Reflective strip removal from tires

[bluerider]

Hey everyone,
I just got some Vittoria Randonneur Hypers. I really like the tires but the reflective strip looks stupid and I want to remove it. Anyone have any recommendations on how to rid myself of this? I don’t ride at night so I don’t care about the safety aspect. I have not mounted the tires yet.

Topic

[GuyContinental]

Not one that isn’t going to destroy your tires… I’m sure that some sort of solvent would take it off but that same solvent would eat the sidewall too. Perhaps you could sand it off with 200 grit sandpaper (but that too would eat your sidewall)

[americancyclo]

mine started peeling off my Conti GP4000’s after about a year and a half, but maybe you can’t wait that long.

[5555624]

A can of paint and a brush?

[bluerider]

I was thinking a heat gun and exacto knife…..

[consularrider]

And I bought some of those (and some Michelin PiLOTs and Schwables) just to get the reflective strip for my after dark commutes…..

[KLizotte]

@bluerider 24782 wrote:

Hey everyone,
I just got some Vittoria Randonneur Hypers. I really like the tires but the reflective strip looks stupid and I want to remove it. Anyone have any recommendations on how to rid myself of this? I don’t ride at night so I don’t care about the safety aspect. I have not mounted the tires yet.

They really won’t be noticeable when you mount them. From a safety standpoint, I say leave them on. You’ll ride during dusk at some point if not total darkness.

[dasgeh]

@KLizotte 24801 wrote:

From a safety standpoint, I say leave them on. You’ll ride during dusk at some point if not total darkness.

Don’t forget about tunnels and really ominous rain storms…

[Riley Casey]

Really? Think the reflective strip on my Michelin City tyres is the coolest thing about them. You should take your bike out in the dark at least once to get that ‘riding on ghostly circles’ effect for some poor driving sod.

( no, i’m not a Brit but my tires are thus they are tyres )

[brendan]

Does Vittoria make a non-reflective variant of those tires? If they are relatively new, might make more sense to buy the other version and sell the ones you have at half price or so. That reduces any risk of making your tires a total loss and/or a safety hazard (aside from the lack of reflective trim ).

Brendan

[jnva]

Definitely remove those strips. Weight reduction totally worth it IMHO!

[consularrider]

Of course, what size are they? Maybe we can trade for my gently used Nashbar Prima Plus 700×25? They’re blackwalls.

[vvill]

I love the reflective strips on my 20×1.5 Marathon Racers.

Every time I go under one of the tunnels in around 4MR I’m grateful when a person in front of me (or coming the other way) has something reflective on them or their bike. Especially when your eyes are adjusted for bright sunshine. Of course, tire sidewalls wouldn’t be really useful in this situation.

[bluerider]

I know its small potatoes but they are going to look stupid on my bike and it will drive me crazy everything I look at them. They are new and unmounted so I will just return them for a refund. I had seen pictures of these tires with a much darker strip than these tires have and thought they would be ok. However, they are much brighter than the pictures. Almost like white walls. The reflective strip just annoys me.

[off2ride]

I was gonna say…the only way to get rid of the reflective strip is to get rid of those tires. Sanding and chemicals is not the way to go since bike tires are not as durable as car tires. They don’t have to be. What about fenders that say “Back off” with an image of Yosemite Sam toting 2 handguns? Those are trick.

[GuyContinental]

@off2ride 24838 wrote:

I was gonna say…the only way to get rid of the reflective strip is to get rid of those tires. Sanding and chemicals is not the way to go since bike tires are not as durable as car tires. They don’t have to be.

FWIW- don’t ever sand or apply chemicals to a car tire either (including any petroleum or silicone-based “tire shine”) Really. Don’t do it.

[Author]

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