Continental Competitions tubular tread wear

[superdx]

Is the tread supposed to wear fairly quickly being a race tire?

I've been on these Competitions for about 2 years now, but I've gone through maybe 8 tires. It's not cheap. Especially on the rear tire, after just 1-2 months you can see the tread wearing down. If I'm lucky enough to avoid serious punctures, the tire just wears down to the point where failure is inevitable.

Sometimes I have to do some hard braking just because of bad drivers or avoiding random idiots on the road, and that really wrecks the tread as well.

The only thing I have for comparison is Michelin Pro4 Service Course / Endurance clincher tires. I do the same kind of riding on those tires and they've lasted almost 2 years with no noticeable damage or wear. For tubs, Schwable One tubulars were worse, with cuts after a single ride and the tread literally flaking off after 2-3 weeks.

[natefontaine]

I have 10k km on a front competition. Im used to sprinters for thr rear, they go ~8k km. I ended up pulled them off just because i had some Pave to try

[BugsBunny7788]

How much to you weigh and what PSI do you pump them up to and how many KM between tire changes?

[superdx]

I'm 73kg and I run 100 - 120 psi depending on weather

[BugsBunny7788]

Nothing unusual with your weight/PSI ---- although 8 tires - i.e. 4 pairs in 2 years...hmmm... then I assume you do 100km a week - so 2600km a pair per 6 months... sounds like it wears out pretty fast...should be able to get more out of them.

[Geoff]

Don't get too bent about the tread, it really isn't that effective. That 'Black Chilli' rubber, though, is worth the price of admission. You can pretty much run them down to the cords with no ill-effects.

[superdx]

That's what happened to the last rear tire, the tread basically wore it down to nothing, then an emergency brake shredded the top half the tire.

[swissphil]

Did you tried the gp4000s tubular? They are made for training rides. The competition one are made for competition like there name..:

[sawyer]

As noted above, Sprinters will last longer and FWIW have the same crr and only very slightly more weight (like 10g or so). And they are about 60% of the price of Comps. Less prestigious of course

BTW, it sounds like you really have to heave the anchors on a lot? I commute back and forth through London everyday and just through good habit only use the front brake (other than in mountains - none here!) which means there isn't rear tread braking wear, and of course yes there are idiots but if you expect the worse and give yourself time to react it reduces the chances of emergency braking. Maybe you're doing this already?

[superdx]

I didn't really get that reference to anchors but I'm guessing you're asking about if I brake hard a lot? No, I don't, maybe once every 2-3 months only. On Competitions, one emergency brake even on a brand new tire will shear off the top bit of the tread. Do it a couple times and you can see the cords, then a puncture is inevitable.

I had punctured the Competitions twice between the start of this post and today, so 2 days ago I swapped to Michelin Pro4 tubulars. Was getting sick of doing roadside repairs.

Initial impressions are good, much smoother ride than the Competitions probably due to the latex tube. Hopefully they will last longer than 2-3 months which is the avg. span of Competitions at least on my bike. I do ride a lot, but I don't race.

Next tire on the tryout list is Veloflex Arenbergs, seemingly a WW favorite.