race tyres

[Lizanne]

so i've been riding gator skins on my bikes for ages now. and i know they arn't the best when it comes to preformance, but they last so long in the city.

I'm building a bike up for road racing, and i was wondering what tyres you would recomend.

[christian]

Everyone is going to have an opinion here. If you are also going to train on the same wheels then I'd recommend a racing/training tyre. The rolling resistance isn't as good but they are cheaper and you get less punctures. I've been running Michelin Krylions and have been pretty happy with them.

Lots of people race and train on Conti GP4000S, I have in the past. As for fast tyres, I like Vittoria open corsa evos, fast but expensive. Schwable Ultremo also have a low rolling resistance but don't expect then to last long on Sydney roads.

[Toff]

I have had no issues with Schwalbe Ultremos. They are currently my favourite road tyre for racing, training and commuting. I am not a fan of the Conti GP4000s. They are very good, long wearing tyre, but have no grip in the wet.

On a bike, traction is pretty important. Loss of traction on your front tyre at any time is going to cost you some skin at the very least. I would go for traction over rolling resistance or long wear.

[Lizanne]

ya, i'm planning on keeping my fixie as a commute/training bike so the road bike will mostly be racing.
would it be worth it to change the tyres before the race, (not the day before but a few training rides before) and have 2 sets 1 for racing 1 for training. i dont have the money for training wheels at the moment.

[Toff]

Not worth changing your tyres just for a race in my opinion. I would have the race bike set up with racing tyres all the time. You will get sick of changing the tyres pretty quickly. You won't notice the additional wear if you have another bike you are doing most of your riding on.

[timyone]

are you only going to race on it? id say get training tyres, and then start saving for race wheels, i race on training wheels all the time any way

[Lizanne]

i'm getting a set of wheels made @ the bike depo. i'm getting good quality (mavic pro rims, with tiagra hubs) so i was going to have them as race wheels.

i never ride road bikes so it's not like i'm going to wear them out. i might use it for waterfall or RNP training once(maybe) a week and then whatever races amy can talk me into.

[Richard]

I've been riding Conti GP4000s for a while and seem to get pretty good life out of them. When new they stick to the ground. When wet they seem OK but I have never had a tyre that performs really well in the rain.

After a heck of a lot of training / commuting I have just replaced the worn Conti's with Michelin Pro Optimum 25mm tyres on a recommendation from a friend. Yet to try them out but they are a tad wider (25mm) and are meant to roll really really well on a lower psi (95) and are more forgiving on crap Sydney roads. I'll let you know how they go.

[mikesbytes]

I race on Conti GP4000s chilli. If you go Conti, then get the chilli option.

Like Christian said, there's a number of options and they are all good.

If we lived in a glass free society, I'd be tempted to use veloflex record, which I have on my track bike