Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Continental Twinduro TCK-80 tire wear

I've got just over a thousand hard Kilometres on the Twinduro tires, and all but about 5 of those Kms have been on the street, and most of that has been hard city riding with lots of wheelies, and almost always full throttle acceleration. I'm impressed with how these tires are holding up, considering how much abuse I've put them through in the last 6 weeks or so.


Rear tire after 1,000 Km


Front tire after 1,000 Kms - almost no wear


The rear has some visible wear, but very little. At this rate I expect to see at least 6,000 Kms from it, and more for the front tire. So far, I'm quite impressed at how they're holding up. Last summer when I bought this bike, the previous owner had just installed a brand new original equipment Trailwing on the rear --- I had that thing worn out in about a month, with about 1,500 Kms, and traction sucked. These Twinduros handle quite well on the street for a knobby, although they don't stop nearly as quickly as the Avon Distanzias when a cement truck suddenly makes a left turn right front of you. I've locked up the rear tire several times, and rather easily I might add. The Avons had great stopping grip when you grab the brakes really hard in a panic stop.

While I've only done a few short offroad Kilometres with these tires, I am very impressed with their grip. I found a trail along some hydro lines and it quickly turned swampy. I was able to plow through like a bulldozer. If these tires last as I expect they will, then I'll surely buy them again. I also hit a Kilometre or two on a dry packed dirt & gravel road and they gripped as well as any offroad tire.