Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elite 700x23c tyre

I've used these tyres for commuting daily on Shoreditch's broken glass strewn streets for 3 years and have yet to be bothered by the p*ncture fairies.

I hook out the debris and fill holes with superglue gel as recommended elsewhere, but I've seen other cyclists pull up next to me with so much stuff embedded in their tyres you'd laugh but that's how tough the kevlar belt is. For winter rides in the country along gritty wet thorn-strewn lanes these have held up too.

Hope this isn't tempting fate!

I have a love-hate relationship with this tyre. I used them for years commuting and training in and around London. Several times I rode a tyre through to the canvas without a puncture. I swore by them for this alone. But chris_road_cc and ribena are right to flag the build quality - roughly 1 in 5 tyres start delaminating round the bead. In some cases soon after purchase. I put these tyres on by hand so I'm not rough with them (though maybe it would be preferable to use levers). In the worst case the side casing blew out doing 90kmph downhill, staying intact, but with a large balloon out the side of the wall. Now living in Sydney I don't have to use such puncture resistant tyre (gloat/use GP4000s), but if I moved back to UK, I'd probably use Specialized again, but with caution! Another thing - don't even think about racing on them on a tight crit circuit, you'll be leaving the tarmac every corner!

i had some 26" versions of these and they didn't last too long. One delaminated, and the other fell apart at the bead in around 9 months. Thats with a daily commute of 4 miles each way, through the winter.

Great while they lasted though.

hold on a minute tread doesn't help on the road because it reduces the size of the contact patch, the Armadillo doesn't have tread it's a slick with a groove in it and that groove doesn't cover enough of the tyre and nor is it deep enough either to reduce the size of the contact patch - I would think that the groove flattend out when it's part of the contact patch - which is why it can pick up grit. It may also shift a small amounts of water, but as Simonmb says very few of us are ever likely to go fast enough to aquaplane.

Even from beyond the grave, AASHTA (As Always, Sheldon Has The Answer).

I guess that would make a good benchmark of how the bicycle evolves - when Sheldon Has The Answer less often than not, we'll have moved on.

I don't imagine it'll be any time soon, if ever.

I agree with simonmb and, more importantly, so does Sheldon Brown (RIP), and he's the boss. Grooved tread doesn't help a bit on road.

I've used Armadillos tons and had no punctures at all with a couple of sets. They're not light but if you don't want to be fixing a flat in December drizzle, they're the ones.

Nerd Alert! Science tells us that grooves in road bike tyres don't significantly enhance water-dispersal or improve grip in the wet. Instead they merely give a psychological boost since we know (from our cars) that a slick tyre doesn't clear water as efficiently as a treaded tyre. Our tyres are too narrow and we go too slow to aquaplane - and adhesion is reduced by the same degree for all rubber - treaded or not. I'd rather stick with a slick that won't pack detritus into its grooves. Or am I wrong in believing all this?

My old road bike will only take a 23mm tyre. My 30m commute used to be one puncture after another, that is, until I discovered these tyres. I have had one through tyre puncture in about 4 years. As to road holding, I can't comment - I'm too fat to go fast.

One negative to be aware of, is that the casing is very hard and the rubber can delaminate. For me this was the result of frost damage - the rubber picks up lots of cuts down to the puncture protection layer and water gets in-between. If you're a commuter though, there's nothing to compare.