Here it's partially the government, partially the +/-40 C temperature
swings and partially the mob supplying the asphalt.
We seem to get by without your tire issues for the most part. I'm
getting ~5000km from my Conti 4000s and rarely get flats.
I try to avoid potholes but I have hit one that caused my tube to
split but I haven't cut a sidewall yet. This happens when you ride
in a tight group and the guy in front of you moves to avoid the
hole at the last second without warning. But you say you keep
yards between you and any other riders so it's hard to understand
your issues.
Whatever. Use what works for you.
On trails the tire torture is of more natural causes, decomposed
granite and sharp rocks, some embedded and some rolling. Then
both on roads and trails there are these which go into runnig
surfaces and sometimes side walls:
If you're talking about trail riding then why do you say road bike? I
don't ride my Tarmac on single track unless I can't avoid it which
is never.
A bike shop owner told me that they aren't native but came in
from places like Arizona just a few years ago. Anyhow, we've got
to deal with all that.
All this assumes a tire liner so I can ride tires down to
their "last mile". In goat's head thorn country wheer I live
a liner is the prudent to do anyhow.
... It's not like they are optional as far as I know.
They are optional. Some tires (supposedly) have something similar
built in but my experience is that it fails as soon as the thorn
or whatever hits far enough off-center.
In addition I have thick thron-resistant tubes in the MTB and
road bike tires. For the MTB the tire liner is then sleeved by a
reguar good quality tube with the valve stem removed and slit.
That combination seems to be indestructable. Which was my goal.
My experience with cheap tires was absolutely horrible. They flatted
if you look sideways at them and they wore out so rapidly that they
cost more than using more expensive longer wearing tires.
I'm sort of wondering just how far over the edge that Joerg is
willing to take his tires before replacing them.
With the tire liners in there I use them until thread shows, or at least
close. The running surface becomes very flat in the center.
... I very rarely get
more than 2,500 miles on the very longest wearing tires. I believe
that he is approximately my size and yet he gets almost twice that
distance if I understand him correctly.
No, 2500mi max and only with expensive Gatorskins. Not using them
anymore because of their flimsy side walls. Regular tires of the $12
class last me 1500-2000mi. Depends on brand and where I happen to ride.
Mountainous terrain eats rubber on the uphill sections, literally. When
I am following another guy and it's a quiet area I can hear the vvvt ..
vvvt .. vvvt from his rear tire going uphill.
Or we can go with Frank's previous claim that the graphene layer in
my Vittoria tires doesn't protect anything because a layer only 8
molecules thick couldn't possibly protect anything.
This was a test in medical gloves that have to have several times
the stretch of tires and yet even the very small pieces of graphene
yielded an 11% increase in puncture resistance.
The Vittoria tires have overlapping sheets of the material making it
very puncture resistant. Now these most certainly aren't in the realm
of Joerg's "cheap tires" but they are made in Thailand.
Including shipping I paid $12/ea for the Vittoria Zafiros. That
qualifies as low cost in my book. Jay wrote they don't last but I get
well north of 1500mi out of them and I am not babying my road bike. It
rolls over some nasty stuff. So if there was another sale and I needed
to restock on tires I'd buy those again.
I don't know how long they last, but my Zaffiros have been flat-prone, although not recently. I had a period of three or four flats a while back, but they've been flat-less lately.
I have them in 32mm and run them as my fall-leaves-rain tire because they have a little tread pattern and aren't a pure slick. I have no idea how many miles I have on them because I have zero instrumentation on my commuter -- or any bike. Responding to this posts reminds me that I should look at my rear tire and see if it is worn out.
Another thing about these tires is that they have a pretty high recommended inflation pressure for a 32mm. IIRC around 90 PSI, which makes the ride like rocks, but if they are under inflated, they ride like slugs. A 10-15 psi difference really affects the perceived "speed" of the tire. They also have just so-so wet grip which is sub-so-so at max inflation pressure. With all that said, they're not a bad tire for the price, and so far, more durable than a Pasela which, IMO, is a very similar tread design.
I'm not going to spend a ton of money on a commuter tire. Riding a commuter with sluggish tires all week just makes the fast bike(s) feel that much faster, although I have to slaughter myself keeping up with the kid when we commute together. The good part about performance tire is that they have softer compounds and typically better wet grip. You get the super-hard, long-wearing tread compounds, and they're slippery on wet pavement.
-- Jay Beattie.
My Maxxi tubeless tires road awful and felt like they were sticking to the ground at 100 and 90 psi but felt pretty good at 80.
Conbtinental has come out with a GP5000S and a GP5000TL
Threaded Mode