Coloured tyres or just good old black ones

[winjim]

For some reason I googled this, and there seems to be a fairly hefty bianchi tax. Wiggle puts rubino pros at £30, RRP. bianchibikes.co.uk says celeste pros are £60 RRP!

(bought the wired rubinos because they had red stripes. Got them again because they are great tyres - and they still have red stripes)

€40 on the Bianchi website but none in stock. Now I need to decide whether to become a full on Bianchi fanboy!

 

[Svendo]

It may be worth pointing out that some of the coloured tyres may not have quite the same levels of grip as their black counterparts. I remember a review of the Continental 4000GPs which praised the wet weather grip from the "black chillie" rubber compound, but warned that the coloured version didn't get these benefits.

Personally I've previously run Michelin Pros in red and never has a problem.....

I recall a manufacturer (Schwalbe?) admitting a similar thing in an article, that the colouring additives can reduce the grip of the compound. Having said that I've usually ran Michelin Pros in grey until they stopped doing the colour for the Pro4 Service Course.

 

[Soltydog]

I always run with coloured tyres on my road bike. It just looks so dull with black tyres on.
I'm currently running Michelin Lithion in blue & they are about the best I've tried & amongst the cheapest. Lasst few I've tried are Vredestein Fortezza, coloured rubber seperated from black rubber after being hung in the garage for about 3 months over winter, I'd only rode about 400 miles on them & Schwalbe Durano S, they were great & offered more grip than any other tyre I've tried, but cut real easy & didnt even get 1000 miles out of them

 

[derrick]

I find the black Ultremo's wear better than the stripped ones.

 

[Rooster1]

So I've done about 60 miles on my new tyres and I already have a puncture - yipeeeee. I remember going over some lovely glass. Joy.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Do you not think the appearance of this bike

could be improved by these tyres?

-or-

 

[SS Retro]

Winter bike black Contis due to the amount of crap and aluminium grime from the rims when its wet.
Summer bike green striped Utrimos.
The choice is yours!