Off with the old and in with the new was the theme of this past week leading in to New Years. One of the things that came “off” was my cyclo cross knobby tires left from cross season.. I have been commuting on until they were completely worn out and finally last week the knobs in the center strip on the rear tire disappeared and with it I quickly received a flat. With this I decided to put more commuter friendly tires for the winter months.
The tires that went on are Bontrager Race Lite Hard Case 700x32c tires. I am having a hard time finding them on their website as they are tires that were pulled off of a Trek 7.3FX series bike.
Since installing the tires 24 hours ago I have about 30 miles on them with my commute today.. The ride into work went much quicker with out the knobs on my tires and a bit rougher with the hard case tires inflated up to 80 lbs compared to my 50lbs I run in the cyclo cross tires.. Speed and less likely to get a pinch flat is why I decided to up the pressure. Plus I am slowly going to let out pressure until I feel like I am at that tipping point of comfort and safety.. Some hard case tires do not do well at low air pressure as they are not supple enough to corner and not roll the tire off the rim.
The 700×32 with was out of necessity. It was the largest commuter tire we stock at work that had a thicker rubber for flat protection. I much would of preferred a 700×38 or so. More volume the better when riding at night in my mind.
I will be posting a longer time review once I get a couple hundred miles under my belt in the next week or two but my intial reaction is good. They preformed well in sharp, fast corners and swallowed some of the bumps on the side of the road riding home.