White tyres... your thoughts?

Lagavulin

I've had Vittorio Rubino Pro's recommended to me.

My bike is an '06 Allez Sport Double.
Its mainly black silver but I've just got some nice white DT Swiss 1850 wheels for it. Keeping up the black/white theme (I'm a Sunderland fan so this doesn't come easily ), I'm looking at a white Spesh BG Alias saddle and possible replacing the black bar tape with white.

I'm currently running Conti GP4000's and I've ordered a set of the GP4000S Chili's but I've seenthe Rubino Pros are quite cheap (when someone finally gets them in stock).

Apart from looking like a liqourice allsort has anyone used or seen someone run such a tyre?
I see lots of duck egg blue, yellow and red Michelins/Vittorio and Contis whilst out on the road but I've never seen white.

John Stevenson

A grumpy old stick-in-the-mud writes: things made from rubber that are supposed to stick to other things should be black.

lateralus

Another vote from the grumpy (tired of working this late) - if you consider the colour of the road, and the colour of the crap that collects on it, I suspect you would find that white tyres wouldn't stay that way for very long.

on the road

White tyres will soon be black tyres

Lagavulin

Ah yes, it appears that bottle of Merlot allowed me to think some kind of force field would protect my tyres from all those nasty things that seek to discolour them. :roll:

Thank you for helping me see sense.

Monty Dog

Vredestein Fortezza Tri Comps are available in white too - but you'll find light coloured tyres discolour quite quickly. Depends how much of a bike tart you really are!

georgee

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2007/ju ... Archer.htm

for a bit of black and white inspiration...

giant_man

This goes without saying, although I am still going to say it, that white tyres, bar tape and saddle soon get dirty, and unless cleaning regularly (in the bar tape and saddle anyway) will remain dirty. Not pretty.

I have blue and that gets dirty enough.

domtyler

Depends what the bike is used for really, if you never plan on taking it out in bad weather then I think you would largely get away with it. I had silver tyres once, Schwalbe Stelvios, and they were fine, the colour is only on the sides of the tyre, the central strip is still black.
________
How To Roll A Blunt

smiorgan

I had white bar tape once, it got really filthy - mainly grease from my hands and gloves from roadside maintainance. If your gloves and hands are always clean then might not be an issue

Tried a few things to clean it, including kitchen surface spray cleaner and massaging swarfega in, with varying but never complete success. YMMV

wildmoustache

bar tape will stay white if you buy the right one. try fizik if you want whiteness and lightweight and don't mind not much padding or intend to use gel underneath. specialized will go grey if you breath on it.

saddles ... for some reason the specialized toupe in white stays absolutely white. i've never cleaned mine and it still looks as white as a brit at the etape du tour. no idea why. this includes upside down bike cleaning, pouring rain etc.

white tyres ... i like them! Avoid rubinos as they are not great tyres and go instead for the Vreds. white will go a bit yellowy but will still basically look whitish.

isn't the natural colour of rubber yellow? black comes from the carbon added to them doesn't it?

farrell

White tyres are wicked and I use them....(Tricomps)

They get a little dirty occationally.....and like wildmoustache's comments they will yellow slightly. But guess what? If you wash them they are brilliant white again.

BTW, Lagavulin. How are the 1850's ? - those hubs are sweet aren't they?

Lagavulin

They seem excellent but I've only put 95 miles into them so far.

The front is amazingly quiet and I've quickly grown accustomed the to noisey freewheeling from the freehub.

Sometimes a bit leary in crosswinds (and living right on the North Sea there are plenty of those) what with the deeper rims but overall I'm really happy with them.
Oh yes, and they look cool as hell.

They're quite heavy but so much better than the tripe that came with my bike.
Now my only regret is that I waited practically a year to replace my wheels.

gkerr4

wildmoustache wrote:

bar tape will stay white if you buy the right one. try fizik if you want whiteness and lightweight and don't mind not much padding or intend to use gel underneath. specialized will go grey if you breath on it.

saddles ... for some reason the specialized toupe in white stays absolutely white. i've never cleaned mine and it still looks as white as a brit at the etape du tour. no idea why. this includes upside down bike cleaning, pouring rain etc.

white tyres ... i like them! Avoid rubinos as they are not great tyres and go instead for the Vreds. white will go a bit yellowy but will still basically look whitish.

isn't the natural colour of rubber yellow? black comes from the carbon added to them doesn't it?

re. the toupe - I completely agree - I was just about to post when I read yours - my toupe just always stays white - no idea why - the rest of the bike can be filthy, but the saddle still shines and a quick clean makes it dazzling again!

Bar tape on the other hand... Hmm - well I like the cinelli gel stuff in white - it stays OK - I think if you want to have white bar tape AND keep your bike looking smart, then you have to face the fact that you need to change it every few months - if you can live with that then fine, if not - stick with Black.

re white tyre - I was wondering what they would look like - they look ok on that langster - might have to try some..

craiguk

I have white tyres on both of my summer bikes and they look great IMO, I'm using Rubino Pros at the moment and they are pretty good for the money. After over 10 months of use the tyres on both bikes are still nice and white although not quite as brilliant white as when new. I've heard good reports for the Tricomps too which also come in white, it's a shame that Proraces don't come in white yet as that would be a good combo for me. As for bar tape, I've used the standard ITM stuff which looked great for all of five minutes, at the moment I'm using Fizik tape which still looks after a couple of months use. Here's some piccies of the bikes>>>

http://freespace.virgin.net/c.waddell/Q ... ev%203.JPG

http://freespace.virgin.net/c.waddell/Van%20Nic.JPG