Continental Hometrainer Folding Tire, Black, 700 x 23cc

I bought this tire because it was less expensive than the other trainer-specific tires on the market, and I'm very pleased with the functionality of it. One of the keys to keeping a tire from wearing out too quickly on a trainer is to maintain proper tire pressure as well as the proper fit against the roller. Just a tiny bit too loose, and you'll start getting rubber "dust" piling up under the flywheel. This means that even though your tire is in tight contact with the flywheel, it's still not tight enough, and is slipping a bit, resulting in the residue. I check my pressure regularly, and if I feel the slightest slip, I tighten the knob just a tiny bit until it stops. Because I do this, I've had no issues with tire wear, and it grips perfectly. I've put a few thousand miles on it this past season, and it still have plenty of the center bead left... in fact, it's hard to tell it's been used. Overall, I'm very happy with this tire, and will buy another one before next season, just to have it as a backup, even though I think I'll have plenty of tread left. Solid Conny tire, exactly what I'd expect in terms of quality, and so far, I've gotten more miles out of it than I normally do on my Conny road tires. My only complaint is the bead. Getting a new 23 on a rim has always been a bit of a struggle, and I punched holes in two old tubes before finally getting enough stretch to slip it over the rim. In 30 years of cycling, this is the toughest tire I've ever tried to mount. Be patient, work slowly, allow the bead to stretch a bit, and you should be fine.

Having read numerous complaints about difficult installation, I was a bit concerned. Now, having mounted two of these tires - piece of cake! What are you complaining about?These are like any other folding bike tire. With some decent tire levers or finger pressure, they popped right on. They ride well on rollers - front and rear - and are rather quiet.Durability? I can't say anything about that after only minutes of riding.*** 1 Year Later - Update ***Nothing wrong with these - nothing. After one year, they look new and work just great!

Fifth and final update - 08.09.2020. I've settled into the Continental Hometrainer as my preferred indoor trainer tire. Pricing fluctuates, but the Continental is consistently more expensive than the Vittoria. When I see a deal on the Continental, I pick one up and store it for later use.As I age, I'm down to 80-100 miles/week and the Continental Hometrainer and the Vittoria Zaffiro Pro Home Trainer both seem to last about 2,000-3,000 miles. For me, the Continental Hometrainer is smoother and quieter riding than the Vittoria, but not by a huge margin. I'm willing to pay more for the Continental for the slight edge, but these are both good tires and after 12 years of indoor training, I feel comfortable with recommending both.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is the fourth update of my initial review. I purchased a second Continental Hometrainer tire and it immediately started shedding rubber bits. Read my initial experience below, but this second tire is not performing like the first tire. I've recently dropped the operating pressure to 90PSI, which has reduced the shedding, but this tire is not likely to make it to 1,000 miles. Also, there's rubber bits everywhere.For almost ten years, I've had a dedicated bike set up on my Kurt Kinetic indoor trainer. My first indoor training bike was a mountain bike and I got very good mileage from a Vittoria Zaffiro Pro Home Trainer in the 26" x 1.1" size.I bought a new indoor training bike and installed this Continental Hometrainer tire in the 700 x 23mm size. The tire mounted with moderate effort, with only two tire levers, on a Sun CR-18 rim (notorious for tight, difficult mounting). I keep the tire inflated to 110-120psi and back-off the roller after every ride to minimize localized heat. Although the Continental Hometrainer left little rubber build-up, I nonetheless use polishing compound on the roller surface every 3-4 months. There’s solid contact and grip with the roller surface and the tire initially rode very smoothly and quietly.At 2,000 miles, the rubber on the crown began to harden and developed a checked, cracked pattern. Of course, the tire no longer rode as smoothly or quietly. At 4,000 miles, large sections of the crown had come off in chunks, creating low spots, which causes a serious "thumping" as the wheel spins. The tire is still laterally true (no wobble). The rubber on the sidewalls is still pliable and appears almost new. But the tire is no longer usable. I've included an image of the tire and of my seat tube covered in rubber bits.I replaced the Continental with the Vittoria Zaffiro Pro Home Trainer in the 700c x 23mm size. The Continental uses a soft compound, which results in an initially smooth, quiet ride. The Vittoria uses a much harder compound - closer to a garden hose - which is smooth, but not quiet. With proper roller loading, every time you change pace, the tire breaks from the roller surface with an audible "chirp". The Vittoria developed the same checked wear pattern at 1,400 miles and began shedding rubber chips, like the Continental. The Vittoria is still rideable at 3,200 miles and I plan to run it to failure.So I guess normal mileage for either tire is roughly 2,500 - 3,500. The Continental is certainly quieter than the Vittoria, but the Vittoria is smoother after 1,500 miles. At market prices, the Continental is roughly $10 more expensive than the Vittoria.

I spent too much time reading about trainer tires and couldn't get any solid sense of a consensus, even an internet consensus. The best I was able to do was notice that people endorsing this tire gave cogent arguments for why they liked it; so I figured at least good critical thought was filtering opinions on these.My experience is that it works great on the trainer. I have no other trainer tire for comparison; but compared with a road tire (Specialized Turbo Pro) it is night and day better. It grips better (e.g. sprints), is quieter... I guess that's enough.I did get a tire bead jack to install it, but after the valve failed on the antique tube I was using, I was able to get this tire re-seated with my fingers. So maybe just the first installation is hard?If you are like I was, combing through endless, non-comparative reviews of trainer tires, STOP RIGHT NOW AND BUY THIS ONE. It works great. There may be one that is better by some criterion over a very long period of time, but there is nothing wrong with this tire. I can't imagine any improvement. It even costs less than a typical road tire.More advice: I thought it was frivolous to assemble a wheel just for the trainer but now I regret not doing it sooner. They have very cheap, serviceable wheels - and great prices on better wheels - right here on Amazon. I recommend keeping a separate wheel for the trainer so there is no disincentive for switching back and forth between indoors/out - and maybe more importantly, no incentive for buying another bike.