noglider 

These tires have Continental's latest innovations, and they're still made in Germany, so I figured they're worth trying. Normally, I'm a fan of Panaracer (and relabeled Panaracer) tires and Vittoria tires. Continental tires are usually expensive. But I got these at a good price, so I got a pair.

I got their largest size, 700c x 28mm.

They didn't really fit on my Lemond. There was 1 mm of clearance between the tire and the back of the seat tube. I measured the width at 29 mm. I found some Soma tires, measuring 27 mm, would be comfortable on my Lemond, and I put the Continental tires on my McLean.

My first couple of rides were promising.

Then I took once long ride on them with the rear underinflated, not on purpose but because of negligence. Riding them at low pressure, they still felt very fast and magically comfortable. But I pushed my luck too far and got a pinch flat. I don't know what pressure I was using, maybe 30 psi in the rear or maybe even less.

Yesterday, I took another long ride with 80 rear and 70 front. The ride was not harsh. In fact, it was nearly as comfortable and every bit as fast. So now I'll try finding an optimum pressure between 30 and 80. Wherever it is, I'm already very happy.

I'm not sure if this is true, but I have an impression that Continental tires are more durable than the Panaracer tires I love. I see some really old Continental tires on people's bikes. I don't see hanging threads or UV-cracked materials. Maybe I will find out. It's not that Panaracers are fragile, but I think the MTBF is better with Continentals.

Colnago Mixte

I like my Conti 28 mm GP 4000's a lot. Unfortunately, so do the goat head thorns in my area. They are particularly attracted to that supple, paper-thin sidewall that gives wide GP 4000's their fine Cadillac ride.

I must have patched mine 12 times in 11 rides.

But if you don't have to deal with thorns where you live, they are an excellent-performing, durable (especially if you rotate them) and comfortable tire.

noglider 

Nope. We have no thorns here. I hear they're hard to deal with. We used to have a lot of glass on streets and roads, but we have mandatory deposit and recycling laws, so not many bottles end up on the ground. And I've learned to steer around the few bits of glass there are, so I don't get many flats any more. What kind of tire do you like?

Colnago Mixte

GP 4000's, but I just have to deal with all the flats. When I ride on dirt roads and along RR tracks, these work really well for me:

https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...ave-found.html

But the handling is far from ideal, which is to be expected. Fortunately, you don't deal with goatheads, and don't need to resort to such drastic measures.

I would stick with the Contis and thank my lucky stars.

Cyclist0108

They are outstanding tires. I took mine off after a year when I put on Compass tires, because I got tired (get it?) of waiting for them to wear out. They are essentially unworn, in the time I can completely destroy Clements (for example). Yet the ride is more supple and with less rolling resistance than the Clements. I have never had a flat with them. I ride them about 80 psi in the rear, 70 in the front, and the 28mm on my rims (HED Belgium Plus) are about 32mm.

Colnago Mixte

They handle high speed corners like a dream. Very confidence-inspiring.

Salamandrine 

I've been riding the Conti GP4000SII mostly for the last couple years. So far I've only used the 25c version, which in reality measure 28.0 mm on my A23 rims. I might bump up to the official 28c size next time. From what I gather, that gets me about 1 more mm...

They are my preferred fast tire. They feel very fast rolling. First tire that made me not miss my sew ups. Funny but I do find the ride significantly firmer than Panaracers at the same pressure. I was also riding Fairweather 700x28 for a while last year (same actual size). The Fairweather tires are significantly smoother at the same pressures. Those tires don't feel as spritely as the Contis, but the ride is sooooo smooth. I generally run about 90 PSI. That's 6-6.5 bar - can't read the psi on my SKS pump. Fairweathers have a lighter casing and lighter file tread than Paselas. From what I can surmise, they are equivalent to the Compass tires with the 'regular' casing.

GP4000s are a very light tire. Probably best not to forget that. Killed one tire on a sharp rock just the other day, and another a year ago on some sort of metal strap road debris. That said I find them fairly resistant to glass cuts, unless it is raining, in that case they get kind of sticky. I've pinch flatted once - on rocky pothole.

The pana/Fairweathers seem tougher to me. I rode a fair bit last summer on very rocky gravel roads with my bike loaded for camping, and had not problems at all. Kind of surprised me. I had tried to get some fatter tires at an rei on the way to my trip, but they only had junk, so I risked it with the fairweathers. It was a non issue.

While the contis handle well, I actually don't like the handling as much compared the the Fairweathers. Good grip but the feedback isn't as good near the edges of grip. They remind me of my conti car tires frankly. Grip grip grip and then gone. I know exactly where I am with the panaracers. I should point out that I used to race and most locals seem to think I'm a nuts descender, though by norcal roadie standards I'm just average.

jyl

Classtime 

noglider 

I agree, I like skinwalls and perhaps whitewalls. But I'm willing to live without them. My tires came with a reflective strip, which I wouldn't seek out, but I'm glad to have it.

I'm also a crazy descender. Maybe I'll die doing that, but so far, so good.

I gather that if you ride narrow (25 mm or less), Michelin tires are excellent. I have no interest in riding that size any more.

Steve Whitlatch 

Two of my bikes are running GP 4000 tires. I like them a great deal. I also like Veloflex Masters and Vittoria Corsa clinchers, Veloflex being my favorite but not by much. If I pick up a bike with brand new cheap tires I will pull them off and upgrade to one of the three. Life is too short to ride cheap tires.

rm -rf

I use GP4000SII 25mm on wide rims, so they measure 29mm. They take a lot of the vibration out of rough pavement, like chip-seal. Smooth and fast.
I was using the same tires in 23mm, measuring 26mm on my rims. Those were 80-85 psi front, 95-100 psi rear. Those tires weren't any faster, and only weighed about 10 grams less for each tire. I'll keep the wider version from now on.

GP4000SII measured 29mm wide: at 170 pounds, I use:
65 psi front
80 psi rear.
For fast group rides where I might not get warning on some potholes, I'll go 70F 85R. But this 65F 80R is just as fast.)
I've occasionally ridden them without checking the pressures after a few days, and they seem fine. It might be 55-60 front, 70-75 rear. That's pushing my luck on pinch flats, I think.

(I set the front to be 15% less pressure than the rear. A 45%-55% front-back weight distribution is closer to 20% less in front, so this is a little more air in front.)

Pinch flats:
No pinch flats for 2.5 years, then I got two this year. Both were large, egg sized sharp gravel chunks, when going 25-35 mph downhill. I can slam very rough railroad tracks with my usual pressures and never pinch flat there. I think the debris size, shape, and bike speed all contribute to pinch flats.

Back in the day, with 25mm GP4000S on standard width rims:
95 front
105-110 rear.

RobbieTunes

I've been riding GP4000's for years, now the S-II, and they are simply excellent tires.

At NAHBS in Austin, I asked the Conti rep why did they not put chili compound in the GP4000, and he said "we'd be crazy to make our best all-around performance tire last even longer, but I'm sure the market will demand it."

At NAHBS in Charlotte, it was so.

Once you find the tire pressure sweet spot for you on them, they're sliced bread.

Essthreetee

canklecat

I planned to try the Conti GP 4000s II a few months ago when I had to replace a damaged Schwalbe One V-Guard (sliced up by shards of broken slate scattered across the road near a construction site) -- the latter is no longer made and the Schwalbe Pro One is designed for tubeless.

But during an Amazon search a deal popped up for a pair of Conti Ultra Sport II for under $30. I'd wanted to try 700x25 on the Ironman so I got the pair. Turns out I like 'em almost as well as the Schwalbe One, although I'd prefer 700x23 up front -- the 25 felt a bit splashy, too wide for the narrow rims.

After six months the Ultra Sport II seems to hold up at least as well despite lacking a puncture resistant layer. I see fewer cuts than with the Schwalbe One (very grippy and fast rolling but somewhat fragile tires). Not many punctures with either.

There's a measurable but insignificant difference in rolling resistance. I'm not fast enough to tell any difference between the two.

The Ultra Sport II feels good at around 80 psi on the rear -- comfy on chipseal without feeling sluggish. My average speed over familiar 20-30 mile routes is a little faster now, but that's due in part to better conditioning and a few tweaks to the bike.

I'd definitely try the GP 4000s II if I could justify the cost. So far the Ultra Sport II hits my sweet spot for value and performance. After the current front tire -- still a Schwalbe One V-Guard 700x23 -- wears out I plan to replace it with a 700x23 Ultra Sport II. I'll keep the 700x25 US II for the back.

Andy_K 

If you order from a UK website you can generally get GP4000S II's for around $35 each. Once in a while Bike Tires Direct/Western Bike Works sells them that cheap. I've got these on most of my bikes. I haven't found anything else that's near as good for the money. The GP 4 Seasons are nice too, and come in a 700x32 size that's slightly wider that the 700x28 GP4Ks. The 4 Seasons are also available with a reflective sidewall, which isn't especially pretty but is nice for commuting after dark.

seedsbelize 

Ultra Sport ll here too. Also because of the cost factor, initially. I have a set of open paves to compare them to and, though they are slightly less cushy, they are plenty good enough. And, after a few years with wider tires and lower pressures, I've come back to 25mm, and am considering buying 23 for the first time in 20 years,

verktyg 

@noglider I've found that bike tires ride smoother after about 50 miles, clinchers, sewups alike. I figure the cords in the casing have to break in a little. The tires on bikes that haven't been ridden for a while smooth out after about 10 or so miles too.

About half of my clincher bikes have Paselas, the other half have the old 700c x 23 Continental Grand Prix tires. I started riding these Conti's on my "sportier" bikes about 2008. They were selling on special at $42 each. A year or so later I got 24 of them on a closeout at $12 each.


One problem that I found with these GPs is the sidewalls easily get nicked, especially when hitting narrow pavement separations that run parallel to the direction of travel. I boot them with Tyvek plastic sheet from mailing envelopes.

I don't get that problem with Paselas. Most of them are 700c x 25 so the wider tires have something to do with it, but I figured out that the treads on the Paselas wrap further over on tho the sidewalls that the Conti GPs.

I've been running most of my tires at 90 psi for the past 45 years with very few flats.

verktyg

noglider 

@verktyg, it's funny that you say that, because people complain about sidewall tears on Panaracers more than on Continentals, or at least that's what I've picked up on. The only sidewall injury I had was with a Pasela, but it was totally my fault. It was not seating right, so I grabbed it with a ChannelLock to put it in place. The tire was usable but not for long. Remember that tire seating tool that was made with a big ol' channellock? Too bad it's long out of production.

Salamandrine 

I heard that about Paselas too, and it gave me pause about 3 years ago when I was looking for some new tires, but I bought some anyway. I had no problems at all, and that includes a lot of mixed riding on gravel. I never tried riding them with low pressures though, perhaps that kills them.

The boutique Panaracer made tires I tried after that were even tougher.

Anyhow, IME GP4000SII are the least tough, but usually tough enough. The tread is so very long lasting, and the two that I've mangled I definitely go my money's worth out of before they met their fate.

noglider 

@Salamandrine, how do you figure they are the least tough?

jamesdak 

If it helps, a majority of my bikes have the GP 4000 s II tires on them. I see maybe one flat every 5000 -8000 miles. Obviously, for me they are tough enough to ride everyday. But I'm also easy on my tires.

I had one brand new tire get a chunk torn out of it when riding a gravel section of a mountain climb. About twice the size of a BB and down to the white casing. Never knew it happened and descended with the tire like that at close to (or maybe over, don't remember) 50 mph. I patched it with goo gone and it's back in service. In fact I rode it yesterday because it's now on the Serotta.

I also locked up a rear for a second on a descent when an idiot pulling a travel trailer did a U-Turn in front of me. Finished the 10 mile or so ride home only to realize I had worn about a 2 inch long section of the tire down to the inner casing. Got home no issues with it.

So for me these are my go to tires. Wear well, tough enough, fast enough, and comfortable enough.

Colnago Mixte

My go-to high performance road tire, currently. I'm not saying that because I've tried all the others and find these to be the best, because I haven't. I guess I've simply used them for a while, and have been satisfied enough not to start trying other brands. I used the $20 wire bead Conti Ultra Sport (IIIRC the name) for many years previously, and was always happy with them.

One major complaint I have had about GP4000s is the ridiculous amount of thread that comes off these sometimes. I had it wrapped around my front axle, it was everywhere, and afterward I was afraid to use the tire because of the fabric hanging out of the sidewalls.

Anyone else experience this? Newer tires have not had this issue, but I did get a couple pair circa 2012 that gave me problems.

Salamandrine 

Mostly because I've lost two of them to sidewall damage in the last couple years. In similar conditions and over similar mileage, I haven't cut up a Pasela or Panaracer/Fairweather. Paselas are markedly heavier the GP4000 though, so that isn't a fair comparison. IIRC the Fairweathers are about 20g heavier - i forget exactly - and IME are more resistant to sidewall cuts.

I'm not slamming the Contis. They're still my favorite fast road tire. Just use reasonable caution. The sidewalls are very thin. They hold up fine under normal use, and the tires last a very long time for such a super light tire. Sometimes you just get unlucky though and run over something. It happens. I should point out that I ride through some pretty rough unmaintained roads with lots of rocks, potholes, gravel.

Colnago Mixte

You really need to stay on pavement or at least packed-down dirt. They don't do well at all in gravel, at least for me.