Tyre differences

JACE100

Hi everyone. This year I bought my first road bike, a Giant Defy 3 and have clocked up over 700 miles and loved it. It was bought completely stock and am considering changed tyres and tubes from the standard Giant ones to something like Continental GP4000's or Michelin Pro4's. My question is how noticeable is it going from a stock tyre to a recognised one? Does the bike feel faster, more grippy, brake better etc?

Just trying to decide if it's worth changing or sticking to the stock Giant ones?

marcusjb

Depending on the tyres your bike has from new, going for a good tyre is about as cheap an upgrade as you can make - and it does make a difference to everything for sure.

Stock tyres on bikes are one area where manufacturers can cut corners on specifications as most people will be too busy looking at what groupset it has etc., so some stock tyres can be pretty hefty, nasty things.

For £50-80 a pair, a decent set of tyres can make the world of difference to how a bike feels - you can be shedding a considerable weight over nasty stock tyres. So the bike may well feel considerably nippier and accelerate and climb much more easily.

Winter's coming - you've done around 700 miles on those tyres, they should be good for quite a lot more yet - ride them over winter (assuming they have reasonable grip - if not, change them!), let them take the pounding tyres get over winter with gravel etc. all over the roads cutting them up. Then in spring, pop on a nice new set of tyres and your bike will feel much livelier.

Weigh the stock tyres, and tubes - see what they weigh and see how much weight you might be able to save for a relatively small amount of money (and it's weight where you'll really notice it).

kajjal

I just changed to the 4 seasons tyres as they are supposed to grip better in the wet and are more puncture resistant. After five miles a one inch nail went through them

Apart from that which pretty much no tyre would stop they have been fine so far. They are also 80g lighter per tyre , no idea if that makes any difference

JACE100

Thanks for the replies. I agree with marcusjb to leave it till the spring and then upgrade to a nice shiny new pair

mfin

Some people really notice a tyre and tube difference, some people wouldn't, y'know, the kind of person that might pootle along at 15mph on the flat isn't going to notice. Same with people who push the limits of handling, some could tell the difference in grip on their car tyres between different makes, some will never know and it will make no difference to them at all, same applies with bikes.

Personally, finding out a tyre has awful wet grip I would say is a nerve shredding, potentially dangerous, and almost vertical learning curve. I've done this twice, one straight down and sliding straight across the road, the other losing the back wheel on a roundabout, my knee touched the floor but somehow I uprighted it, god knows how.

I have one bike I need grip for the wet and now swear by GP4000s and the other bike I ride better tyres as I know I won't be out in the wet on it unless I'm caught by a weather change.

kajjal

Also test your brakes in the wet, the stock pads may not work too well. Due to this I swapped mine for swisstop greens which are fine in the wet.

Geo555

I changed to GP 4 seasons on my Defy. They have a much lower rolling resistance, feel quicker and my average speed was up about 6%. You will certainly notice a big difference compared to the standard Giant tyres.