What are some good tires for summer city commuting?
 

I have lots of clearance and I like to go fast. Gatorskins seem tried and true, but is there anything new on the market?

Mm yeah, I'm not ready for the tubeless just yet

either light fast ones that hopefully are easy to remove to replace tubes with a hole in them ,
(Compass/Rene Herse) (around $70 each)

Or heavy puncture resistant feature offering ones that you wont get a flat tire using..

Gatorskins are a good tire and they're reasonably priced unlike other Conti tires; or if you want something tougher the Conti Gator Hardshell is darn near bulletproof; or the Vittoria Rubino Pro G+ or the Michelin Pro4 Endurance are both great options. For commuting purposes I would go with the widest tire I can fit, either a 28 or a 25.

Yup. First question is what size do you like? I cruise at a about 20mph commuting, and my goto is Conti 4 seasons. They are the "new and improved" gatorskin, although the aren't new any more. They are lighter, faster, and more supple. The latest of course is the conti GP5000, which has about 1/2 the rolling resistance of the gatorskin (8.2 vs 19.3 watts), and comes in sizes up to 32mm, tubed or tubless. It replaces the 4000, which was one of the most popular and best race worthy road tires. Not nearly as durable as the others though (but a lot of fun!).

There are people who expect to get ten thousand flat free miles out of a commuter tire. You can do that slow and thick (Marathon Plus), or you can do it fast and fancy. Those tires are available but they aren't training tires by any means... This guy in the touring forum recently posted about his experience with Marathon Supremes which have long been the best thing going in that department.
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...ly6000kms.html
Schwalbe has a newer tire, Marathon Almotion that is supposed to be even better yet. But it only comes in 40 and wider.

Some of us here have tried the discontinued Vittoria Voyager Hyper. They roll nicely and are pretty cheap via Planet X Bike. But one of mine got pretty easily sliced by road debris after not many miles.

They're not lightweight, but Continental RIDE Tour (previously Tour RIDE) are great. I have one set on road wheels that are about 4 years old and I've never had a flat. I haven't checked recent prices but they run about $25. I don't find them "slow", unless its me!

Conti 5000 are horribly expensive, if you're training to race and racing then I could understand the need for less rolling resistance, but in reality you will barely notice the 5000 over the some other tire; but the OP didn't say he was racing or training to race, he did say he wants to go fast but so does everyone else, that doesn't mean we all run over plop down $150 for one pair of Conti 5000 tires! Especially considering you can get Vittoria Rubino Pro Speed G+ for $40 that will cost you 2 watts over the 5000 TL or 1 watt over the non TL version, either way you won't feel the 1 OR THE 2 watts but you will feel the extra cash in your wallet! But going with tires that are faster you give up some degree of puncture resistance, so you have to weigh out what you really want. Also those rolling resistance tests are done with latex tubes, so now you have to buy expensive latex tubes to put in your expensive tires, though latex tubes can be put in cheap tires as well.

I commute on 28mm GP4000s. They can be had super cheap these days...~$35 if you shop around online. Tough to beat for the price they sell for now.

They're not 'commuting' tires. But they do have puncture protection. I get 1 or 2 flats a season on daily commutes, round trip 15 miles through glass strewn Chicago streets. I think there is a certain threshold, which is pretty low, for flat protection where you eliminate the vast majority of flats with just a little bit of protection. I've had commuting/touring tires. I went through the tread, over 10,000 miles, without ever getting a flat. Then switched to faster tires. I wish I'd thrown away the touring tires and got the GP4000s years ago. Used a garbage tire to avoid, what...5 flats over a few years?

The Voyager Hypers ARE very nice tires. But I can't find the larger sizes anymore; I've only seen the 32mm I believe on planet X. At that size...might as well just get the GP4000 which really is like 30mm.

Problem with the Cont 4000 series and few other Conti tires is their paper thin sidewalls that are subject to gashing more so then other companies sidewalls, not sure about the 5000 series yet because I have yet to see one, but I would assume they too will have paper thin sidewalls.

I've always wondered about sidewall issues people have. Are they hitting curbs? I can't really see in my mind how this would ever come into play. Assuming on road, not mountain biking...

I find Gatorskins quite poor quality. Super thin sidewalls and any debris and they eat it. If you're in a very dense urban area, I would recommend against them.

If you live in east bum**** and worry about traffic/cows then maybe they'd work for you.

You can increase the puncture resistance of any tire with tire liners like Mr. Tuffy's.

I intend to keep my Grand Prix Four Season tires on my commuter hybrid throughout the warm seasons too. They're not 3 season excluding summer. I ride the 32mm version.

My road bike has 28mm GP4000s. There's 1mm difference in actual mounted width.

If the Four Season tires came in a 35ish size I'd mount those on the commuter instead, though the 32s have been absolutely adequate if not fantastic for my use case.

Panaracer T Servs in 28 or 32 size are a good compromise. I have rolled about 5 T Servs on my Univega SporTour. Supple enough, low rolling resistance, adequate flat protection for my needs on this bike.

https://road.cc/content/review/23988...ding-32mm-tyre

https://www.panaracer.com/lineup/urban_touring.html

Mt Tuffy have a built in flaw that they NEVER corrected since the beginning of time, and that's the overlapping edge eventually will wear a hole through thin road tubes. However another company created RhinoDillos flat liners, these have one edge with a soft edge instead of a hard edge and that eliminates any possibility of rubbing a hole in thin tubes. RhinoDillos are just as tough, if not tougher than Mr Tuffy. These type of nylon liners weigh about 120 grams each, Panaracer makes a line called Flat Away and those weigh around 30 grams, but they are a one time use liner so they can't be reused in another tire, but they are extremely tough.

I've heard that. And on one set I sanded the edges, but on the other two bikes I haven't. I don't feel I have had this issue with any of my three bikes. YMMV ( your mileage may vary).

I use to sand mine too, but now I just use those RhinoDillos (I can't recall if it's RhinoDillos or Rhino Dillos) so I don't have to be bothered sanding them anymore.

In my opinion and experience, Vittoria Rubino Pro G+ are a great combination of speed and durability. If you want a little more protection, you can go to the Pro Control G+, which I'm running on one of my bikes. You can feel a slight difference in resistance, but they also feel that much more robust/solid.

Thin sidewalls make for low rolling resistance and a supple ride. Most high end tire are like that. Its not what you want for, say a world tour out in BFE (as you mentioned), but they work well for me.



Good point. Tires are probably the biggest bang for the buck there is. I can imagine your ride was quite different coming off touring tires (as acidfast seems to prefer).



.

True. Do you have a problem with sidewall cuts? Its an issue for me gravel biking, but not commuting. I like the speed and feel a supple sidewall has, although I do prefer a little more protection in my rear tire. (and who the heck buys a 4000 or 5000 at retail anyway?)



to get a sidewall gash, you have to scrape against the sidewall. I’ve had rocks do that, but its pretty hard in my experience to get a sidewall to cut unless my tire is scraping against a rock or curb as I ride. Hitting a curb won’t do it.



Yeah, I hate snake flats. Those are practically the only kind of flats I used to get. But that is not a sidewall issue, that is running too skinny a tire at too low a pressure. I’ve gone to tubless, and flats are a distant memory.



I tried those on a 4 hour ride. After 3 hours it had chaffed a hole in my tube and gave me a flat. I was shocked. (See what greatscott said)

I always wondered how cyclist got around in Chicago. I lived in Chicago my whole life until two years ago and I know how terrible the streets can be. I am out in rural Kankakee county now and I am looking forward to riding these lone country roads.

I'm being somewhat misattributed here.

I think Gatorskins aren't up to the task as for an urban environment, they don't have good sidewall protection.

I get two Schwalbe Marathons shipped to my door for €40, which is the best puncture proof bang-for-buck, which is the most important thing for me being in the middle of a dense city.

edit: also, any decent commuter bike over here will run Schwables as people don't want the hassle of changing a tube.

these are a good example from Whyte Cycles new commuter series:

https://whyte.bike/collections/sport...ter-rd7-series

It really isnt too bad. Some streets are pretty choppy, most most are perfectly rideable. It's not like theres potholes every 50'.

I generally stick to streets wjth bikelanes though...not too interested in fighting for space with cars anymore.