What Tyres

I quite like the Vredestein Fortezza TriComp Quattro (and previously the Fortezza TriComp) tyres as they seem pretty fast with pretty good grip and are pretty hard wearing. I guess I've done about 1200 miles on them including about 400 miles in the Alps and they're still fine.

I bought a set recently and used a few times now, including a couple of metric centuries;-)

I like them, easy to fit & remove, light and no punctures. Yet. On best wheels so likely to be put away until summer.

I love Conti GP4000S with the Black Chilli compound. They are really hard wearing for a fast rolling grippy tyre. I used to like Michelin Pro race 2's but they were really prone to picking up cuts and slashes, the Conti's are a lot less so...

I use the conti GP4000s with black chilli on all my road bikes.

They're light, grippy and roll fast. That's what tyres need to be in my opinion.

 I'd back Dave, all the Schwalbe tyres I've ridden have been good - the Stelvios are durable and grippy, and you can pick them up for about £15 a pop, Aside from Dave I've heard good things about the Ultremos, including someone who had a bit of a 'moment' on an alpine bend a few weeks back and reckoned they played a big part in getting him through in one piece. The other tyres, I've ridden recently that have impressed are the Michelin Pro Race, you can pick them up for just over the £20 mark which puts them at the same price point as your Contis and the Schwalbe Ultremos.

One thing I would say is that I wouldn't get too hung up on tread, on road tyres it's pretty much an irrelevance in terms of grip, compound, tyre pressure, and the size of the contact patch are what count. The contact patch on a road tyre is so small that there isn't enough of it for tread to make any difference, but the small amount of tread there might be just takes rubber away from the contact patch - which probably isn't ideal.

Does that mean we're a real grown-up bike forum now? I've been a Hutchinson Fusion 2 kinda guy for quite a while now - the tread profile is good for all round riding and they're pretty puncture resistant for race-oriented rubber. bit heavier than the Contis though. However, the Gipiemme wheels we're currently testing came shod with Schwalbe Ultremos, and I like them a lot - really grippy and supple. And light. Bit early to say what the durability's like, and there's not a lot of tread to measure wear...