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conti ultra gatorskins vs. 4-season

jdd

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Hardest Crash
Jul 26, 2008
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What with a winter sale, I'm shopping tires. I know that there have been many positive comments here about the gatorskins, but the 4-seasons seem to be a better version of those. Higher TPI, lighter (if the given numbers can be trusted), and hopefully equally durable or more so:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/continental-grand-prix-4-season-fold-road-tyre-2-and-tubes/

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/continental-ultra-gatorskin-road-tyre-and-tube-set/

These are for a light touring bike and I'm going 28mm, if that's important.

Comments?

John D.

PS--magazine review of the 4-season: "Looking like the Conti Grand Prix 4000 it's based on, the GP 4 Season is has more protection with winter work in mind. It has the same bead-to-bead slash resistance of Continental's Gatorskin, plus two Vectran breaker strips to keep sharps from penetrating the tread.

It's harder to puncture than the racier Michelin Pro 3 or the Gatorskin and rolls a bit quicker than the latter. Conti claims good tread life, and if you can swallow the price it's viable as a winter training tyre. For competition it's more reliable than racy.

In conclusion...
Works as a deluxe winter training tyre or a reliable race tyre

Rating: 4/5"
 
My gators are 2 seasons old. 0 punctures. I did a race with an 8 km dirt climb and also ride dirt roads often. They roll a bit slow, but that's what I want. When I put my race tyres on it is that much better. Best training clincher ever.
 
I'm down with almost exactly the same results:

Conti Gators - great punc resistance - at least compared to the softer race / event tires. And even you do punc they seal fast and tight. They are a slow roll. Gotta say they feel like cotton candy on the road (the clinchers anyway) compared to another tire like the GP's , Ultremos or EVO's. But hey - they have massive skid-ability-into-the-threads.

Conti 4 Seasons - definitely a faster roll than the Gators. And if you're puncs come from the std crap like staples, glass chunkes, nails, etc - nothing will really help (except not riding Michelin or Panaracer altogether) And they stick better than the Gators.

Anyway - the more I ride on clinchers, the more I really hate them all. I'm gonna strip down my last fixedgear wheelset and build it back up with TB25's so then I have Alloy tubs for my training / winter all around. Soyo 'Greens' which are basically the same as Vittoria Pave's cost less than 2000yen a wack. Today was another nail [sic] in the coffin for clinchers for me. I spent over an hour trying to get a clincher tube to seal up and the same issue on a tubular would have been 60s and on my way.

My gators are 2 seasons old. 0 punctures. I did a race with an 8 km dirt climb and also ride dirt roads often. They roll a bit slow, but that's what I want. When I put my race tyres on it is that much better. Best training clincher ever.
 
I`m perfectly happy with my 4000S. My recent spate of punctures was my own error at not spotting the brake pads had started rubbing the sidewall as they wore down. No probs with the 4000S and I ride over all kinds of rubbish and hop on and off the kerb, so from my point of view, an even more puncture resistant tyre would be overkill.
 
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