Tire Quality -- Continental now made in India -- Who makes quality tires these days?
 

Sigh. For years I've bought Continental tires, and they've served me well. Puncture resistant, long wearing.
But now apparently, they're made in India, and the reviews are terrible (check out Amazon reviews for "Continental Ride Tour City/Trekking Bicycle Tire, 26x1.75" for example).

Is there a website or recommendation site that tests tires for longevity, consistency or quality?

The "Bicycle Rolling Resistance" site does this for hard core racers concerned about rolling resistance, but they don't touch issues of durability, puncture resistance, gravel riding or whatever relevant to City and utility bikes.

Does Schwalbe still make their own tires?

The last pair of Top Contact II tires I bought said they were made in Germany. Website says the same:

continental bicycle Top CONTACT II (continental-tires.com)

I have only ever toured on them or their predecessor, the Top Touring II.

I believe some models are made in India.

I can't speak for that particular model. Doing a quick search, it appears that Continental acquired Modi Tyres in 2011. Modi Tyres has been manufacturing tires in India since the 70's and has collaborated with Continental decades ago on truck tires. They recently a new passenger tire designed for India. Based on this, I can't imagine that there would be any difficulties producing an urban bicycle tire. I do think that supply issues have weighed heavily and materials may have been substituted as with a lot of products.

Years ago I used to ride Vittoria Zaffiro tires and every one of them cracked on the sidewalls. I ride Vittoria Rubino Pros and have never had an issue. I can't say the cause of the issue, but it is pretty easy to move on without dismissing an entire brand.

John

I'm a little flummoxed by the implication that bike tired manufactured in India are somehow suspect. I mean, making bike tires is not exactly rocket surgery.

I would have no problem believing that just about anything made in Germany is probably better than anything made in India. Except Indian food, maybe.

Why?

Running your search on Amazon gives me a first page of 48 tires. Seven are rated 5 stars, one is rated 4 stars, and forty are rated at 4 and a half stars. I'm sure some awful reviews are in there too, but my own experiences rate the three types I've bought (25mm Gatorskin, 35mm Terra Speed, and 25mm Giro tubulars) fairly high. One of the 5 Giros has a removable valve core that wont come out. The Terra Speeds are only 360 grams for a 35mm knobby, but they can be hard to mount - I use Schwalbe lubricant to get them to seat right. Those are the extent of my complaints about the 13 Continental tires I've purchased. Somehow, I doubt where they're made caused either of them.

Because work done by unskilled laborers making 15 cents a day probably isn't of the best quality. Common sense.

How much quality are you willing to afford, for a glorified garden hose?

According to https://biz30.timedoctor.com/average-salary-in-india/, the minimum wage in India varies by location, from $8/day in New Delhi, to $4/day in rural areas. Common prejudice, more like.

Uninformed rhetoric, perhaps, but defiantly not common sense.

Low sales volume tire. Wouldn't surprise me if it's made in India.

I wasn't aware, but there is a Conti plant nearby to us in a small town. We passed it while out touring and had no idea about it being there. Don't know what they make, but given the size of the location figure it is probably some part or aspect being sent elsewhere as part of construction, etc.

edit, lol. From their website: "Continental Tire of Barnesville manufactures tire cord fabric for Continental Tire"

Recently purchased some Schwalbe tires, they were made in Vietnam. They are well made.

I used Rubino Pros for years and was always happy with them. Recently they added "Graphene" something to the compound and there are red letters proclaiming that on the sidewalls. Every one of those that I have used has dry rotted and cracked to the point it looks unsafe. Even on the rear where I don't expect a lot of mileage, they are badly cracked by the time they wear out.

I tried their Corsa soft compound tires a few years ago and big chunks of rubber came off while riding.

Hey, I get all my high-quality stuff from China and India! Watches, bikes, tires, cars--you name it!

Don't forget smart phones and computers!!

Best ride quality I have ever had in a clincher (feels like a tubular to me), but it seems like a grain of sand punctures them.

The last one I had come apart was on Angeles Crest after they did that nasty chip seal. A section of the tread area over an inch long and half an inch wide just came off.

Hardly surprising you would not have such a problem.

You seem intent here (and in other threads) on getting into 'political' comment, however thinly disguised. There is a board for that here (P&R); why not apply for access?

That's common ignorance with a side order of xenophobia...Not common sense.

Continental and Schwalbe both make first-rate bicycle tires, at varying price points. Continentals are manufactured either in Germany (the high-end ones), or elsewhere in various locations: https://www.continental-tires.com/bi...utsche-technik

Schwalbe bicycle tires are all manufactured in Indonesia: https://www.schwalbe.com/en/reifenaufbau

I don't for the life of me see how, or why, any of this is an issue. No different than any other company that markets product on a more-or-less global scale.

Complete and utter nonsense. But I digress.

I'll take my Veloflex tires handmade in Italy any day.

Thanks for playing.

I've had good luck with the Corsa G+ tires. That ride and flats, yes, but not a lot. Those Vittorias are further in the tradeoff of characteristics toward road grip and hence try to pick up more debris than the Contis I have ridden. I'll stick to the Vitts for that reason. Loss of road grip at the wrong time = one more crash for this worn out body.

Vittoria makes its tires in China, but not as subbed out work. They bought (or had constructed; I forget which) a plant, hired the work crew and have full oversight over all aspects of their tire construction. Their Corsa G+, while expensive, are a pure joy to ride. Outside of sidewall color choices, nothing that isn't (to my mind) not right. And they bailed me out of at least one crash. I am now switching over to sewups, but where possible sticking to those Corsa G+. I see no change at all except now that wonderful casing is sewn properly and straight into a sewup. Ride is the wonderful magic carpet of high end sewups.

I just put Conti Giros on my latest bike because 24c is absolute max on that old racing machine. 22c because that was all I could get. Low enough pressure to make the ride sorta "nice" is getting way to close to dented rims on road hazards (with brand new build NOS and new GEL330s). With my old race pressures of a tire that small; bouncy and scary. I'm building much heavier GP4 wheels for that bike to tide it over until I can get some really nice Vitts or the like in 23c and be able to ride sufficient pressure for those rims in comfort.