Road Bike Tire Test: Continental Ultra Sport II

The Ultra Sport II is Continental's cheapest road bike tire and is one of the most popular road bike tires in the lowest price class. Not only because of its low price, but also because it's available in lots of different colors and sizes.

Ad Buy Continental Ultra Sport II at Amazon.com

I'm testing the Ultra Sport II 700 x 25C folding version. A wire bead version is available as well which costs even less. The Ultra Sport has a 3/180 casing, Conti's PureGrip compound, but no hi-tech puncture resistance layer.

It looks like Continental saved some money by skipping the extra layer of puncture resistance material that most other all-round tires have. No puncture resistance layer helps achieve a lower rolling resistance at the cost of lower puncture resistance.

The trade-off between rolling resistance and puncture resistance will always exist, a stronger tire simply will have a higher rolling resistance. Although the use of a better design and better performing materials helps, tire cost will go up as well.

The other low-end tires I have tested up to now (2015) are the Vittoria Zaffiro (review), which has a decent rolling resistance but low puncture resistance. And the Schwalbe Lugano (review), which has a decent puncture resistance but a very high rolling resistance.

Visit the road bike overview page and apply the "low price range" filter to see the current list of tested tires.

Let's see how Continentals lowest priced tire performs in our rolling resistance and puncture resistance tests.

Weight. Specified weight of the folding Ultra Sport 700 x 25C is 260 grams. My sample comes in at 267 grams, which is slightly over the specified weight.

Size. The measured width and height on a 17C wheel is 26 mm and 24 mm respectively. These are both average values for a 25C road bike tire.

Tire Thickness. The Ultra Sport II has a very good tread thickness at 3.0 mm which indicates there's plenty of rubber on the tire. Most all-round tires come in closer to 2.5-2.9 mm in this test.

The sidewalls also are a bit thicker at 0.70 mm than most high-end, high-performance tires that come in closer to 0.50-0.55 mm.

When taking its low price into consideration, rolling resistance is good. The Ultra Sport II is able to outperform the Vittoria Zaffiro and comes very close to the slightly more expensive Continental Grand Prix (review).

At an air pressure of 120 psi / 8.3 bars, rolling resistance of the Ultra Sport II is only 0.3 watts higher when compared to the Continental Grand Prix. At the lower air pressure of 80 psi / 5.5 bars, rolling resistance is 0.5 watts higher when compared to the Grand Prix.

The Vittoria Zaffiro (review) had a decent rolling resistance at very high air pressures. At lower air pressures, rolling resistance of the Zaffiro skyrocketed. The Ultra Sport II, on the other hand, has a much better rolling resistance curve with a decent rolling resistance even at lower air pressures.

As expected, because the puncture resistance layer has been omitted, tread puncture resistance is low. With a score of 10 points, it scores just as low as the Vittoria Zaffiro.

Sidewall puncture resistance is 4 points; this is an average score as most other road bike tires without reinforced sidewalls score 4 - 5 points on this test.

If you're looking for a cheap tire with a decent rolling resistance, the Continental Ultra Sport II is the way to go. Even at lower air pressures, rolling resistance comes very close to more expensive tires. The trade-off is that puncture resistance is below average because an extra layer of puncture resistance material has been omitted.

If you want cheap tires and don't care about puncture resistance, the Ultra Sports are perfect. If you're willing to spend slightly more, the Continental Grand Prix (review) or Vittoria Rubino Pro (review) are still my price/performance recommendations. Those tires have a slightly lower weight, lower rolling resistance, and a much better puncture resistance at a slightly higher price.

If you want to dig into the price/performance ratios yourself, jump to the road bike overview page and apply the low and medium price-range filter.