MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Anyone got any experience of these? A friend at work has asked me to sort his bike out and insists that I get solid tyres for it. I'm not so sure about these. Its a road bike and will be used for city riding.
Personal opinion is that decent tyres/tubes would roll better and i'm not sure how safe the solid tyre would be under heavy braking...
any advice appreciated.
I fitted some solids for a customer a few years back, they were an absolute screaming, bloody-fingers, pain-filled bastardbastard job to fit.
Schwalbe marathon plus tyres every time
Tell him that pneumatic tyres were invented for a very good reason (namely, that solid tyres suck)
Interesting this as my dad was the one to set up the plastics factory to produce these in the 90's in the North East. The tyres were rubbish and i mean rubbish. They were not fit for any purpose. They were far too hard (even though they played around with the air content in the platic) for any use and had major issues with 'rolling off' the rim. borderline unsafe. 😯
Trust me, get some decent puncture resistant tyres and some tubes, I have on my commuter.
my dad had some. they were seriously awful. Rock solid and no grip whatsoever (they are essentially plastic). You'd be better off riding on the rim.
Tell him to buy a track pump and to check his tyres weekly. Most non-enthusiastic cyclist's punctures are caused by running on under inflated tyres.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Just don't do it.
As above, they are impossible to fit, and then they are loose on the rims and move round. No grip, no comfort.
They are THE only product I've EVER seen reviewed in an MTB mag (Years ago now) where they catagorically said "Do NOT buy this product"
Do not even think about it!
I had some in the early 90's. Truly awful. Learn by my mistake!
I had Greentyres way back in 1993/1994 and they were..............crap.
simple as that, if your friend likes oval wheels, then they are great.
If your friend insists on solid tyres, insist he fits them himself.
That'll teach him to not believe marketing claims 🙂
I bought some for the winter road bike. They are a bastard to get on, true, but you fit them only once right? Problem is they set up a sort of bow wave of rubber in front of the wheel which feels like riding on sand. Did a 30 mile ride and never been so knackered. They were a bastard to get off too. So yes, AVOID.
LOL - thanks everyone, pretty much as I suspected. I just didn't want to pass judgement as I hadn't tried them.