Continental City & Nation bike tires look nice, have a novel tread sample and are designed for each on and off-road biking use. However be warned, these tires have a brief life-span and aren’t designed for the calls for of long-distance, self-supported bicycle touring.
Over the past three years I’ve used two completely different units of Continental City & Nation tires on my bicycle… and each units of tires (back and front) died on me after about 30 days. That’s proper! After simply 30 days, each units of tires wanted to get replaced… and on this assessment I’ll let you know why that occurred.
You see, I first encountered the Continental City & Nation tires after I bought my model new Co-Movement Pangea touring bicycle. An enormous a part of what made the Pangea look so distinctive after I first bought it was these massive 26 inch tires with the distinctive honeycomb-style tread sample.
I first used my Co-Movement Pangea touring bicycle and the Continental City & Nation bike tires that got here normal with the bicycle on the time on a 25-day bicycle tour across the island nation of Iceland. The tires labored nice on this setting (each on and off highway – though they have been slightly slippery on pavement with sand or free gravel unfold over it).
However instantly following my bike tour in Iceland I flew to London, England and started what would grow to be a 14-month-long bicycle tour by 24 completely different nations in Europe and Africa. Sadly, my Continental City & Nation tires didn’t final practically that lengthy.
Solely a couple of week after touchdown again in Western Europe, I started to really feel an odd bump as I used to be driving my bicycle. At first I assumed this bumping that I used to be feeling was attributable to uneven pavement, however I quickly realized that this bump was being attributable to my tire.
What occurred was that because the tire slowly started to put on (over the course of simply 33 days) the threads holding the tire’s sidewall collectively started to slowly stretch and tear. Finally, there was such an enormous gap within the sidewall of the tire that the inner-tube on the within of the tire started to press itself out of the opening, inflicting that unusual bump that I used to be feeling whereas I used to be driving my bicycle. And as soon as the inner-tube broke sufficient of the threads within the sidewall of my Continental City & Nation tires, the inner-tube may not maintain any air and finally went flat.
The day this all occurred was not a enjoyable one. I used to be in Belgium on the time and the closest bike store was at the least 20 kilometers away. It was getting late and I knew that I may not experience my bicycle due to the injury to the tires.
To make an extended story quick, I needed to push (and sometimes) carry my bicycle all the 20+ kilometers to the closest bike store, the place I changed not only one, however each of my Continental City & Nation bike tires with new, non-name-brand tires (which subsequently survived 13+ months of bicycle touring in each Europe and Africa).
When that first set of Continental City & Nation bike tires died so rapidly, I contacted Co-Movement Cycles and requested them in the event that they knew why my tires might need died so rapidly. They have been placing this tire on each single considered one of their Pangea bicycles on the time, so I assumed they’d absolutely know one thing about it.
However Co-Movement appeared completely shocked after I instructed them their model new tires had lasted solely 33 days. They recommended that perhaps I hadn’t put sufficient air within the tires and that after 33 days of driving the bike with low air, this had prompted the injury to the sidewalls. However I’ve been bicycle touring for greater than 14 years and I understand how to correctly inflate my tires. I knew this was not the issue. “Possibly I had simply obtained a foul pair of tires?” I assumed to myself. “Or perhaps this set of tires had been in sitting within the window on the Co-Movement manufacturing facility and so they had suffered some solar injury, inflicting the crack within the sidewall?” I saved making an attempt to give you a cause for as to why my model new bike tires had died so rapidly… however I couldn’t appear to give you an answer.
So, after biking round Europe and Africa on two low-cost, non-brand-name bike tires, and having these tires final greater than a 12 months of extraordinarily tough driving in all types of climate (rain, snow, warmth, and many others.) and numerous highway circumstances (easy pavement, dust roads, rocks and gravel), I went residence for just a few months and rested.
However this 12 months (2014), I made a decision to conduct a 7-month-long bike tour in Europe and Asia… and as I used to be prepping for my bike tour, I assumed it might be a good suggestion to place new tires on my bicycle. After-all, the tires that I had on my bike have been effectively over a 12 months outdated and already had a number of thousand miles/kilometers on them.
I may have put any tire I needed on my touring bicycle for this new bike tour, however there was nonetheless some a part of me that needed to know why my Continental City & Nation bike tires had died so rapidly on me throughout my earlier bicycle touring expedition. Plus, I just like the look of the tires and I assumed it might be nice to revive my Co-Movement Pangea to its authentic look and magnificence by buying a second set of Continental City & Nation tires and making an attempt them once more on this 2014 bicycle tour.
As quickly as the brand new tires arrived at my residence (I ordered them on-line and had them delivered to my home), I may inform why these bike tires had died so rapidly on me.
After I bought my new Co-Movement Pangea touring bicycle, the City & Nation tires have been already on the bike and I by no means bought to examine them from the within. However when the Continental City & Nation bike tires have been shipped and delivered to my residence, I used to be in a position to inform in lower than a second that these tires had a really skinny sidewall (not a lot thicker than a bit of card-stock paper).
Not solely was the sidewall of those bike tires very skinny, however by the small quantity of black rubber overlaying the skinny, delicate threads that kind the form of the tire itself, I may see the threads rising from beneath. Because the tire bought extra use, these threads would slowly stretch and break… and now I may see why. There was virtually nothing defending the perimeters of the tire from the solar or rain.
Though I may inform that the sidewalls of the tires have been extraordinarily skinny, I made a decision to strive utilizing the Continental City & Nation bike tires once more. In any case, they do make my bike look wonderful! And “Heck,” I assumed to myself, “Possibly they’ll work nice this time round?”
However to make an extended story quick, my Continental City & Nation bike tires didn’t work nice the second time round. Identical to the primary time I had the tires on my bike, they died after about 30 days of heavy on-the-road use. And similar to after they died on me the primary time in Belgium, as a result of the sidewalls turned weathered and finally tore, the identical factor occurred to me as I used to be biking by Estonia. I used to be driving alongside after which, swiftly, I started to really feel the tire bump up and down. I ended to examine the tire, and as I suspected, the threads on the sidewall of the tire had torn and have been now slowly ripping the tire aside.
Within the picture beneath you’ll be able to see the threads have ripped aside from the remainder of the tire – proper beneath the “Co” within the phrase “Nation.”
Fortunately, I used to be in a position to limp alongside on the tire for greater than 100 kilometers earlier than reaching a motorcycle store and buying two model new, non-brand-name tires for my bike.
So, there you’ve gotten it. I’ve used Continental City & Nation bicycle tires on two of my long-distance self-supported bicycle excursions… and every set of tires has died on me in precisely the identical method, in precisely the identical period of time (30-33 days). I like the way in which these tires look and behave when they’re model new and functioning correctly, however they aren’t in any method designed for long-term use.
My suspicion is that these tires would work nice in case you had them in your bicycle and have been simply utilizing them for brief journeys round residence. And while you bought residence, you saved your bicycle in a protected, dry place (like a storage).
On a bicycle tour, nevertheless, you need a bike tire than can deal with the highway and climate circumstances you’re positive to come across. You need a tire that doesn’t crack and put on when it will get moist or sits within the solar for an extended time frame. And also you need a tire than will maintain rolling for a whole lot of days and hundreds of miles.
I’ve used different Continental tires previously and so they’ve labored nice (I used a Continental Metropolis Contact tire on a latest bike tour in Europe, Africa and North America… and that tire labored splendidly and lasted a number of months), however these Continental City & Nation bike tires can’t be trusted. I’ve purchased and used them on two separate bike excursions, however I received’t even be utilizing them once more… and I share this story with you as a warning.
Save