Rennie Scaysbrook | November 8, 2018
German tire giants Continental have been heavy hitters in the V-twin segment for years now, and last year they brought the then-new ContiTour to market.
We were impressed by the overall comfort of the ContiTours.
Released alongside the ContiLegend White Wall range, the steel-belted ContiTour is a tire designed to get super high mileage from bikes predominantly weighing 600 pounds or more.
This is primarily achieved via the use of Continental’s Mileage Plus compound, which Conti claims gives an extra 20-percent mileage over its predecessor, the ContiMilestone.
The carcass itself is created using Continental’s MaxComfort design, created so the tire will give a smooth, easy ride and maintain correct shape and balance over big distances and when full loaded up with two riders and luggage, as is often the case with a large capacity V-twin cruiser.
The MaxComfort carcass is created using two steel belts and three nylon plies and two nylon/aramid plies. This carcass design marries up with the revised WetTraction tread pattern for better wet handling and stability, with the center-tread groove a backbone design, much like a dual-compound tire you see in sportbikes for reduced wear in the middle of the tire. This center compound is devoid of grooves and gives an extra 10-percent mileage, according to Continental.
To aid wet-weather performance, Continental increased the tread grooves to a chunky 6mm for the front tire and 8-9mm for the rear, depending on the tire size for your bike.
List Price: Staring at $169.05 for a front, and $194.25 for a rear.
www.continental-tires.com
Standout Feature: Excellent road comfort
After more than 1000 miles, the ContiTours still look brand new.
Rider Analysis
I don’t get to ride Continental’s very often. Normally it’s Continental’s main rival Dunlop that gets fitted to the few cruisers I get to swing a leg over so it’s nice to get a feel for something different every now and then.
We took the ContiTours and fitted them up to an Indian Scout for a bit of summer cruising around So Cal. The bad part is summer in California saw not a single drop of rain, so as far as Conti’s claims of good wet-weather performance goes, I can’t say.
What I can judge on was the ContiTour’s stability and road comfort, which were the main factors that stood out in our months with the Indian. Compared to some other cruiser tires I’ve tried, the ContiTour has a lovely soft feel at speed, with excellent steering properties. Considering the Indian Scout is one of the lighter cruisers on the market, this excellent steering fact alone was no great surprise, but the overall ride comfort certainly was. The ContiTour would track nicely over rough tarmac and wouldn’t get nervous when crossing heavily painted lines on the freeway. Our testing was just over 1000 miles of highway, city and touring, so granted, it was only scratching the surface of what the Conti’s could do. At that point, they barely looked like they’d been worn in, which comes down to the backbone carcass design keeping wear to a minimum.
In all, they performed brilliantly on our test with the Indian, although I think a heavier machine would suit these tires even better.CN
