Thanks for tuning in today we're going to be reviewing
the American Classic Timekeeper road cycling tire.
These days high performance bike tires can cost as much of the tires for your vehicle
especially when it comes to tubeless ready tires. American Classic is looking to change that and by
embracing a direct-to-consumer model to keep the cost down while keeping the quality up. Although
american classic might be best known for their wheel sets they've come back in 2021 with a full
lineup of tires. Today we're going to be looking at their highest performance road tires which are
designed for road racing. You can see packaging wise really sleek you have american classical in
here they're iconic orange to yellow stripe that goes all the way around down to the eagle logo
so very simple and looks really good. You don't have a little cutout or anything to
see the tire you actually have to open it up. In terms of what we have the Timekeeper and the
700x25 with the tan wall. So I'll go ahead and take out the box and go over these specs. The
most impressive thing about these tires is that they're only $30 and for the tubeless version that
one's 35. Again half or a quarter of what you'd pay for a Continental or Schwalbe equivalent.
They're available in two different sizes 700x25 which we have here or 700x28.
They have what they call a stage three protection so it's a very lightweight
but still provides some protection from flats. It's an almost slick tire with these little
details on the side and available both in the tan sidewalls and the standard black
side walls. It comes with a proprietary rubber s tire compound it's really optimized for rolling
efficiency so it's a very fast tire that's designed to really make you win the race or
any very high speed club ride. You can see inside the box you just get the tire and that's about it.
A big plastic zip tie holdings together. Now let's take a look at the weight of the tires
so one of them comes in at 232 well the other one is exact same 232 so a little bit more
than the claimed weight but very much in line with Continental or other higher end offerings.
Now let's go over the fit and finish of the American Classic timekeeper tires. These are the highest
performance tires they currently offer for road cycling. They also have the torchbearer which is
similar but has a more all-weather or training style tire so more robust. With this one it's
optimized for rolling efficiency which means it does sacrifice the flat protection and a little
bit less grip than the Torchbearer. So they have a stage three flat protection but you can see
with 120 tpi construction this thing's very soft really doesn't feel like there's much there so if
you ride somewhere with a lot of debris this might not be the right tire for you. You can see nice and
clean on the inside and again with 120 tpi it's a very soft tire so easy to install easy to take off
and very supple. We have the tan wall version and you can see it has Timekeeper written on
the side with this nice silver like text it is a directional tread and this is kind of
something people debate online whether or not these little details matter so these little
trapezoidal details have this extra texture on them which supposedly should improve the grip
around corners but may just be visual as well. So you want this pointed toward the
direction of travel otherwise you can see almost flat there doesn't appear to be any
indicator like you'd find on a Continental tire with a two dots a wear indicator so
you just have to be careful when you review the tire make sure there's no cords showing.
Otherwise really nice the tan wall is a great looking tire it's kind of a retro inspired
thing that seemed to be coming back and it looks great on any bike gives you a little bit of color.
The other logo you have on here is the American Classic and you can see that here on the side
again really sleek with the dual color so you have the white and black contrasting
with that eagle logo right in the middle so really sleek looking tire.
Now let's get the tires on the road here we have them mounted on our Specialized
Tarmac and you can see the tan sidewalls really look great. They're nice and even
there's really not that many flaws on them so it's a good looking tire and provides some contrast.
The tires are also very soft so installation of them on the Mavic rims was very simple didn't
have to use any tools or too much pressure. They just sort of slid on when it was a little bit of
pressure at the center they went right on so nice easy installation and as far as the feel they feel
great. They feel fast and smooth they're very soft tires so really nice road feel even though they're
not the grippiest tire in American Classics lineup. They provide good confidence so even
going down steep hills we felt really comfortable our only worry was the flat protection as they
are thinner road racing tires. We did have one flat with a pretty large staple inside the
road but otherwise they served as well didn't have any issues. The only thing we'd caution against is
using these as a training tire for day-to-day use compared to a 5000S or other more durable tires.
These are something that'll last less because they're more optimized for speed but overall
really impressed and especially at the 30 price mark. It's pretty hard to beat this performance.
Now let's do a quick comparison between the American Classic Timekeeper and the continental
5000s tires. The Continentals are a very popular tire as they offer a great balance between
robustness and speed while the Timekeeper is more oriented for road racing so it's definitely going
to wear down a lot quicker than the Continentals. In terms of design very similar you can see it's a
slick tread so there's really not much texture here on the center. Then you have the little
side details so pretty similar between the two of them. On the continental it's more of a
wave shape to it while the Timekeeper has this trapezoidal design so they both look good.
With the Continental it is also available in the tan color which is becoming a lot more
popular these days. What's impressive about the American Classic is that it's so cheap at 30
it's half the price of the Continental and for the tubeless version even less
as the Continentals can go up to $100.
Now let's go over the scorecard for the American Classic Timekeeper tires. We're gonna grade out
four different categories: grip, weight comfort and value. For grip we'd give it an a these are nice
fast and grippy tires the weights also in a these are very competitive even though it's such a low
price. Comfort will also give it A, very smooth and soft ride with 120 tpi construction so it's
very supple. Value of course would be an A+, these are very affordable half the price
of other tires on the market with a lot of the same performance characteristics.
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