New tyres in the post....

[tiswas-steve]

Im quite excited,after vast research online for a fast,puncture resistent good weather tyre, ive ordered a pair of Conti GP4000S. They get great reviews from most riders online, good price too on Parker-international.
I,ll let you know how I get on with them this coming Sunday.

 

[festival]

IMO they are the best allround quality tyre .reliable,hardwearing,fast,grippy. You should notice a difference (depending what you have used previously)

 

[HLaB]

They're on my best bike they are quality tyres. My brother p'tures a bit with his but he loves them too but touch wood, I've only p'tured once on the Etape Caledonia when the route was covered in 1000 carpet tacks!

 

[tiswas-steve]

Cheers guys, been riding with ultremo ZX but find they cut up too easy having put a hole that big in it the inner tube pokes through when pumped up.

 

[Jdratcliffe]

looking at these also so would be happy to hear how you get on with them.

 

[DCLane]

Cheers guys, been riding with ultremo ZX but find they cut up too easy having put a hole that big in it the inner tube pokes through when pumped up.

Found exactly the same this week.

Not intentionally copying you, but I price matched the Parkers ones with Evans and have bought from them instead on Monday.

 

[tiswas-steve]

Right !! received the Conti,s yesterday,excited like a big kid,put them on last night ready for a test ride this morning.First impressions was that they roll beautifuly,smooth and true.Did notice that I felt more road buzz than my winter gatorskins but put that down to thickness and width ( conti,s are 23mm, gators felt like 33mm lol) First real test was a decent little descent down College Hill and I absolutely flew down it.

Road leveled out and then it happened ........POP !!!

Looking the tyre over,couldnt see any holes or tears,so already late for work by this time I fixed the puncture and pumped up the tyre with my pocket race to just enough to get me to work where I could give it a proper look over during my lunch break.
On closer examination, I noticed a hole in the inner tube under the tube where the tube makes contact with the rim tape. Now im putting this down to maybe the tube pinched when I put the tyre on last night.
On the way home I nipped into Brixton Cycles to pump the tyre up to the proper PSI. I got to about 100 PSI then.......... POP !!! (yup,again)
After a cab ride home (yes, from now on I will carry two inner tubes) I got indoors to once again see what had happened.This time I noticed a whacking great tear in the side wall of the tyre and a matching hole in the tube.

My question is .......... should I put this down to experience, swallow my pride and get another GP( this time put the bugger on carefully) or are Conti,s flawed to punctures ?

Please help, cos im making a decision tomorrow by 4pm to get another one or not ......... cheers !!

 

[Jdratcliffe]

hope not just decided on some gp 4000s for my commuter picking them up today if i get the chance.

 

[HLaB]

tiswas-steve, you were just unlucky. I've ha no problem and bee relatively p'ture free in thousands of miles with narrow GP4000s, 4 Seasons, Gator Skins, or my original (circa 2007) based wired GPs, although after 4 early sidewall failures on the new base GPs I've switched to Mitchelin Krylions, quite a bit cheaper and marketed as durable and reasonably grippy. I've only had them 691 miles, so I cant really comment on durability other than they still look good and haven p'tured yet! Grip wise they seem good certainly better than the rubino the rear replaced, maybe not quite as good as the GP4000s but that's marginal.

 

[BSRU]

I noticed you went from 33 to 23, so two questions, what is your rim width and are the tubes used ok for 23's?

It has a chart for the recommended tyre widths for given rim size.
http://sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

Although, these are recommendations.

 

[zizou]

I found the GP4000s to be prone to punctures in the wet. Wet roads are always going to be difficult on a tyre if there is any debris about but my experience of the tyres didnt really match up to all the great reviews they got.

I really liked how they handled (particularly in the wet) and i had no p* problems in the dry so if i had 'sunday best' bike then i'd be happy to use them on that, but i only have the 1 road bike and living in the west of Scotland inevitably means doing a fair amount of riding in the wet so they arent for me.

 

[Cyclist33]

Have to say, as fast as they were, I rode on folding Conti GP4000s for 12 months a few years ago on a daily commute and had roughy a puncture a month, they were just too skinny and light. And at a cost of £60 the pair.

Replaced them with Michelin Oriums for 8 quid each from Decathlon, and rode the same commute. One puncture in one year. No discernible loss of pace either.

You payz yer money...

 

[tiswas-steve]

Ok guys, thanks for your feedback, I'm running the 23,s on 18mm rims so thats ok according to that chart (cheers BSRU)
I'm gonna take the plunge and get another GP but if they play up I'll def look at an alternative tyre.

Once again you CC chaps come up trumps !!
Thanks once more. :-)

 

[BSRU]

I'm running the 23,s on 18mm rims so thats ok according to that chart

You sure, it shows that 17mm rims are big for 23's.
Why not just buy 25's, you will not notice any difference?

 

[DCLane]

Mine arrived today from Evans who price matched, but I get cashback as well.

Took the all-red Ultremo ZX's off and only the one puncture has actually gone through. I'm going to contact Schwalbe about them - if nothing comes of it I'll put the pair away for special events.