Continental Gatorskin - Wire Bead, Non-Tubeless Road Bike Tire | Tough Urban & Touring Tire for Daily Riding - PolyX Breaker, Duraskin

These replaced a set of Bontrager Race something or the others that came stock on my 2011 Trek 7.3 FX. I couldn't tell you the exact model number because I am trying incredibly hard to forget that they even exist. They were possibly the worst tire known to man. I am convinced that they are forged in hellfire by Satan himself and then given an ancient voodoo mummy curse before they are stretched onto the equally treacherous stock Bontrager Nebula wheels(which I just recently replaced with Mavic Kysrium Equipes). I endured the Bontragers for 500 miles before they got swapped for the Contis, which now have 508 miles on them. I figure I have a pretty good grasp of each to make a fair and grounded comparison. On my 31 mile training ride on the Bontragers (pumped to max @70psi I think) I was averaging about 9mph, 10 if I was lucky, and topping out at about 20 to 21mph on downhills with lots of effort. I felt like I was fighting the road to get any kind of forward motion and with every sharp corner I could feel death's cold stare glaring at my back wheel as it skipped precariously across the pavement at low speed. Acceleration was like stirring cold molasses in Antartica and the ride made you feel the road in a really really bad way. Not to mention they would flat out if you breathed on them wrong. With the same size tire (700 x 32c) in the Gatorskins on the exact same ride (pumped to max @101psi) I average 12-13mph easily, I could probably do 14 if I really wanted to feel the burn. Downhill I have cracked it open to 28mph and felt like I still had room to go faster. Uphill climbing performance is extraordinary; I can't believe the rate, power, and speed, I can now conquer hills with. Not to mention I can do 3 mile blasts on flat land at 22mph without even feeling like I am breaking a sweat. Sticks like glue in the corners at high speed even with my big 260+lbs butt creating inertial havoc. I accelerate like a Ferrari from a dead stop, ride like a Mercedes Benz over anything short of a tree stump, and feel as indestructible as a 97 Toyota Land Cruiser. I have ridden over broken glass, through construction sites, and whatever else the Los Angeles city roads/beach bike paths could throw at me in the last 508 miles and only have 1 gash where a REALLY large piece of glass was able to penetrate the rubber but not the Kevlar shank. This truly is an absolutely amazing tire! So amazing that today I bought a set of 23's to replace the 32's because my LBS had a crazy sale on them. I wanted to go to a smaller size anyway. WOW! I am scary fast now. Yet, I feel just as confident and as stable I did on the 32's. On the short ride I was able to get in before I was obligated to do life things I got her up to 27mph on flat land without feeling like I was putting an ounce of effort into it. The 23's took a lot less air to pump to get rock hard and I can run them up to 120psi. I have them at 117psi right now, and they feel fantastic! I can't wait get some distance with these babies. As far as installation is concerned they aren't any harder to stretch on than any other tire I have installed. I have tire levers and that Kool Stop thingy. I got both tires installed, inflated, and mounted in under 10 minutes. Even if they were as painful to put on as some have stated, I think whatever agony they could possibly cause to mount is well worth what you get in return; a truly remarkable tire. For an overall training, commuting, or just plain cruising tire you really can't get any better. These Gatorskins have transformed a decent bike into a stellar ride. I have no doubt in my mind that they will do the same to yours. Happy shopping and mind the directional arrow when you install! UPDATE-I have logged 200 miles on my 700x23c Gatorskins in the past week and all I have to say is WOW! I managed to lob 26+ minutes off of my 31 mile training ride, now average 16 mph over the course of that 31 miles (where before with the 32s it was 13.5), and am quickly becoming one of the fastest riders on the path according to Strava. I can pass most riders with ease and the REALLY fast guys on fancy road bikes I have no problem keeping up and pacing with. That was just after the first long ride on them. My times are incrementally faster every time I get on the path. Amazing! I strapped my old 32c Gatorskins to my girl's Trek 7.3 FX I got her for Xmas. It too came with the same Bontragers mine came with, and the difference is night in day in her performance. Mind you she is fit, small, and light but nowhere near as a conditioned rider as me. Within an instant she noticed a HUGE difference between the tires. She now ride as fast as me (and sometimes faster) where before she was struggling just to stay within a few lengths behind me. She now loves long rides where before they were a physical chore. Most importantly, she feels confident and safe on her new tires. If you have the upgrade bug, forget the expensive crankset, forget the quick shifters and derailleurs, forget the fancy pants wheels. You want a major upgrade that's worth more than every penny you throw at it, buy these tires!!!!! NOW HIT THAT BUY BUTTON!!!!!

I ride fixed in an urban environment and was infuriated with constantly having to deal with small pin-hole flats. I eventually had to start carrying around a flat-repair kit in my bag (patches, tube, levers, mini-pump), which definitely helped in terms of not getting stranded, but it was still a hassle having to take 10-15 minutes out in public fixing a flat or two a week, plus the weight of all the extra kit. After doing some research on puncture-resistant tires and asking around town I finally decided on the Gatorskins and I have to say I love 'em. The day after I put them on I had to do some riding around town and after all the snow we've had recently the roads have been in less than stellar condition. In addition to the ubiquitous threat of broken glass, I also was dealing with tons of gravel, pot-holes, and left over road-salt, conditions where, with my old tires I'd have flatted out no question. The Gatorskins took these conditions like a champ and provided better rolling resistance than my old tires at the same time. I think the real moment that converted me to the Gatorskins was when I came to a stop at an intersection and a second later heard a good sized rock come shooting out from under my tire with a loud "Pyooo!" Just a day before that sound would no doubt have been a quiet, defeated hiss. As I said before, the puncture resistance isn't the only benefit to these tires, they roll great and they stick like glue. If you're trying to pull out long skids these tires are definitely not for you, but if you're trying to get from going to stopped in a hurry then I can't recommend them more. To sum it all up, great tires, they'll handle all the nastiness that torn-up city streets can throw at you, roll with little resistance, and stop on a dime. If you've got the money it'll be hard to find better. EDIT: 1 Year Update. With one year and countless miles of daily riding behind me I never had a single puncture flat with these tires, and that's not for the road's lack of trying. A quick visual inspection shows a slew of pock-marks, gouges, pin-holes and long, deep scratches in the rubber, but not a single thing managed to get through. In fact, the reason I'm updating this is because I'm back to buy another tire, I rode the back one down to the kevlar.

I'm not an avid bicycler, but I do commute to school everyday (16 miles total) in a densely populated, and therefore dirty, area. The winter's arriving so I wanted new tires, andI was also tired of replacing tubes since my other tires weren't thick enough for the urban debris. After all the rave reviews, I thought this tire could possibly save me if I were drowning so I gave it a try. I have replaced tires before, but NOTHING came close to the level of difficulty of putting these tires on the rims. I initially thought I ordered the wrong tire but that wasn't it. It took an hour and a half to successfully wrench the tires onto the rim--deploying sundry metal items as levers since the classic plastic tire levers weren't working--and two busted tubes as I tried to fit them on with the tire and the tire pinched a hole in them from the tight fit. After letting the tires stretch for a while, it still was just as difficult to put the tires on the rim in order to replace the tubes. Nevertheless, the inauspicious beginning ended, and I love the new tires. I, out of necessity, must sometimes ride over garbage and glass, and these tires don't flinch. Rain, no problem. Uneven gravely roads, no worries. Good traction even though it's a simple design. And the best part: Made in Germany. I love German quality (I lived there for a while), and these tires have already proven themselves. However, the winter and ice are yet to come, so I might amend my review in a few months time...

I keep a mountain bike to do some very light trail riding, riding with my kid and sometimes to commute to work as a change up from my normal commuter. I had some typical wide tires for 26" wheels and no complaints. I decided to try these out for kicks, being a big fan of Gatorskins on my normal commuter and shopping bike. The first thing you'll notice is that they are very thin, just barely wider than the rim. If you're using V-brakes this will make changing tires a snap as you don't have to mess with pulling the brake cable through the whatchamagig every time to be able to get a fat tire to pass through the pads. You just make sure there's no air, pass the wheel through the brake pads and then air up. The width of these seems to be equivalent to a 700x28 tire. I rode them on a flat but rocky and dirty trail with my kid and they are not good tires for that, bad traction, as you might expect but you can do it in a pinch. Where these these excel is making your bike go fast on pavement. I did a four hour ride with them this morning and passed up quite a few road bikers. I love that. I put the psi up to 100 (the label says up to 120 but I have a hard time trusting that) and although there's less shock absorption these things really roll. The downside is that my bike really looks ugly now. There's something about a thin little tire like this on a mountain bike that just looks wrong and sad, like a starving kitten. Maybe I'll get used to it someday. Update: I decided to go with some slightly wider tires with a little bit more traction for some mild dirt trails I ride on occasion. Serfas Drifter 26 x 1.5 to be exact. I give up a little speed but I get more shock absorption and better grip on dirt. The 26" Gatorskins are great tires but if you are putting them on a mountain bike you might want to ask yourself why not just ride a road bike.

These are excellent tires, of course. Anyone researching tires for a road bike knows that Gatorskins are top of the line in durability, and Continental knows they can charge an arm and a leg for them and people will pay, cuz it's worth it. They grip well and have a super cushy ride, too. My only complaint, or thing to be aware of, is that they are in fact much larger than other tires marked the same size (e.g., Serfas Seca). By larger, I mean they take up more space. The 27 x 1 1/4" Gatorskins I bought were wider and they gave me a larger wheel diameter than any previous 27 x 1 1/4" tires I've put on this bike. So much so that the rear tire rubs against my rear caliper arms! Rather than throw out the tire, I replaced the rear dual-pivot caliper with a rusty old single-pivot caliper in order to make enough room for these tires. Honestly, these darn tires cost more than the brake calipers, so that's how I went. And the Gatorskins do ride so beautifully.

Bike- 2001 Trek 7700FX- Topeak Rack installed with Topeak Bag with Panniers. Primary use- 20 mile round trip commute to work- last 4 miles of return trip home are severely uphill. Replacing 700X35 (old) Bontrager select tires. Wheels- Bontrager Select. Where I ride- Orange County CA. I just changed my terrible (and original to the bike) old Bontrager Select 700X35 tires with these 700X25 Gatorskins. So far so good. The difference is astounding in terms of rolling resistance.I have picked up about 1.5 MPH on the uphills and roughly 2.75 MPH on the flats. So being a bike commuter I am very pleased with this additional efficiency. I should have done this long ago. Need to ride them some more in order to determine the puncture resistance. Will update in one month with that additional data. One note- They were a real pain to install. Brought to local bike shop to install front tire after blowing thru 3 tubes in the install attempt. The bike tech installed the tire in less than 30 seconds, so it's clearly not the tire, it's me. 3/21/13- DURABILITY UPDATE- 250 miles on tires and zero flats and zero concerns. I'm keeping them inflated to 115 pounds. These are really excellent tires for the money IMHO. 12/8/13 DURABILITY UPDATE- I don't know, probably 1500 miles on these tires now- NOT ONE FLAT!! Awesome right? 3/26/14 Durability update- Almost one year to the day the back tire is gone. The belt is showing through in one area, which could be from skidding a little down some steep hills on my commuter route- basically slowing from 35-36 MPH in a short period- skidding occurs. That said, still very pleased, not a SINGLE flat, and got about 2K miles of it. Front tire still OK. Just ordered two more.

I purchased these tires for my Trek 7.1 FX in July 2014 in order to shave some time off my 5 mile each way bike commute to work. Before this, I had been rolling with the stock Bontrager 700x35c Invert Ks that came with the bike; I liked them just fine, but they had a large diameter and I thought this might be holding me back from achieving greater speeds. My morning commute had been stuck around 21-22 minutes for 5 miles, and I thought a pair of narrower slicks would do the trick. I also wanted something that could survive some rough patches of road and assorted debris; the Bontragers were generally durable tires, but I had gotten a handful of flats on both tires with them due to bits of wire and other hazards. After reading countless reviews, articles, and forum debates, I purchased These Continental Gatorskin Ultra 700x28 tires. First thing I noticed was that I COULD NOT get these tires on my rims, even after struggling with my tire levers. I took these to my local bike shop to have them mounted (very nice of them to do, considering I did not buy the tires from them). After that, wow. I love these tires. They definitely did help me shave a few minutes off my commute: I am now doing the morning 5 miles consistently in the 18-20 minute range. These tires have been very grippy on the road, even on sharp turns and in wet road conditions. I have rode over 500 miles on these tires now, and while they don't have all the center seam rubber fringes anymore, they are only just starting to show signs of wear. No flats during this time, either. I had a scare when my tires fell into a crack in the path and had some wicked-feeling scraping along the sidewalls, but no apparent damage. I would not be surprised to get at least the 2,000 miles that many reviewers have claimed. The only unknown at this time is how these tires will perform on crushed limestone and packed dirt; both are surfaces on which I ride on occasion, but I have not had the opportunity (or perhaps been brave enough) to ride on with these tires. I expect lowering the PSI would be needed for these types of surfaces. I will update this review in the future to report on how these tires are holding up in all conditions. ***UPDATE 07/26/2015*** Just over a year and 1500 miles after first putting these tires on, I am still very happy with them. They perform great on pavement, and I've never had any worries about anything while I've had them on. No flats. The tires don't necessarily look new anymore, but I can tell they have a lot of life left in them. I did take these tires off for the winter, and when I went to put them back on my rims for spring it was still very difficult and I was afraid I was going to have to take it to the bike shop again. But I managed to do it myself (I had to use levers). I have done some limited riding on packed dirt, where the tires performed better than expected, but I have done 99% of my riding on pavement. And the tires (and my bike as a result) are really excelling. If I needed another pair of tires for this bike soon, I would not hesitate to buy another pair of these. ***UPDATE 08/25/2016*** I am still riding on my original of 700x28 Gatorskins, and I am about to replace the hybrid bike that they are on with a proper road bike. I have over 2,500 miles on the tires and zero flats during their lifetime. Amazing. The tires are still in great shape and, were I to continue riding this bike, I would not be surprised if I were to get another 500-1,000 miles on them (judging by how they look). A few threads have come loose from the sidewalls and peeled off, but nothing alarming; the sidewalls still look good and are not bulging. I have tackled pavement, dirt, and crushed limestone with these tires, and they have handled everything with no problem. I can say with confidence that I will be purchasing a pair of Continental Gatorskins for the new road bike (probably 700x25). I cycle with a larger group these days, and I tell anyone who is looking to try a new tire to give Gatorskins a shot. So, if you are looking to try a new bicycle tire...give Gatorskins a shot!

Update: After 6000+ miles on Gatorskins, and only two flats-- one was a goat-head thorn, the other a piece of metal that cut the tire-- I believe these are very, very good tires. I ride with a guy who was riding on another (major, popular) brand and he was having flat after flat. In all the times I've ridden with him, probably ten flats, at least. He switched to these tires, and no more flats. So far I have one Gatorskin with about 4500 miles on it, and I would guess it could do another 1000 miles, give or take, before it needs to be replaced (assuming no cuts, etc.). Considering what I paid, that works out to less than one cent per mile in tire costs. Everyone that I know who rides on these tires likes them. I do a group ride weekly and there are a lot of riders using them. These are fairly serious riders, probably averaging 4000+ miles per year. Collectively-- considering all the Gatorskin riders in the group-- we're probably talking 20,000-30,000 miles/year-- I can recall two or three flats with Gatorskins in the last two years or so. To put that in perspective, 40,000-60,000 miles total, with two or three flats. Not bad. [...] Got the 27x1-1/4 size for my vintage 1983 road bike, and after 700 miles on them, I have to say, great tires. Knock on wood, but I've not had a single flat. I do road and class I trails, and they seem to be wearing very slowly, in spite of the fact that I am a borderline clyde (just south of 200 lbs, currently). Search on the bike forums, you'll find these tires are well-respected and popular, apparently with good reason. Great tires. I could not be more pleased with them. They mount easily. I was even able to get the one on the rim without tire levers. I used them on the first one I mounted, then decided to try without levers, and it worked. Since I don't have a lot of practice working with flats, except on other people's bikes. Be careful when you mount them... the rotational direction is specified on the sidewall, but it's hard to see unless you're outside. I'm not convinced that they are really directional, but just the same...

Sono ottimi pneumatici. Li usavo negli USA dove bucavo in continuazione e questi hanno risolto la situazione. Al momento di cambiare quelli della mia fissa in Italia, non ho avuto dubbi.

Good tyres. This is a replacement set for my current ones which are quite well worn.

耐久力良い 長く使える

Bon produit

Très satisfait par ce pneu Continental que j'ai utilisé pendant deux ans en tout chemin et sur route sans jamais crever et ave c une usure modérée. Dommage qu'il est dur à trouver dans le commerce.