Bike Tire Stats – Continental vs Bontrager

Posted on by

I finally pushed my last set of bike tires to the limit ~ 3,388 miles in this case ~ and ended up with a flat tire last week and a brand new pair of tires this week.

Continental and Specialized Bike Tires

Old worn out Continental Ultra Sport and New Specialized Armadillo Tires

The tires that I just replaced were Continental Ultra Sport – 700x25c. I wrote a blog post on these and my previous tires, Bontrager Race Light Hard Case – 700x28c, back in September of 2009. See the New Tires Blog Post Enter Here for the detailed stats on my older tires.

Well I keep detailed information on my bike tires and other equipment so now that the Continental tires have reached their limit (or are well past their limit for other riders) I have all of the details on how these tires compared to my previous tires.

Bike Tire Stats:

  • Bought 6/21/2014 Specialized Armadillo 700x25c $90.00
  • Bought 9/27/2011 New Columbia Ultra Sport 700c25c $48.00 Miles used 3,388 2 yrs 9 mos Cost/mile 0.0141677 Cost/1000 miles $14.17
  • Bought 7/1/2008 New Bontrager Race Light Hard Case 700c28c $80.00 Miles used 4,907 3 yrs 2 mo Cost/mile 0.0163032 Cost/1000 miles $16.30
  • Bought 8/10/2005 Original Tires – 8/10/05-7/1/2008 Miles Used: 3,719 2 yrs 3 mos

So there you have the latest stats on the various tires that I have used on my Trek 1500 over the years.

The Flat Tire Story

Well I was just out on a local ride not far from my house when I got my flat tire but I had checked the weather radar before I left and I did not have a lot of extra time before I saw some storms heading towards me.

Fortunately my daughter was home and was able to come out and save me before the storm hit.I slid my Topeak Bike Bag off along with my GPS Bike Computer then locked my bike so I could go back and get my van to pick it up. My friend called it my “SAG Car” like those team cars that follow around the racers in bike races.

I didn’t have a spare tire or a patch kit with me so I didn’t have a lot of options anyway. In this case it worked out well because if I would have taken the time to fix the flat tire instead of calling my “Sag car” to pick me up I would have gotten soaked. We had a major downpour!

I do believe that it was the extremely worn tires that caused this particular flat so I was actually very lucky that I was not 20, 30 or more miles out like I was on some of my recent longer rides. I do plan on carrying a spare or patches (or both) on my next long ride so I don’t get stranded if this happens then.

Speakin of rides… I did do a couple of new rides recently up in the Chain of Lakes area. Actually, I was on the Chain Of Lakes Trail in Grant Woods and the trail in the Chain of Lakes Park. I have photos but have not had a chance to post them and write the story yet. I hope to get to that soon and I will post an update here too.

Hope you all are enjoying this excellent riding weather!

Leave a Reply