Test: Continental stands for high-quality tires for cars, motorcycles and, of course, bicycles far beyond the borders of Germany. Whether racing bike, mountain bike or city bike - the manufacturer with its headquarters in Hanover has the right tire for every application. With the Continental Nordic Spike 120, we took a look at a winter specialist.
The profile
120 metal spikes are spread over the Continental Nordic Spike 120. The small rivets are on the edge area of the rather wide tire - in the middle there are small holes, in which the bigger brother, the Nordic Spike 240, has another 120 spikes. The profile is quite peculiar: large distances between the lugs, asymmetrical arrangement and deep profile. After the first inspection, we are all the more excited about the performance of the tyre. In any case, the technical key data suggests a robust representative: With a weight of 910g and a real width of 42mm, the Nordic Spike is a pretty powerful piece of rubber.
The practice – asphalt
Continental specifies a maximum pressure of 4,5 bar for the Nordic Spike. We stick to this specification and start out with 3,5 bar. Due to the relatively high volume of the tire and the slightly lower pressure compared to the competition, the self-damping and thus the comfort of the tire is very good. What is less pleasing is the rather high rolling resistance - on the one hand this is certainly due to the deep profile, on the other hand to the spikes and the high weight is certainly not conducive here either. After we increased the pressure to 4,5 bar, a different picture emerges: the comfort drops, but the rolling resistance also drops noticeably.
The practice – ice cream
The Continental Nordic Spike 120 is good-natured and predictable on ice. Even though it certainly still has room for improvement in terms of grip, it actually always remained controllable in the test and, above all, never suddenly lost its grip. Even when cornering, the bike remained stable with an adjusted speed - swerving and slipping were always announced early on and so we were almost always able to catch the bike.
The practice – snow
The positive impression is also confirmed in the snow: the profile works well and provides good grip. Due to the large distance between the lugs, the tire does not clog and the grip remains constant. If you reduce the air pressure to approx. 3 bar, you become a real snowmobile with the Nordic Spike and the tire plows its way safely through the cool white. However, we feel the high rolling resistance of the tire all the more clearly in the snow: Here, a brisk ride quickly turns into a training session.
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