I have a 2011 Felt B14 that came with white tires. How practical are these? Are they somehow resistant to discoloration or will they turn black after a few rides? I’ve only ridden it indoors on a trainer since I bought it, so I haven’t been outdoors with it yet.
about ten feet
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about ten feet
This pretty much nailed it.
I used to work at a bikeshop, and they asked me to clean up the grime off of the white tires on a little girl’s brand new bike. I spend about 15 minutes scrubbing those things. Then when they got out of the shop, they let the girl ride the bike over to the car and it completely undid my handiwork in 3 seconds.
As a proud owner of a B16:
Accept the fact that white tires are going to look like garbage in approximately 3.74 seconds of you taking them outside. However, I kind of like how it shows your efforts outside. Why be boring?
Of course, my next round of Vittorias will be black, but that’s for racing purposes. The whites are perfectly acceptable till I burn through them.
Ten feet? That’s probably even too far. I would think that the real answer is one revolution of the tire on asphalt!
How much trainer time is on the rear tire? I bet it’s shot shortly after you take the bike outside.
**about ten feet **
On the nasty, dirty, muddy, frost-heaved and cracked Paris-Roubaix like roads around here, maybe a bit less than that!
Tires should be like Model-T Fords. You can have any colour you want, as long as it’s black!
**about ten feet **
On the nasty, dirty, muddy, frost-heaved and cracked Paris-Roubaix like roads around here, maybe a bit less than that!
Tires should be like Model-T Fords. You can have any colour you want, as long as it’s black!
Cripes, that takes me back. My dad use to make me clean the white walls on his tires with a brillo pad and they had to be WHITE by the time I was done.
Thinking about that still sends pains down my back…
They look pretty on the showroom floor!
Tires should be like Model-T Fords. You can have any colour you want, as long as it’s black!
Well said.
As a proud owner of a B16:
Accept the fact that white tires are going to look like garbage in approximately 3.74 seconds of you taking them outside.
As am I, but I will say that the sidewalls stay pretty white (I’ve ridden it outside about 5 times). So from the side it still looks pretty cool.
Don’t ask me about all the white bar tape and white brake hoods though . . .
I’m going to disagree with some of the posts. I have the same white tires on my Felt F5 and while they certainly don’t remain pristine for more than about 10 ft, they don’t go black either. After about 400 miles I’ve noticed that the actual contact patch stays pretty white, and sort of gray outside of that area.
Not awful, and from about 5 ft away they still look pretty white.
I have no problem with them as a training tire. It makes it easy to see tread life, they look decent enough, and I wouldn’t use that tire for racing anyway, so no big deal.
You can use Wesley’s Bleche White to clean them. It works very well.
I’ve only had my B16 on the trainer due to the weather. It’s been 2 or 3 weeks since I got it and the rear tire already has a 1/4" silver streak down the middle.
The front tire is much worse though. It’s been resting on a Cycleops training bloc with no drain plugs. It gives new meaning to the term sweat stain.
White bicycle parts are really good at two things: 1. Looking Nice 2. Attracting Dirt
We sure do like how that white handlebar tape looks sitting on our showroom floor, but it does not last past the first ride.
The distance those tires will stay clean is exactly 2.199 meters
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I’m not too sure about those tires specifically, but I’ve been riding white Vittoria Rubino Pros for 11 months now, and they’re not all that dirty, but are definately off-white.
I am seriously considering hot pink or fluorescent green tires for my B16. I’m rather partial to hot pink and think that either of those two colors would go well with the black and green.
-eric
I wonder how many people answering here actually have white tires.
Sure, they won’t be snow white anymore after your first ride, but rather some light shade of grey. However, it won’t change much anymore for the next 5000 km. And they certainly won’t turn black.
Yup - no longer riding them, but my white vittoria corso cx’s were almost exactly the same color as my white handlebar tape and saddle on my old QR, which is to say kinda faded medium gray
I still have white handlebar tape, and it’s still dirty - doesn’t really bother me that my bike looks like it gets ridden…