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Race specific tires worth it?

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Race specific tires worth it?

Old 05-07-15, 07:08 AM
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Tri4life
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Race specific tires worth it?

Looking for an answer from my fellow racers here. By now I know almost everything in the holy sports of cycling and triathlon have a great deal of personal taste involved. But I was wondering if race specific tires are worth the cost? It's tire time and I usually run Grand Prix 4000 on my TT bike. Was considering changing out for Super Sonic or some other race day tires and training with something like Gator Skins. If it makes a difference I live in Massachusetts, fair amount of crap on the road but no Arizona style goat heads causing a puncture every other ride. Plenty of early season pot holes left over from an epic winter.
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Old 05-07-15, 07:18 AM
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topflightpro
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I had good luck with Conti Supersonics. I have them on one wheelset. For awhile, they were race day only wheels, but then they found their way into the rotation, and they were my everyday wheels/tires for a few months last summer.

I did not get any flats, but the rear tire wore out pretty quickly, but that is not surprising for those tires.
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Old 05-07-15, 02:43 PM
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popeye
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Originally Posted by topflightpro
I had good luck with Conti Supersonics. I have them on one wheelset. For awhile, they were race day only wheels, but then they found their way into the rotation, and they were my everyday wheels/tires for a few months last summer.

I did not get any flats, but the rear tire wore out pretty quickly, but that is not surprising for those tires.
I have Supersonics on my track only bike but you can get a flat on them riding around the block.
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Old 05-07-15, 10:28 PM
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Race specific tire will wear down quick and are not very puncture resistant. But if that doesn't matter then go for it. FYI Specialized is running a buy one get one deal on a few of thier tires. The Turbo Pros are on the deal and they "race specific" I just picked up the Roubaix Pro. Reviews have them as a gem.
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Old 05-08-15, 08:42 AM
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canam73
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Yes. Put them on your race specific carbon tubular wheels.
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Old 05-08-15, 09:22 AM
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yes
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Old 05-08-15, 09:59 AM
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I usually buy race type tires on sale. The current GP4000S were something like $37 each. Tires like Gatorskins ride like bricks. I also like training (only do tris now) on the same conditions as I race with so I also ride on my aero wheels as well.
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