Look what came in the mail today from Condor Cycles.
Early reports on an early production run of these tires reported that they didn’t quite fit under the rear fender of a Brompton. This was actually music to my ears since I was looking for a higher volume tire that was similar to the Greenspeed Scorchers. Word was this production run would have smaller dimensions to avoid this issue.
Time to take out the calipers. My comparators were the Schwalbe Marathon, and the original old OEM Brompton tires that were an emergency replacement during RSVP.
| Tire | Weight (g) | Height (mm) | Width (mm) |
| Conti | 260 | 31.1 | 31.5 |
| Marathon | 384 | 30.2 | 30.3 |
| Brompton | 258 | 31.9 | 33.6 |
The height was measured from the edge of a stock Brompton rim to the top of the tread. The width was for the tire mounted on a stock rim as well. Surprise: the old Brompton tire has the highest volume. The Conti is only slightly larger than the Marathon, and so it should have no problem fitting under a standard fender.
The Conti is similar in weight to the Marathon Racer (nominally 240 g), and heavier than the Kojak (190 g). The claim is that it is more flat proof than the competition. We shall see. I do appreciate that it has a reflective stripe on the sidewall. Also, it was much easier to mount on the rim than the Marathon. It also easy to get it concentric to the rim. The other difference from the Schwalbe tires was that the inner surface of the tire was a very slick plastic lamination.
It’s a nice looking tire. We’ll see how they do in the long run.
Of course I had to do a few laps of High Park to make sure everything was OK.
The sakura are probably about two weeks from blooming. It will be interesting to see how they are going to control the crowds this year.
I’ve had tires in the past that expanded in diameter after some time of being pressurized, so you might want to check your dimensions again after a while and see how these new tires measure.
which is your feedback after your try? 🙂
They roll fast, but i’ve only put about 25k on them so far
How is the behavior in gravel or wet, worse or better than Marathons?
Can’t say as of yet. They are more directly comparable to the Racers, or a much more durable versions of the Kojaks.
waiting for your update 🙂
I haven’t put much mileage on the Brompton this year, but I’ve had absolutely no issues with the new tires. They roll very fast, and they are certainly more durable that Kojaks.
Hope you will leave a review of these as well as the Scorchers.
I haven’t had much mileage on the continentals, but I have had no issues. They roll fast, and I have not had a flat yet. The scorchers are a nice high volume tire, but they have the aforementioned fender clearance issues. You can read about my misadventures with the scorchers in my post about the RSVP ride from Seattle to Vancouver, but to be fair, the scorchers were at least four or five years old at the time.
Thanks, I look for the post.