Continental

Trinotal Trail Grip up front and Dubnital Trail Rapid in the rear and this combo seriously rocks. I'm only three rides in so I'd say this is a first impression review, but it is making me itch to get back out there and ride some more. Now that I have the pressure dialed I feel just about as confident as I was on my old more gravity focused tires on the techy descents, but way, way faster on everything else. My fears about being a heavier rider (>200lbs) on these haven't amounted to much at all. The other comments about width running a bit small are accurate, but it hasn't had an impact on my riding so far.

Trinotal Trail Grip up front and Dubnital Trail Rapid in the rear and this combo seriously rocks. I'm only three rides in so I'd say this is a first impression review, but it is making me itch to get back out there and ride some more. Now that I have the pressure dialed I feel just about as confident as I was on my old more gravity focused tires on the techy descents, but way, way faster on everything else. My fears about being a heavier rider (>200lbs) on these haven't amounted to much at all. The other comments about width running a bit small are accurate, but it hasn't had an impact on my riding so far.

Previous to using this tire, I had one wheelset with the S-Works Pathfinder 42 and one with the Continental Terra Speed 40. The S-works Pathfinder was my standard but it is now unfortunately unavailable. It measured exactly 45mm on my DT Swiss GR1600 wheels, and this Continental Terra Competition 45 measures exactly the same. I was skeptical that a marginally heavier tire would out-perform the S-Works Pathfinder, but this tire has done that. It may be a few grams heavier than the S-Works, but its rolling resistance is lower enough to make a noticeable difference. I have a benchmark local ride that I do that has a mix of tarmac and loose gravel, with a lot of up-and-down elevation throughout. It's challenging because slick tires do well on the tarmac but struggle on the gravel, and gravel-focused tires do well on the loose portions but are slow on the tarmac. This tire beat everything I have used prior. Average speed went up by 1.2 mph versus the S-Works Pathfinder. I don't think I got that much fitter in one week. A+, recommended.

I didn't have any trouble mounting these tires. I did hang them off the workbench for a couple days to let them unfold. While I haven't had to usually use a Pedro's Tire Lever to finish getting the bead of some other tires over the last inches, I did with these, but it was hardly a struggle, just to ease it over.

I have an old Italian Ciocc frame, and I enjoy the feel of these tires. So far so good. Not enough miles to know if I won't get many flats...