I think it may be time to replace my road bike tyres.. they’re Schwalbe Luganos which have had about 1200 miles on them (is that normal tyre wear?), seem to have gone completely slick and have little holes and nicks over them. I have no idea what to get other than I know they need to be 700×23 in size. Do I just go for some Schwalbes again or is there something better especially as the roads are a lot wetter at the minute (not that I’ve had any problems yet)? I’m still yet to get a puncture so not sure if I need the extra protection that you can get.

I’m a big fan of gatorskins from conti, Good grip and puncture protection,

A bigger tyre would give you better grip and more comfort, is it guards that are restricting you to 23c?

Continental GP4000S (make sure they have the “s” on the end, as I think they do a standard GP4000 which doesn’t use the Black Chili compound).

Edit: The GP4000 also uses Black Chili, but only in the black version.

is it guards that are restricting you to 23c?

No, just I don’t think I need anything bigger as I don’t really find the small ones uncomfortable.

I have schwalbe durano plus durano s and ultremo zx. The durano s is a nice tyre and a step up from the Lugano.

In my opinion, tyres are the single most cost effective upgrade you can make to a road bike.

1200 miles and you’ve worn your Luganos out! That’s a very high rate of wear to be fair.

I’d look at something like Durano’s myself, longer lasting, more grip, more puncture protection. Everything that’s important in the winter.

Michelin Krylion Carbons work for me. Good balance of durability, light weight and good puncture resistance. I was plagued with punctures when I used Conti Gatorskins.

running a Vredestein Fortezza Tri Comp on the back and a michelin pro3 on the front, both a tad worn now but the back has done 3500miles since May, as for the front, it is over a year old now, so probably c8000miles old.

Gatorkins seem to be pretty inconsistent. I had one that punctured on the very first ride, got another that the “gator” sidewall has all gone frayed, not many miles on it… never confident about their grip either.
Ultremo ZX are good. Not sure if I’ve managed 1200 miles on em though.

1200 miles is terrible. Have you got them inflated enough? I tend to get 5000 miles + out of road tyres, even lightweight racey ones.

I don’t understand why people think that puncture resistant tyres give better grip; they don’t.

The best grip of all comes from full on tissue thin race tyres that you have to trust to corner at 25 mph in a bunch in the rain.

When you add in puncture resistance, you take away the ability of the tyre to conform. When you add in wear resistance, you take away grip.

Not sure how they’ve worn so quickly then! I usually keep them at 90-100 psi. Or maybe they just don’t need replacing yet and I’m worrying about nothing? I’ll take a photo and see what you lot reckon. There’s no wire or anything showing through yet.

90-100 psi? I run mine at 110! Are you Martin Ashton and doing trials on your road bike?

90 should be fine. I tend to replace mine when they go really flat on top, well that’s the theory, generally I replace them when I start getting loads of punctures!

Ah well the tops of mine are still round so maybe don’t need changing. I also only just noticed that my tyres do actually have puncture protection. Probably explains why I haven’t had any yet 😆 I clearly don’t know much about road bikes despite using mine every day!

Virtually all tyres have some sort of puncture protection, save for Conti GP Supersonics, which are insanely thin, I wore mine out (totally, down to the carcass, they fell apart) in 5 weeks – they really aren’t an ‘everyday’ tyre!

I don’t understand why people think that puncture resistant tyres give better grip; they don’t.

I don’t think anyone has, Just pointing out that they tyres in questions offer puncture protection and good grip.

Most road tyre threads and most roadies I know recommend conti GP4000s to the exclusion of all else.

Vittoria zaffiros £7 a go.

Not light, but good grip and puncture protection.

Roughly 3500 miles out of a rear and about 5,000 miles out a front.

Gp4000s for the win. Made the mistake of buying luganos once, horrible tyres.

The GP4000s are only £20 on Rose bikes at the moment, i bought 2 earlier. Remember to factor in a fiver for postage though.

Ultremo’s do for me, winter and summer. Tried GP4000s and had no confidence in that, didn’t like them at all.

Made the mistake of buying luganos once, horrible tyres.

What’s up with them? They seem to be grippy enough so far and dont seem to roll slowly, but I don’t really have anything to judge them by.

To throw a spanner in the works the best road tyres i have tried are Vredestein Fortenza Tri comp _Thread closed_

for winter I normally go for Rubinos. Dirt cheap and reasonable puncture protection. Don’t grip too well but then I don’t feel the need to push it on wet corners on club runs.

Krylion Carbons seem like really good tyres as well but I think they have been replaced.

Schwalbe Duranos are great tyres. Last really well, several thousand miles and very good puncture resistance.
Not that heavy or slow either. Perfect tyres in my opinion.

Krylion carbons apparently no longer made and replaced by EndurancePro4 (I think, slightly pished) but they are great

What’s up with them? They seem to be grippy enough so far and dont seem to roll slowly, but I don’t really have anything to judge them by.

Difficult to describe, usually I’m the fastest man downhill (have to be as I’m slowest uphill!) but with the luganos I didn’t have any confidence, no feel for how much grip was available. Maybe it was because it was winter, maybe cos I use high pressures as I’m fat. I sold them after a handful of rides. I find contis much more to my taste.

I have a zaffiro on the front at the moment, great in the dry but I don’t trust it in the wet

gatorskins are tough but again not brilliant in the wet

I’m going to try a spare lithion2 on the front, they seem to be good on the summer bike, I will see how they are on the commuter… a lot of the bikeradar lot recommend GP4seasons as they have the black chilli compound and the 4000 carcass but with the gatorskin belt

Michelin Pro 3s. Fantastic tyres.