What Road Tires Do You Suggest?

[Trek-chick]

I just bought some Continental GP 4000S for a great deal--got 2 for $80. Plan to use them with my new custom wheel set when it arrives, I heard great things about these tires.

[Owlie]

I have a set of Continental Gatorskins for both my road and CX bikes, though the CX bike still has the knobblies on there. 25mm for the roadie, 28mm for the CX.

I have a set of Continental Grand Prix 4000S for the road bike as well, once I've gone through the Gatorskins.

The TPI is "threads per inch" and is essentially the weave on the cloth that makes up the body of the tire. High TPI means that it'll roll more easily, but is less puncture-resistant. If you're going for puncture resistance and don't care so much about the rolling resistance, go for a low-TPI tire. Folding tires (probably the Elite) are lighter (in general) than a wire-bead tire. Wire beads are heavier, but they stay on the rim better. (Which is a plus if you ride hard, but it's a bear changing flats.)

I'm a Continental fan, myself. I don't know about the durability of Specialized's tires (I think that's what those are). For the Continental tires we've mentioned, the Gatorskins are higher rolling resistance (I think), less "grippy" compound, but are hard-wearing. The GP4000 is softer, a bit grippier. It's a "faster" tire. The downside is that it's not as puncture-resistant, though they may have changed something with the 4000S to fix that.

[Helene2013]

Thank you. I love your explanation too on the TPI.

So for me, I will look for a low TPI. I want to avoid flats. (told you somewhere I paranoid on that hahaha).

I was reading this to hubby and he said he would prefer not to use wire ones. He knew about changing flats and he'd be the one having to do this for me (lucky me I know!) I don't ride hard either. For time being, I mostly do bike paths (we have some nice ones around area) and I'm just fine for now with this. I am very careful where I "step" with my wheels. But I told him I wanted comfort and a tire that grips to the ground vs one that is barely touching the ground. I want to feel the road. Not fly over it.

Someone at work was telling me about the Continental Gatorskin Clincher. I'll have to look it up.
http://www.probikekit.ca/bicycle-tyr.../10780033.html