is a very rare aberration, he would be
better off going to a _wider_ tire, such as the 28 mm Avocet FasGrip
Duro or a Panaracer Roly-Poly/Ruffy Tuffy.

http://harriscyclery.com/622

Sheldon "Wider Is More Reliable" Brown
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Daniel declined the tobacco with a wave of his hand. |
| "One day that Indian weed will kill more white men, |
| than white men have killed Indians." |
| Neal Stephenson - The System of the World |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

Agree, a wider tire is probably better. However, that raises the
question of whether the OP bike can fit a *true* 28mm or wider tire?

As for my suggestion of a "narrower" tire, I've measured at least 10 or
more Avocet Fasgrip Road 700x25 tires, which were also called 700x28
when they were known as the Avocet Fasgrip Road 30 (black with tan
sidewall versions), and they vary from 24-26mm wide. I suspect those
Performance Forte 700x26 vary about the same.....

Thanks a lot to all who replied publicly and privately - much
appreciated.

This morning I took the wheel and the 26mm Performance tire to a
shop.

I forgot to ask about specific makes, and they offered a Continental
Ultra 2000, 25mm. I also got a Specialized tube, supposed to fit
20-28mm.

They readily accepted the gift certificate I'd been given.

I wanted to see how it was to mount. Initially they did not have a
floor pump to lend, though they offered to use their compressor. I said
no thanks, and did it kneeling on the carpet. It was tighter than the
Performance Forte, and I hadn't brought talc or whatever. Used one of
my plastic tire levers to get the tire on.

By then, one of the staff kindly brought me a a floor pump. I put in 20
psi, it looked fine, I put in 45 psi and heard hissing.

I consulted a staffer, was told the valve was damaged or I'd pinched
the tube. He offered to sell me another new tube, and to install it for
a fee.

So I came home.

Disassembled, patched little holes, reassembled, used cloth wet with
water & rubbing alcohol to lubricate.

Tire seems nice, but too tight - it will not be easy to fix a flat out
on a ride.

Thanks,
Sheldon

Quoted message said:

Tire seems nice, but too tight - it will not be easy to fix a flat out
on a ride.

New tires and Continental tires are often harder to mount/dismount: the
stiffer sidewall makes them tougher to manipulate over the edge of the
rim. Using a tire lever is often necessary, but only with extreme care.
Pinching a tube is all too easy, as you found.

If it was really difficult, I'd recommend replacing the rim strip with
something thinner. Cloth Velox-type rim strips are great, but they're
thick enough to interfere with tire installation with *some* tire-rim
combinations. Replacing a Velox with a thnner plastic strip like these:
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=18266
can help with difficult tire installations.

Jeff

I can't picture how a rim strip could interfere with tire installation
unless the rim strip was too wide. Will the Performance rim strips
stay supple indefinitely or will they get brittle over time?

Olebiker said:

I can't picture how a rim strip could interfere with tire installation unless the rim strip was too wide.

A thick (not necessarily wide) rim strip doesn't allow the portion of
the bead already on the rim to seat as deeply. That makes it harder to
get the last bit of the bead over and onto the rim.

Art Harris

On 24 Jun 2005 04:48:11 -0700, "Olebiker" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I can't picture how a rim strip could interfere with tire installation
unless the rim strip was too wide. Will the Performance rim strips
stay supple indefinitely or will they get brittle over time?

Dear D.,

A rear flat yesterday gave me the opportunity to examine my
handsome blue Performance rim strip. It's about 6 months old
and the plastic seems fine. I tried it after ruining some
green plastic Michelin rim bands that were too tight for my
rim.

The blue plastic Performance rim band went on more easily.

Two things help installation.

First, put the inner tube valve through the rim and the hole
in the band to center the holes--pulling the band onto the
rim is likely to leave things misaligned.

Second, stick a pen (or something similar) between the rim
and the band before pulling the band onto the rim. The band
is so thin and snaps into place so snugly that it's hard to
pry it up to make any seating adjustments. With a smooth
stick--er, pen holding the tape up at one spot, you can just
pull the pen around the wheel to lift the band locally and
fiddle it into place.

The band fits tightly enough that you don't want to try
using a finger to do this. Later, you can pry the band up
with something small and blunt at the valve hole if you need
to re-adjust the band after a flat tire.

They recommend replacing the band with every flat or tire
replacement, but I may get flats a bit more often than they
expect, so I haven't replaced a band yet.

My dial caliper shows that the blue Performance PVC rim band
measures 0.030" thick x 18 mm wide in either 700c or 26"
sizes:

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=18266

The white cloth Performance rim tape is more than long
enough for any normal rim and is slightly thinner in both
dimensions than the blue plastic band, 0.026" thick x 17 mm
wide (or 11 mm or 22 mm):

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=15001

Carl Fogel

Olebiker said:

I can't picture how a rim strip could interfere with tire installation
unless the rim strip was too wide. Will the Performance rim strips
stay supple indefinitely or will they get brittle over time?

They interfere by increasing the diameter of the rim bed, disallowing
the tire bead to drop down further, which interferes with the ability to
get the opposite side of the tire over the brake track/clinch of the rim.

Robin Hubert