Between 2011 July and 2011 September, my partner and I did a 3 300km bicycle tour of southern France. The below is a review of a product that we used during that tour.
The GP MTBs on my bike had nearly 1 000km on them before we started our tour. My partner's front tire had less than 300km, her rear tire was unused.
Due to unexpected conditions, my partner and I pushed our GP MTBs well beyond their design limits. This was particularly true on the Canal du Midi, where trail conditions degraded to that of technical single track. The tires also had to deal with abnormal amounts of cold, rain, heat, UV rays, low tire pressure, glass and sudden changes in conditions. They were only occasionally stored out of the elements, but typically they were exposed 24h/day.
The pair I used show substantial wear to the tread and sidewalls, including tread with ubiquitous cracking and three slices and sidewall threads that are beginning to shred. In all, I flatted five times, including three times in the last 500km. I believe they became increasingly susceptible to flats because of the wear.
My partner's tires were nearly flawless. Her tires suffered some sidewall damage on the Canal du Midi, a 200km stretch of trail that was increasingly hostile to biking as we moved south from Toulouse. Despite this, there is no cracking or slicing to her tread and she got no flats. This is in part due to her light weight (25kg less than me), the newer condition of her tires, her better co-ordination on trails and the greater care she takes while riding on road shoulders. Sidewall wear was possibly hastened by our often low tire pressures. Our tires were generally below 400KPa, though the occasional visit to a bike shop would get them up to 700KPa. They are rated to 800KPa.
2013 Update:
Though I recycled the above rear tire when it finally began showing threads after an additional 2 000km of use, I continue to use the front. The cracking has become even more prominent, there are innumerable cuts at the tread and there are multiple cuts and fraying threads on the sidewalls, but I continue to use it for long rides, including a recent 300km tour.
*The Hutchinson Top Slick, which I have had on several other bikes, is equally light but has had repeated problems with sidewall durability, quality control and suffers from quick wear. Others have reported problems with delamination. I have used other slicks for mountain bikes over the years -- Ritchey Tom Slick Pro K 28mm (245g), Specialized Fat Boy 32mm (350g), Panaracer UrbanMax 32mm (340g). The Ritchey tires have been very good, the Fat Boys repeatedly suffered sidewall deterioration, and the Urban Max tires were indestructible.
