Tires and Drive-Train Wear

Our next two questions are from anonymous posters, and are both really good questions. I’m going to answer a tire question in this post, and a question about drive-train wear.
Our first question really transcends the sport of cycling in its first part asking, “Can I have it all?” Then goes on to ask about compromises, and finally tire recommendations. The sort of answer you’d get in the public schools to the question, “Can I have it all?” would be a blanket “No, of course you can’t,” but I’m here to tell you folks, if you do the right amount of research and listen to enough Henry Rollins CD’s when you’re young, you can get whatever you want. I would also like to preface this with saying, if you are training with the same tires you race on, you should stop, harden up, and train on the heaviest tires you can find. It’ll make you just that much faster in the long run. This is just a personal belief I have, but I like to think it’s a worthwhile practice. I’m not saying you need to train on crappy equipment, but when it comes time to put on those race wheels with the supple tires, you’ll be in for a treat.
If you are reading this and don’t agree, one way to get around this is to put liners underneath you’re awesome race tires and train on them like that. That way it will negate the durability issues that you will no doubt run into. The thing about training on fancy tires for most consumer types is realizing that race tires are not meant to be used for big mileage. The rubber compounds are designed with a balance of handling and rolling resistance in mind and Durability doesn’t just take a backseat, it is left standing, misty-eyed, in the drive-way while Handling and Rolling-Resistance drive away to party in Vegas. If you don’t mind replacing tires more frequently, train on race tires and get yourself some tire liners. If you put the tire liners in you’ll be able to run those fancy tires right down to the chords and you’ll be less likely to get punctures on the tread portion of the tire (sorry if you take a shard of glass to the sidewall).
The industry standard tire liner would be something like the Mr. Tuffy liners, but there is also a cool trick you can do with old tubulars by pulling the base tape off, putting them inside of a larger tire and then inflating them that way. The tubulars then expand to fill your tire and you’re using the tube that was already in the tubular. I did this last year with some fancy, crappy clinchers just to give it a try and I never had any problems, flats or otherwise. It was actually pretty cool. As far as recommendations, most companies out there have a good, high-end, high thread count tire. Specialized has some really well-constructed tires that are severely lacking in sex-appeal, Continental, Vittoria, and Michelin all have awesome clincher tires. If you’re looking for a decent compromise though, look at the Conti Line. One of my new favorite clincher tires would be the Vredestein Quattro.
Vredestein is a new sponsor for us this year and I’ve been really impressed with all of their tires, both tubulars and clinchers. At the beginning of training camp I was being told that we were going to have to buy tires, but then my boss called me and said he struck up a deal with Vredestein. I hadn’t used them before and was pretty curious to see how they stacked up to stuff we used in the past and I’ve been really impressed. They sent us the Tricomp Pro model and the Quattro for our training wheels and they have been pretty good to use so far. The Quattro is billed as an “all season racing clincher” and has a nice tread pattern that is thick enough for some protection, but it does feel pretty nice on the pavement, and the Tricomp is their flagship racing clincher. They also have the fortezza line which is where you start getting into tires that are geared more towards entry-level competition and training. I know it’s lame that I always recommend companies that sponsor us, but you all just have to trust that I wouldn’t lead you astray, and I believe what I say about these companies. You’ll be very happy with any of the aforementioned tires, but I have some decent experience with the Vredesteins and I think you’ll like them.
Now to get to the next question on drive-train wear. This reader writes in saying he went in for a tune-up and was told he needed to replace both his chain and cassette and isn’t sure whether the cassette replacement in necessary. We live in an age of skepticism don’t we? We go the oil-change place every three thousand miles and they tell us we need to get a new PCV valve every time. We go to the doctor and they tell us our health is failing and all we need to feel better is drug X. The list goes on, but I like to think that it stops at the bike shop.
I worked in bike shops for eight years before I started working for pro teams and in every shop I ever turned a wrench, the philosophy was the same; service is the only way they survive. Bike shops are in a constant battle with the big chain stores and mail order outlets and their best profit comes from the service area, providing they have knowledgeable, efficient mechanics and they don’t want to make anyone mad by telling them something that isn’t true.
Most multi-speed chains can last about one thousand miles before they start to wear on the other parts of your drive train. I replace chains after approximately 800 miles on race bikes to keep the cassettes on the race wheels fresh. If you’ve been using the same chain and the same cassette for 3500 miles, you have probably worn out your cassette as well. What happens when you put a new chain on a worn cassette is not pretty. It will generally allow the chain to slip forward over the teeth instead of engaging them and moving your bike forward, which, if you’re standing out of the saddle will generally result in some serious crotch-busting disaster. And no body wants that