Continentals

Vincent Wilcox said:

I had, what I consider, an impressive sidewall failure on one of two new
406-28 Continental Grand Prix tyres I bought, passers by remarked about
thinking someone had been shot. Ive searched with the terms Continental
and Sidewall failures and noted a significant number of these in the
past but none of recent. The tyre had less than 50miles ie. brand new,
needless to say I have returned it.
I went to a local LBS to get a replacement tyre and they seemed to think
that this may have been old stock. This particular LBS has always been
good in the past at not stocking things that cause them headaches in
terms of returns. They also lurk on usenet so I assume they are not
bandits and have been excellent at suggesting I go direct to source
rather than from them for certain esoteric items.
The point is that this was a failure on the rear wheel which occured on
a straight and my obvious concern is that it occurs again on the front
wheel mid-corner with a truck behind me. Is there anything I can check
for to avoid this? Or was it a one off?
Also is it just me or do you need to be Godzilla to fit these tyres,
they have bent two of my tyre levers so far. Ive fitted many tyres in
the past none have been this difficult and I am not looking forward to
the prospect of having to repair a flat in the rain on a cold day!
Thanks for any information on this.

I regularly use Continental Grand Prix tires. I have never had trouble
fitting them on the rims by hand.... no tools at all. However, I use a
pair of levers to take them off.

What does your "sidewall failure" look like?

Front tires and front brakes are two of the more important safety items
on your bicycle. Give them a visual check before each ride.

--

daveornee said:

I regularly use Continental Grand Prix tires. I have never had trouble
fitting them on the rims by hand.... no tools at all. However, I use a
pair of levers to take them off.

Ive fitted quite a few different types of tyre, wire bead,
kevlar bead but these Continentals are ludicrous. Do you eat
alot of spinach?

Quoted message said:

What does your "sidewall failure" look like?

A 2-3cm tear between the bead and the sidewall. I may have a
picture of it if and when I can get the pictures off the
phone and if they are any good.

Quoted message said:

Front tires and front brakes are two of the more important safety items
on your bicycle. Give them a visual check before each ride.

There was nothing amiss with the tyres as they were new. I
had just inflated them to 120psi with a track pump and
checked the pressure with a pressure gauge and cleaned the
rims of sludge from a previous rainy ride. They looked fine,
they rode fine until the rear went bang.

I use Conti Gatorskins on Campag Omegas - it was incredibly tough to get
them off and even worse to get them on.

I was put onto Crank Bros Speed levers - my tyre changes go at least 3 times
as fast, and no sweating or swearing. These things are incredible. You
just need one and a normal plastic tyre lever (i use conti tyre levers as
well because they are as tough as the tyres are to get off!).

Hope this helps,

Bow

"Vincent Wilcox" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

daveornee said:

I regularly use Continental Grand Prix tires. I have never had trouble
fitting them on the rims by hand.... no tools at all. However, I use a
pair of levers to take them off.

Ive fitted quite a few different types of tyre, wire bead,
kevlar bead but these Continentals are ludicrous. Do you eat
alot of spinach?

Quoted message said:

What does your "sidewall failure" look like?

A 2-3cm tear between the bead and the sidewall. I may have a
picture of it if and when I can get the pictures off the
phone and if they are any good.

Quoted message said:

Front tires and front brakes are two of the more important safety items
on your bicycle. Give them a visual check before each ride.

There was nothing amiss with the tyres as they were new. I
had just inflated them to 120psi with a track pump and
checked the pressure with a pressure gauge and cleaned the
rims of sludge from a previous rainy ride. They looked fine,
they rode fine until the rear went bang.

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I had, what I consider, an impressive sidewall failure on one of two new
406-28 Continental Grand Prix tyres I bought, passers by remarked about
thinking someone had been shot. Ive searched with the terms Continental
and Sidewall failures and noted a significant number of these in the
past but none of recent. The tyre had less than 50miles ie. brand new,
needless to say I have returned it.

I went to a local LBS to get a replacement tyre and they seemed to think
that this may have been old stock. This particular LBS has always been
good in the past at not stocking things that cause them headaches in
terms of returns. They also lurk on usenet so I assume they are not
bandits and have been excellent at suggesting I go direct to source
rather than from them for certain esoteric items.

The point is that this was a failure on the rear wheel which occured on
a straight and my obvious concern is that it occurs again on the front
wheel mid-corner with a truck behind me. Is there anything I can check
for to avoid this? Or was it a one off?

Also is it just me or do you need to be Godzilla to fit these tyres,
they have bent two of my tyre levers so far. Ive fitted many tyres in
the past none have been this difficult and I am not looking forward to
the prospect of having to repair a flat in the rain on a cold day!

Thanks for any information on this.

Do you have thick rim tape and box section rims like Mavic MA2? Some
Continentals do tend to be a bit tight and require a knack (my experience
is with their touring tyres but I have read other peoples reports also).
If you needed a lot of force to mount the tyre maybe you damaged it then.

Bruce Graham said:

Do you have thick rim tape and box section rims like Mavic MA2? Some
Continentals do tend to be a bit tight and require a knack (my experience
is with their touring tyres but I have read other peoples reports also).
If you needed a lot of force to mount the tyre maybe you damaged it then.

The rims are Alex DA16 and I am using Velox rim tape. I
could mount the previous Schwalbe Marathon slicks with very
little effort. The GPs seem to take me about 5-10minutes
with equal amounts of levering/swearing. I cant see the
levers lasting another session.

Bow said:

I use Conti Gatorskins on Campag Omegas - it was incredibly tough to get
them off and even worse to get them on.

I was put onto Crank Bros Speed levers - my tyre changes go at least 3 times
as fast, and no sweating or swearing. These things are incredible. You
just need one and a normal plastic tyre lever (i use conti tyre levers as
well because they are as tough as the tyres are to get off!).

Hope this helps,

Bow

Will look into this. Thanks.

Vincent Wilcox said:

Bruce Graham wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Do you have thick rim tape and box section rims like Mavic MA2? Some
Continentals do tend to be a bit tight and require a knack (my
experience is with their touring tyres but I have read other peoples
reports also). If you needed a lot of force to mount the tyre maybe
you damaged it then.

The rims are Alex DA16 and I am using Velox rim tape. I
could mount the previous Schwalbe Marathon slicks with very
little effort. The GPs seem to take me about 5-10minutes
with equal amounts of levering/swearing. I cant see the
levers lasting another session.

I used to have this problem with some Conti Avenue slicks on my MTB. Getting a
flat was a half hour ordeal, usually involving blood loss. Fast tires, but too
much of a pain to deal with, so I got rid of them.

I also once helped a fellow cyclist having similar troubles w/ some Conti road
tires.

This seems to be a common complaint. Sidewall cuts and fabric coming apart
seems to be a problem with Contis too. So why do people keep buying them?

Matt O.

Vincent Wilcox said:

I had, what I consider, an impressive sidewall failure on one of two new
406-28 Continental Grand Prix tyres I bought, passers by remarked about
thinking someone had been shot. Ive searched with the terms Continental
and Sidewall failures and noted a significant number of these in the
past but none of recent. The tyre had less than 50miles ie. brand new,
needless to say I have returned it.

Conti GP sidewalls are very vulnerable to the flints around here. A 2"
gash isn't unusual, which of course wrecks the tyre and often the tube.

Quoted message said:

I went to a local LBS to get a replacement tyre and they seemed to think
that this may have been old stock. This particular LBS has always been
good in the past at not stocking things that cause them headaches in
terms of returns. They also lurk on usenet so I assume they are not
bandits and have been excellent at suggesting I go direct to source
rather than from them for certain esoteric items.

The point is that this was a failure on the rear wheel which occured on
a straight and my obvious concern is that it occurs again on the front
wheel mid-corner with a truck behind me. Is there anything I can check
for to avoid this? Or was it a one off?

Keep out of road debris or don't use Continental GPs :-)

Quoted message said:

Also is it just me or do you need to be Godzilla to fit these tyres,
they have bent two of my tyre levers so far. Ive fitted many tyres in
the past none have been this difficult and I am not looking forward to
the prospect of having to repair a flat in the rain on a cold day!

There are some bad tyre/rim combinations. The worst I've found yet are
the (otherwise rather lovely) Campag Omega semi-aero rims and
Specialized Turbo-S folding tyres. I'm ashamed to say I had to use a
tyre lever to fit them because the Omegas have a very shallow rim bed
and the tyre beads are completely unstretchable.

Bow said:

I use Conti Gatorskins on Campag Omegas - it was incredibly tough to get
them off and even worse to get them on.

Yup, Omegas are probably the worst rim for tyre fitting. Apart from
that they are (or were) one of the best rims out there in terms of
strength and weight.

Vincent Wilcox <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Bruce Graham said:

Do you have thick rim tape and box section rims like Mavic MA2? Some
Continentals do tend to be a bit tight and require a knack (my experience
is with their touring tyres but I have read other peoples reports also).
If you needed a lot of force to mount the tyre maybe you damaged it then.

The rims are Alex DA16 and I am using Velox rim tape. I
could mount the previous Schwalbe Marathon slicks with very
little effort. The GPs seem to take me about 5-10minutes
with equal amounts of levering/swearing. I cant see the
levers lasting another session.

The Continentals are a lot smaller section that the Marathons (28mm
vs. 37mm), so there's less sidewall to flex. That, plus the fact that
your Continentals are about the narrowest 20" tires around, plus
having a narrow rim, plus using thick Velox rim tape would make
mounting the tire a chore.

If it continues to be a problem, I would replace the rim tape with
something thinner. In extreme cases, a couple layers of fiberglass
reinforced strapping tape has worked for me.

Jeff

"Matt O'Toole" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Vincent Wilcox said:

Bruce Graham wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Do you have thick rim tape and box section rims like Mavic MA2? Some
Continentals do tend to be a bit tight and require a knack (my
experience is with their touring tyres but I have read other peoples
reports also). If you needed a lot of force to mount the tyre maybe
you damaged it then.

The rims are Alex DA16 and I am using Velox rim tape. I
could mount the previous Schwalbe Marathon slicks with very
little effort. The GPs seem to take me about 5-10minutes
with equal amounts of levering/swearing. I cant see the
levers lasting another session.

I used to have this problem with some Conti Avenue slicks on my MTB. Getting a
flat was a half hour ordeal, usually involving blood loss. Fast tires, but too
much of a pain to deal with, so I got rid of them.

I also once helped a fellow cyclist having similar troubles w/ some Conti road
tires.

This seems to be a common complaint. Sidewall cuts and fabric coming apart
seems to be a problem with Contis too. So why do people keep buying them?

Marketing. Continental and Michelin are the best at that game. In
contrast, take a look at Avocet. On this newsgroup Avocet has a great
reputation, especially their tires. Further, at one point, Avocet had
arguably one of the largest share of the cyclocomputer market. Yet,
maybe because of their "direct dealing only" way of selling its
products, and the apparent lack of any other marketing, if you go into
just about any bike shops or do an internet search, Avocet seems to be
almost nonexistent.

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 15:29:29 +1000, "Bow" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I was put onto Crank Bros Speed levers - my tyre changes go at least 3 times
as fast, and no sweating or swearing. These things are incredible. You
just need one and a normal plastic tyre lever (i use conti tyre levers as
well because they are as tough as the tyres are to get off!).

I have a couple Speed levers, but they don't seem any good on tight
fits. How do you use them when the tire is too tight?
--
Rick Onanian

bfd said:

Marketing. Continental and Michelin are the best at that game. In
contrast, take a look at Avocet. On this newsgroup Avocet has a great
reputation, especially their tires. Further, at one point, Avocet had
arguably one of the largest share of the cyclocomputer market.

I agree about the tires, but Avocet's computers are notoriously fragile,
and they've deserved to lose that market share.

bfd-<< Further, at one point, Avocet had
arguably one of the largest share of the cyclocomputer market. Yet,
maybe because of their "direct dealing only" way of selling its
products, and the apparent lack of any other marketing, >><BR><BR>

We stopped with Avocet computers because after they changed manufacturers, we
had about a 50% failure rate on new ones...so we stopped sellin' them.

Peter Chisholm
Vecchio's Bicicletteria
1833 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535
http://www.vecchios.com
"Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

"bfd" <[email hidden]> a écrit dans le message de :
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Marketing. Continental and Michelin are the best at that game. In
contrast, take a look at Avocet.

My observations : Germany loves Continentals with Vittoria not close in
second ; France loves either Michelin or Hutchinson, with Vittoria next ;
Italy seems to think Vittorias are best, and Continental is, I believe, the
next favorite. Note, that all of these are ACTUAL manufacturers, located
physically in Europe.

Quoted message said:

On this newsgroup Avocet has a great
reputation, especially their tires.

On the other hand, I have never seen an Avocet tire for sale in Europe.
Maybe I
didn't look too hard, but I think I would have noticed. After all I was a
fan of Barums, while they still existed, so I am not chauvinistic or
snobbish about tire selection.

Maybe if Avocet actually made things (I am under the impression that its all
design and engineering, with no fabrication), there would be more selling,
not just marketing. After all, selling someone else's products is
"marketing" at a fundamental level. Of course, if there really are Avocet
factories, profuse apologies.
--
Bonne route,

Sandy
Paris FR

SMMB said:

My observations : Germany loves Continentals with Vittoria not close
in second ; France loves either Michelin or Hutchinson, with Vittoria
next ; Italy seems to think Vittorias are best, and Continental is, I
believe, the next favorite. Note, that all of these are ACTUAL
manufacturers, located physically in Europe.

Vittorias are not made in Italy, but Thailand. Velonews just did a big story on
it.

Matt O.

Qui si parla Campagnolo said:

bfd-<< Further, at one point, Avocet had
arguably one of the largest share of the cyclocomputer market. Yet,
maybe because of their "direct dealing only" way of selling its
products, and the apparent lack of any other marketing, >><BR><BR>

We stopped with Avocet computers because after they changed
manufacturers, we had about a 50% failure rate on new ones...so we
stopped sellin' them.

Avocet had some great stuff, they just never marketed it well. Or at all.
Their tires are great, their saddles were really hot for awhile, and their
computers were my favorite -- until they died in the rain.

Matt O.

Bill McCready of santana talk about this in the santana catalog the
first continentals he would use on his tandems is called a gatorskin
it has a extra ply with a checker board pattern that you can see on
the outside of the tire. He also uses it on his triples. One thing
about santana is every one of his customers can afford to sue him so
he tends to be consurvative about what he specs. If it works for you
let us know.

leurre-<< Note, that all of these are ACTUAL manufacturers, located
physically in Europe. >><BR><BR>

Vittoria is made entirely in Thailand...

Peter Chisholm
Vecchio's Bicicletteria
1833 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535
http://www.vecchios.com
"Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"