Continentals

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

Quoted message said:

Vincent Wilcox 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!

It's actually very easy: you just first press the Conti
tyre to the center of the rim (the deepest point)using
your thumbs. You work your way all around the rim and then
a 8 year old can put it on easily!

Greets, Derk

Hay Derk Most tire /rim combinations are as you describe,
childs play. However I believe that you have not experienced
the combination some of the above posters are talking about.
Some beads so tight and / or strong, rims are so shallow,
plus the use of velox tape (which is the only tape, that I
know of, to reliably prevent flats on the inside of road
bike tubes) that it makes little difference if the beads are
centered. I strongly suspect that you have rims w/ a deep
center, or you're a Godzilla clone 🙂.

Also for many, many happy years I used a 35mm Michelin
touring tire. I think it had "Hi" in its name. Some time in
the '90s they discontinued it. It looked like something one
would have seen on a bike in a Western Auto store.(boy do I
date myself w/ that remark.) Definitely not a high tech
look, but god was it a great touring tire. I imanigne some
on this ng have used & loved this tire also. If so, what is
the best (or even better?) replacement have you found?

Tnx John

"Donald Gillies" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

bfd said:

On this newsgroup Avocet has a great reputation,
especially their

tires.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Avocet tires are made by IRC. If you like Avocet tires,
you might also like other IRC tires.

Make that "were made by IRC". Avocet *new* carbon 12, all-
black fasgrip tires are now made in Korea.

Matt O'Toole said:

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.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

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.

Quoted message said:

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.

Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

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?

I have listened to people tell these stories for at least 20
years and wonder why people buy these tires that have low
TPI, brown sidewalls that hide this fact, seem to be hard to
mount and are, more often than any other tire, reported to
have sidewall failures.

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get it.
What's the appeal? There are other well known brands on the
market, none of which are regularly mentioned as being hard
to mount and suffering side wall ruptures. Most of these
tires also cost less.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden]

anonymous said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Avocet tires are made by IRC. If you like Avocet tires,
you might also like other IRC tires.

Quoted message said:

Make that "were made by IRC". Avocet *new* carbon 12, all-
black fasgrip tires are now made in Korea.

Call that offshore for IRC. They are still IRC tires.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden]

Quoted message said:

I have listened to people tell these stories for at least
20 years and wonder why people buy these tires that have
low TPI,

They are advertised as being 285tpi, is that low?

Quoted message said:

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get
it. What's the appeal? There are other well known brands
on the market, none of

They were the only tyre I could find at the size I wanted
made with carbon black (28-406). I also had the Schwalbe
Stelvio's recommended but they seem to be silica based dual
compound efforts. I was none too impressed with the pair of
Marathon slicks I had before the continentals which were
also dual compound.

Carbon black tyres seem to be quite rare, the only ones I
know of are Michelin Carbon, the infamous Grand Prixs and
Avocet (unavailable here). I have a pair of Michelins and I
am happy with these but they are unavailable in 406. Any
others I have missed?

Quoted message said:

which are regularly mentioned as being hard to mount and
suffering side wall ruptures. Most of these tires also
cost less.

I won't get them again although relatively they are cheap at
15ukp. However I am limited in my options. Does anyone have
any other recommendations in the 406-28 size?

Vincent Wilcox 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?

I think Continental are getting a bit unreliable in this
respect. The last GP300 I had - 23mm, kevlar bead - I could
not fit even with tyre levers. I've never had any difficulty
with any tyre fitting before.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]>
Distortion Field!

Daniel Wilcox said:

Quoted message said:

I have listened to people tell these stories for at least
20 years and wonder why people buy these tires that have
low TPI,

Quoted message said:

They are advertised as being 285TPI, is that low?

I don't know how they are counting that but that number is
higher than the best silk track tires I have seen, ones with
sidewalls barely thicker than a sheet of bond paper. The 285
must be an accounting trick by which the individual fibers
of a thread are counted.

Consider that that is 0.0035" per thread (1/285). Liar liar
pants on fire or some similar response is appropriate. The
Continental tires I have seen have coarser threads than the
kite string on toy kits.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get
it. What's the appeal? There are other well known brands
on the market, none of

Quoted message said:

They were the only tyre I could find at the size I wanted
made with carbon black (28-406). I also had the Schwalbe
Stelvio's recommended but they seem to be silica based
dual compound efforts. I was none too impressed with the
pair of Marathon slicks I had before the Continentals
which were also dual compound.

Fashion rules. Color is in!

Quoted message said:

Carbon black tyres seem to be quite rare, the only ones I
know of are Michelin Carbon, the infamous Grand Prixs and
Avocet (unavailable here). I have a pair of Michelins and
I am happy with these but they are unavailable in 406. Any
others I have missed?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

which are regularly mentioned as being hard to mount and
suffering side wall ruptures. Most of these tires also
cost less.

Quoted message said:

I won't get them again although relatively they are cheap
at 15ukp. However I am limited in my options. Does anyone
have any other recommendations in the 406-28 size?

I'm not familiar with that size.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden]

Quoted message said:

Consider that that is 0.0035" per thread (1/285). Liar
liar pants on fire or some similar response is
appropriate. The Continental tires I have seen have
coarser threads than the kite string on toy kits.

Ok, I was wondering why some tyres were around 65 - 127tpi
and the continentals so high, there GP 3000s are 430tpi.
They must use the same people who assign hi-fi amplifier
wattage ratings, 380W PPODLS (Peak Power Output in Direct
Lightning Strike)...

Quoted message said:

Fashion rules. Color is in!

But black is always in fashion!

Quoted message said:

I'm not familiar with that size.

20" 1 1/8

David Damerell said:

Vincent Wilcox 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?

I think Continental are getting a bit unreliable in this
respect. The last GP300 I had - 23mm, kevlar bead - I could
not fit even with tyre levers. I've never had any
difficulty with any tyre fitting before.

Hi,

The Conti fit may well depend on the wheel rim that you are
mounting it on.

I did mount a couple of GP 3000s on my Campag Scirroco
wheels with no undue difficulty. I did use irons and did
mount the tire first without a tube to stretch it out a bit
and then added the tube. Yes this was a bit of extra work
but what the heck I've been using them as my racing
tires/wheels since the end of Feb without any incidents.

Mounting Michelins on my Shimano RD 540 wheels used as
training wheels, now that was a struggle! Even after 6
months when I fix a flat I wonder if i'll get the tire back
on

Regards Wayne

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

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Consider that that is 0.0035" per thread (1/285). Liar
liar pants on fire or some similar response is
appropriate. The Continental tires I have seen have
coarser threads than the kite string on toy kits.

Ok, I was wondering why some tyres were around 65 - 127tpi
and the continentals so high, there GP 3000s are 430tpi.
They must use the same people who assign hi-fi amplifier
wattage ratings, 380W PPODLS (Peak Power Output in Direct
Lightning Strike)...

Conti count the number of threads per layer and add them up.

--

A: Top-posters.
B: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

Quoted message said:

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get
it. What's the appeal? There are other well known brands
on the market, none of which are regularly mentioned as
being hard to mount and suffering side wall ruptures. Most
of these tires also cost less.

Despite the frequent rumblings on this newsgroup, I can't
find many low-cost, decent quality tyres at my LBS. Once
upon a time I bought Avocets from Sheldon since my LBS was
unwilling to do business with Avocet. Since the advent of
"Carbon-12" and the higher prices at Avocet, I haven't found
a suitable replacement. Any suggestions?

I rode the Avocet Duro (28-622) for general purpose and
commuting, and I used the Avocet Criterium (23-622) on my
race bike. Note that my dimensions are smaller than the
advertised dimensions since Avocet seemed to exaggerate the
tyre size back in the old days.

--
Dave dvt at psu dot edu

Quoted message said:

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get
it. What's the appeal? There are other well known brands
on the market, none of which are regularly mentioned as
being hard to mount and suffering side wall ruptures. Most
of these tires also cost less.

Well, availability is an issue at least here in Minnesota.
Avocet slicks are available in zero bike shops around here
AFAIK- the only place that stocked (Osell's) them went out
of business when the owner retired. The invert-tread car
tire for bikes that Avocet makes is often available in ones
or twos, but that tire is like riding uphill all day long.

Continentals are available everywhere. IME the Ultra 2000
700 x 28 works very well and lasts as long as an Avocet of
the same size. They seem to mount just fine on an MA2. And I
can get 'em easily, although they *are* $30 which seems
excessive. The usual alternatives are Michelin's
multicolored "silly-ca" rubber tires.

Until Avocet becomes much more dealer-friendly, their market
share will continue to be restricted. Not just their tires,
but their computers as well. I haven't seen an Avocet
computer for sale in a bike shop in years. I'm a little
amazed that the Avocet brass hasn't figured this out for
themselves.

In article <[email hidden]>, dvt <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get
it. What's the appeal? There are other well known brands
on the market, none of which are regularly mentioned as
being hard to mount and suffering side wall ruptures.
Most of these tires also cost less.

Despite the frequent rumblings on this newsgroup, I can't
find many low-cost, decent quality tyres at my LBS. Once
upon a time I bought Avocets from Sheldon since my LBS was
unwilling to do business with Avocet. Since the advent of
"Carbon-12" and the higher prices at Avocet, I haven't
found a suitable replacement. Any suggestions?

I rode the Avocet Duro (28-622) for general purpose and
commuting, and I used the Avocet Criterium (23-622) on my
race bike. Note that my dimensions are smaller than the
advertised dimensions since Avocet seemed to exaggerate
the tyre size back in the old days.

Why buy expensive Avocets when you can get basically the
same tire sold as the IRC Triathlon, available at Bike
Nashbar and others for about $13? I put 2000 miles on an IRC
Triathlon 700x25 duro on the rear, which is incredible
mileage for me, and there is still rubber left.

--
Mike DeMicco <[email hidden]> (Remove the
REMOVE_THIS from my email address to reply.)

Mike DeMicco said:

In article <[email hidden]>, dvt

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get
it. What's the appeal? There are other well known
brands on the market, none of which are regularly
mentioned as being hard to mount and suffering side
wall ruptures. Most of these tires also cost less.

Despite the frequent rumblings on this newsgroup, I can't
find many low-cost, decent quality tyres at my LBS. Once
upon a time I bought Avocets from Sheldon since my LBS
was unwilling to do business with Avocet. Since the
advent of "Carbon-12" and the higher prices at Avocet, I
haven't found a suitable replacement. Any suggestions?

I rode the Avocet Duro (28-622) for general purpose and
commuting, and I used the Avocet Criterium (23-622) on my
race bike. Note that my dimensions are smaller than the
advertised dimensions since Avocet seemed to exaggerate
the tyre size back in the old days.

Why buy expensive Avocets when you can get basically the
same tire sold as the IRC Triathlon, available at Bike
Nashbar and others for about $13? I put 2000 miles on an
IRC Triathlon 700x25 duro on the rear, which is incredible
mileage for me, and there is still rubber left.

Doesn't tire mileage depend mostly on the type of braking
you do? If you do most of your rides in the country you can
anticipate and coast to a stop. In the city where there is a
lot of traffic you are lucky if you don't flat spot your
tires the first week.

dvt said:

Quoted message said:

How does Continental have such a following? I don't get
it. What's the appeal? There are other well known brands
on the market, none of which are regularly mentioned as
being hard to mount and suffering side wall ruptures.
Most of these tires also cost less.

Despite the frequent rumblings on this newsgroup, I can't
find many low-cost, decent quality tyres at my LBS. Once
upon a time I bought Avocets from Sheldon since my LBS was
unwilling to do business with Avocet. Since the advent of
"Carbon-12" and the higher prices at Avocet, I haven't
found a suitable replacement. Any suggestions?

Avocet don't supply directly to anyone in the UK and I ai'nt
a dealer mate... At least that is wot they informed me when
wot I contacted them in proper England and all that! Any UK
dealers out thar willing to bite the bullet or at least get
some IRC's in?

Gwan, gwan, gwan!

Quoted message said:

Mike DeMicco said:

In article <[email hidden]>, dvt

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] wrote:
> How does Continental have such a following? I don't
> get it. What's the appeal? There are other well known
> brands on the market, none of which are regularly
> mentioned as being hard to mount and suffering side
> wall ruptures. Most of these tires also cost less.

Despite the frequent rumblings on this newsgroup, I
can't find many low-cost, decent quality tyres at my
LBS. Once upon a time I bought Avocets from Sheldon
since my LBS was unwilling to do business with Avocet.
Since the advent of "Carbon-12" and the higher prices at
Avocet, I haven't found a suitable replacement. Any
suggestions?

Carbon-12 is marketspeak for the same rubber they've been
using, at least according to prior discussions. Since most
bike stuff is about fashion and hype, and not about actual
performance, I suppose Avocet felt they had to come up with
something to put on the side of the tires that sounded
impressive. I would have preferred something like "Avocet
Carbon SORT" (for "Same Old Rubber Technology"😉. Or "JRTDT"
for "Just Ride The Dang Things."

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Why buy expensive Avocets when you can get basically the
same tire sold as the IRC Triathlon, available at Bike
Nashbar and others for about $13? I put 2000 miles on an
IRC Triathlon 700x25 duro on the rear, which is incredible
mileage for me, and there is still rubber left.

IIRC the Avocet tire uses a specific compound that IRC does
not use in the manufacture of other tires besides the
Avocets. I don't know if that's still true. Also, the
Avocets have no siping or other decorative faux tread features-
AFAIK only some Michelin tires and the Specialized FatBoy
are "slicks" like the Avocets.

Quoted message said:

Doesn't tire mileage depend mostly on the type of braking
you do? If you do most of your rides in the country you
can anticipate and coast to a stop. In the city where
there is a lot of traffic you are lucky if you don't flat
spot your tires the first week.

Riders who do long climbs find the rear tire wears out much
quicker than riders in flatter areas.

Tim McNamara said:

Carbon-12 is marketspeak for the same rubber they've been
using, at least according to prior discussions.

tim, you are so polite.

personally, i think it's about high time they started using
Carbon-60 (aka buckminsterfullerene) or perhaps Carbon-14
which has a half-life of 5,730 years.
--
david reuteler [email hidden]

Quoted message said:

dvt said:

Since the advent of "Carbon-12" and the higher prices at
Avocet, I haven't found a suitable replacement. Any
suggestions?

David L. Johnson said:

Look again. The price hikes seem to have been rolled back
at the few shops/internet sites that carry them.

I just looked via google and qbike.com. the lowest price I
found was $40 per tire with a free tube included. That was
at: worldclasscycles.comclincher tires2.htmOpen ↗

The price for the new Avocets doesn't seem to be dropping.
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

I'd be interested in the old-style Avocets, but when I tried
to place an order with Harris Cyclery last year, it was
apparently lost in the mail. I couldn't seem to get through
to anyone via email so I ended up getting some tires at the
LBS. I paid too much, got no improvement over the old
standard tires, and they're now worn out.

--
Dave dvt at psu dot edu

Wort said:

Quoted message said:

I think Continental are getting a bit unreliable in this
respect. The last GP300 I had - 23mm, kevlar bead - I
could not fit even with tyre levers. I've never had any
difficulty with any tyre fitting before.

The Conti fit may well depend on the wheel rim that you are
mounting it on.

Indeed, but I've mounted earlier GP3000s on the same rim -
an MA3. They're tight, but not unfeasible. This one,
conversely, is as I say the only tyre I've ever been
unable to fit.
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]>
Distortion Field!

Matt O'Toole said:

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?

I haven't had those problems, and they're the only quasi-
slick tyres my LBS carries.

Yes, yes, forward planning, I know...
--
David Damerell <[email hidden]>
Distortion Field!