Piperflyer

TrojanHorse

I've never tried gatorskins but if you're looking for "event only" tires, skip those. They ride like rocks.

The GP4000-2 tires are very nice although they're semi famous for being susceptible to sidewall cuts. I used to use 25mm Contis at about 100-110 when I was 230lb or so. Great rolling tires, just not terribly durable.

I personally prefer Michelin Pro4 tires, but they seemed to have renamed them again so I have to figure out which ones I like.

You can probably find your Contis from any of the GB based bike stores for about $30 or so per tire, so definitely go that route.

$37 - https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/conti...tyre/#pid=7815

$34 - https://www.probikekit.com/bicycle-t.../10918169.html

$72 (2 tires and two "free" innertubes!) - https://www.merlincycles.com/contine...air-71989.html

Looks like the 28mm option tends to add a buck or two to the cost.

Happy shopping.

Piperflyer

rgconner

Want good rolling and supple tires?

Soma Fabrications Shikoro tires:

Shikoro 700c Clincher Tire | SOMA Fabrications

Not cheap, but boy are they nice! Subtle tread holds really well in anything but deep sand. I have found them for $50 each on Amazon
Sizes: 700 x 23, 28, 33, 38, 42c

expatbrit

rgconner

I am 230, run 38s at about 55PSI back, 50 front. I have to hit something bigger than an inch or two, like a tree root raised section of the path to feel it.

Thinking about a pair of 28s for faster paced road rides/centuries

GrainBrain

I'm not an expert on any other tire, but I have ran all three of the Contis. Gatorskins are hard, slick, and resist punctures. They had poor wear life for me. Gatorskins don't grip worth a darn compared to the other two tires.

Currently I run a 4 Season on back, 4000s2 on front, both 25c. The 4 Season has extra side tread and good wear life so far, and they roll and feel waaaaaay better then the Gators.

The 4000s2 is great on front, I'm a huge fanboi of Continental's black chili compound. Grippy AF - on gravel, pavement, whatever!

I have yet to measure but the 25s run a little bigger it seems, probably closer to a 27mm.

Go with the 4000s2 if it's performance that you're after!

Piperflyer

Piperflyer

blacknbluebikes 

The "ride like rocks" comments on Gatorskins always hit me as a lot of hooey (technical term).
I ride my "fast bike" on GP4k-2's. Love 'em.
I ride my "far bike" on Gatorskins. Love 'em. But I need them on the long days, cause the roads & the road-trash gets worse and worse the farther out we go.

Yep, the GP tires are a bit smoother, but not *drastically* smoother. I have much bigger issues with the quality of the asphalt on most roads than I do with the quality & characteristics of the rubber compound.
Then you start factoring in your inflation pressure, which is probably a bigger factor, and your frame dynamics...

Gatorskins don't flat when other tires do, and that *really* can change your ride day. If I tooled around a retirement village in the southwest all the time, I'd be on Vittoria Corsa's with latex. Smmoooothe with an e.
But if I ride those on a 60mi around New Jersey, at least 50% probability will have a puncture before I get home. I know, the Vittorias were the factory tires that came on the fast bike. But they were like magnets for nails, staples... pinchflats... bayonets, machetes...

I hate hate hate changing a tire on a ride.

KonAaron Snake 

I don't think there's a better tire than the conti gp 4 seasons for balance of ride and puncture resistance...to me, that's the go to standard everyone else aspires to.

And a big time plus one to the gator skins as riding like they're lined with armadillos.

bautieri

I had gatorskins on a previous bike, I thought they rode nice(ish) and I never had a flat.

Now that you got the 4ks mounted, I'd say to leave them on unless you need the extra bite.

scotton

I've been riding the Vittoria Rubino Pro G+ in 28s and I really like them. I'm 250 lbs and have them at 100 psi back and 90 psi front. Coming off of mostly Gatorskins and Armadillos, these feel good and I haven't had any puncture issues. Chip seal is much more pleasant.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

KonAaron Snake 

The Specialized Roubaix tires are pretty nice...I think they split the difference between gator skins and GP 4 seasons.

ill.clyde

I'm roughly 900 miles into a pair of Gators and I feel like the back tire is wearing quickly ... I'm around 270, and I ride five/six days a week, 300ish a month(?) ... roads around here aren't great, but they're not terrible. I keep things topped up in terms of PSI, but the back tire is starting to look squared off. I think this week, at some point, I'm swapping back to front, front to back ...

I can't imagine only getting 2K miles out of a pair of Gators. Am I being overly optimistic?

GrainBrain

Well I'm not a clyde (~180lbs) but I got about 3k miles (probably less) before it got squared bad. I still have it as a backup, and it isn't showing cords. I have a 4s though that probably has 1.5k on front and 1.5k on back that doesn't have near the squaring of the gator.

rm -rf

You could just wait until the rear is worn out. Toss it, then move the front tire to the back. Put a new tire on the front.

Tire mileage is lower for heavier riders and for strong riders that push hard on the pedals. What size tires do you have? Larger is better, of course, if there's room in the frame for them.

My tires will start to look squared off quite early, but they still have a lot of mileage left -- often 4 to 5 times as much mileage still to go! I think the rate of squaring off slows as the square part gets wider.

MattTheHat 

I tried my first pair of Continental GP4000SII this weekend. Got a rear flat (sidewall puncture) at about 34 miles on my first ride. This was my first flat of the year (only been riding for 4 months, and have ridden 1,600 miles or so). This was a little disconcerting, but the previous tires might have flatted there too. I forgot to look around to see if I could find the culprit.

I just looked at my Strava data, and the GP4000s appear to be be a significantly faster tire for me. I compared route and time data for the first 34 miles. The previous tires were Specialized Roubaix Pros in 32mm. The Continentals are 28 mm. Conditions were about the same, start time and traffic conditions were very similar.

My average speed on the Continentals was .8 MPH faster over almost identical routes. There were 8 Strava segments in common. Six were faster on the Continentals (ranging from :01 faster to :30 faster). Two were slower on the Continentals, but in both of those Segments I had to get off the bike (a thrown chain and a photo op), which would obviously slow the average speed. In all, 6 Strava personal records.

I'm going to pick up a replacement tire this evening and see what happens. It'll be interesting to see how segment times compare on several of my shorter routes that I run during the week (12-30 miles).

-Matt

rm -rf

I, too, got a cut tire within a few rides when I got new wider wheels. And then another puncture within a month. I was worried that the wider tire profile was prone to cuts. But that was somewhere around 12,000 or 14,000 miles ago, and I've only had one or two punctures from sharp stuff and a few pinch flats from slamming rocks or potholes since then. Statistics can be weird.

GP4000S
I've been riding GP4000S for a long time. They have a very good tradeoff between reasonable puncture protection, long tire life, very good cornering, and a smooth, fast ride. That .8 mile increase is probably a little higher than you'll find in general. New, fast equipment might get a rider to put out a bit more effort! (It often does for me). With correct tire pressures, I think the GP4000S are comparably faster on rough road surfaces, since the flexible tire soaks up the bumps better.

I've seen lots of comments that the 28mm GP4000S are actually 30mm or even more, so you can probably use tire pressures for 30-32mm instead of 28mm.

I do avoid shoulders (and often avoid bike lanes that don't get cleaned off). Riding in the right tire track of a lane, the debris is kicked away toward the side of the road by car tires.

MattTheHat 

Yeah, I haven't measured, but they look to be really cloe in width to the 32mm Rubaix Pros. Definitely wider than 28mm.

I'm just now getting to the point I don't ride on the shoulder at all. I'm finding if you're off the road, cagers will fly by at the speed limit just inches away. If you stay in the right tire track of the lane, they move at least partially and usually all the way into the other lane and slow down. It's a win-win.

Whatever damaged the tire was on a new concrete residential street with no construction nearby. The puncture expanded when the tire was re-inflated. I'm glad I'd just picked up some of those Park tire boots, which you can see in the pic. I made it approximately 33 more miles. Without it, I don't think I would have made it too far.

-Matt



No bueno!

KonAaron Snake 

Just switched the specialized tires that came on my Roubaix for GP 4000s...notable improvement in ride quality. I had planned on riding the Specialized tires down, but I got "lucky" and ran over a gigantic staple that destroyed one of them.

Shimagnolo

I had a sidewall cut like that once from a sharp rock hidden among fallen leaves in the bike lane.
It was the first time I used the Park boots, and I didn't think it would hold, but it held and got me 6 miles home.
I was impressed!

Shimagnolo

I have years of experience with Gatorskin 28's on one bike, and 4000SII 25’s on another.

I never paid much attention to the complaints of the Gatorskins being hard riding.
But I got fed up with them skidding w/o warning on wet surfaces.
So I replaced them with Schwalbe One 28's.
On the first ride, I stopped twice in 30 miles to squeeze the rear tire, because I thought it was losing pressure.
They really rode that much softer than the Gatorskins!