I bought the 28mm 4season to replace 4 year old 28mm Gatorskins. The Gators lasted over 10000 miles and still look usable. My bike shop said the rear tire looked thin. I put the 4 seasons on, noticed that the back tire was hitting the frame, made sure it was on right, still hitting. Took it down from 115psi to 80psi and it just barely gets through. Im still going to use them and hope that a little wear gives more clearance so I can pump my tires up! I give it a 3 because it is larger than 28mm, which is the max size for my domane. The gators had plenty of clearance even when brand new. Why the size difference, conti?
Durable and good traction.
I put two new pairs of 28mm GP 4 Season tires on our bike's to stop the flats. My wife has ridden 2981 miles on her tires and she has had just one flat. It used to be you would average (on a NEW tire) about a flat for every 1000 miles you would ride (the flats would increase with the miles on the tire). My original GP4 rear tire lasted 4814 miles with 2 flats - one was a seam leak in the tube (that's not the tire's fault) and the other one was caused by a very tiny thorn which was losing about 15 lbs of air a day. I did get all the use I could out of that tire because you could see a few little places of the white cords under the tire's flat center tread before I changed it out.
I do not rotate my tires because years ago a racer told me if you blow out the front tire you are going to go down - if it is the rear tire you can still have control and ride 'er down to a stop so always put your best tire on the front axle. So I always move the used front tire to the rear wheel and put the new tire on the front. That original front tire that went to the rear position now has two tiny places in the worn flat center that are starting to show the white cord below. That tire is about due to be replaced so I will mount the front tire on the rear wheel and put a new tire on the front wheel.
The GP4 is a directional tire -- look for the rounded D's (with the cross hatches) on the outer edge of the tread butting up to the Vectran sidewall belts. The 14 short straight side of the cross hatched slanted D's should be facing toward the FRONT of the bicycle when the tire is correctly mounted.
That original tire that is now on the back has 8358 miles on it and it has had just those two flats I mentioned earlier. Today the front tire that will eventually go to the back has 3550 miles on it with no flats and the molded center line on that tire is still just visible. Most of our riding is on chip & seal, asphalt pavement but we also will get on chat, gravel and dirt lanes, too. I ride year round so I have ridden in the snow and ice down to 5 - 10 F. At those low temperatures about an hour or so is all I want. The GP 4 Season tires are superior in wet & the wetcold environments - just gear down and always keep a bike very vertical when it is very slick out.
After EACH ride we wipe the tires tread completely down with a cloth - this pulls all the junk out of the tread. You don't get very many sharp slivers that stick in the GP4 tread, unlike many other tires with softer compounds. I weigh about 190 lbs, my wife about 135. I believe this is the best pressure for ride, handling, wear & flat resistance on the 28MM tire. On both bicycles I pump the pressure up to 6 bars (87 lbs) in the rear tire and 5 lbs less in the front tire on both bikes. I loose 5 lbs of this pressure when I remove the air chuck from the tire stem. How much pressure does your chuck loose when you remove it? Have you ever checked that? So I am running 82 psi in the rear & 77 psi in the front tire. I could & should probably run a LITTLE less pressure in my wife's tires since she is 45 lbs lighter but I just haven't done the math yet. You know - you will get a better ride but with more rolling resistance. Just like life is, it has been said you have to give up something to get something Well isn't that the truth!!!
We have ridden about every ride here in the KC Mo area with the KC Bicycle Club. Rides that were all in the city, uptown downtown with glass, grates, railroad tracks, sand & everything else those city streets have for us. And the club rides out in all the surrounding countryside with gravel, thorns, cow piles, sand & chasing dogs - you know, those rural areas. This tire just simply takes everything on while you
Im a gravel cyclist for the most part, but I do a fair bit of training on the road, so I went in search a good compromise tire that handled well on road as well as some gravel, I decided to try these. And they did not disappoint!
Ive put these tires through ringer. Everything from smooth tarmac, rough gravel, sand, and some forest service roads that dont look like theyve been touched since the days of wagon trains. As to be expected, they lost traction in sand and really dusty gravel roads as well as areas of mud. But I knew that they would when I purchased them. My main concern was durability. And they went with me in places that would probably be better suited to at least a hardtail mountain bike. Not once did I ever get a flat, tear, or anything of the sort. Ive been incredibly surprised by the amount of abuse these tires could handle.
Just FYI, I ran the 32c with 50 psi front and 55 psi back.
If anybody is looking for a good all-rounder tire that they can count on, I couldnt recommend these enough!
15 months of riding, 4,000-plus miles, 700 x 28 tires, no flats.
I do wish Conti would again offer the all-black option.
This tire is excellent for winter training and dodgy roads especially for those training rides in the dark when you don't know what you might run over. It's no racing tire, but it's not sluggish, either. Excellent flat resistance. And it comes in a variety of sizes.
I love my GP 4000 Sii tires and have been using them for several years. I got these 4-Season ones for my fall thru spring riding, as that seems to be their intended use. I also went up to 28s for these and although they don't measure much more than my 25s when installed, I have run them with slightly lower pressures and the ride has felt very nice. While these are supposed to be tougher, I have to say that I've never had a puncture on any of my Grand Prix tires. I have however damaged them right down to the breaker before and I'm hoping this winter compound will be just a little more robust. After the snow has stopped and the PA roads have been cleaned up, I will switch back to the 4000 Sii. But for those days where I can get away from the indoor trainer during the off-season, these seem to be great choice of tire. The ride is very nice and the grip is excellent.
What can I say... these are good tires. Most of my friends use Conti's and swear by them. For me this is only second time I purchased these and I don't think I will again. I live and ride in and around NYC and within 2 weeks of popping these on I had a flat. Ok so everyone gets flats. True. However.... I have used Schwalbe's for most of my riding life (past 4 yrs or so) and I can tell you ... I RARELY, if ever, get flats. In fact I can't even remember the last one. I've ridden over 3000 miles this summer without even a whisper of a leak. The only reason I purchased the Conti was because I was about to ride my 4th or maybe 5th Century and noticed my tire had some cuts. So I thought better safe than sorry. Anyway....I've been riding Durano tires for the past 2 years with thousands of miles on them. The rolling resistance is very good, though maybe not quite as good as the Conti's but very close. So Conti users .. more power to you... I'll stick with my Schwalbe's anytime.
These came highly recommended for my somewhat rough country roads and occasional gravelcaliche segments of rides. Never had a flat on them. They are, however, a noisy tire, more so than Michelin, Vittoria, Hutchinson I have used. Grip was on par with other tires. Good tires but there are equally good tires that do not have the road noise.
I used these tires on my steel frame road bike to ride across Bhutan in 2012. Despite the rough conditions, I never got a flat.
Only had a few dry rides on these, but road use is great and smooth. Needed replacements for the stock tires on my 10 year old used bike purchase. Easy to mount using a couple tire levers (not my first rodeo however). Bought for the extra protection after getting almost a flat per ride on my other bike.
The only tire for any season!!
I've been using variations of the Continental Grand Prix tire for 30 years. I've used them, not so much because of the ride quality, which is fine, but the flat resistant durability has been outstanding. This new Continental Grand Prix 4-Season edition holds up well riding the rough farm roads in my area while still light weight.
Quality, Quality, Quality...ride could be softer, but ? After a 20- 40 mile ride in Florida 95 degree heat, I rely on Conti durability to get me home to several Kool Ones...
Ride about 2,000 miles per year and have used the GP 4-season for 15 years or so. I have had very few flats, probably less than one per year on average. Great traction and handling. Hard to beat this tire at the sale price.
I know these are highly reviewed, but I want to chime in. The day before my Reach the Beach ride (104 mi), I had a flat on one of my Specialized Roubaix (all winter, no problems). On close inspection, both tires were slashed up bad and chock full of imbedded shards of glass (so much I could have started my own recycling center!). In a panic, I ran over to my LBS, and they convinced me to get the 4 Seasons. Got them home, and couldn't mount them on my Shimano rims. Back to the LBS. Mounted, the ride was awesome. I have over 800 miles on them now, virtually all in and around Portland (which should now change its nickname from City of Roses to City of Broken Glass). There is not one scratch on them! Even the rear tire still has the seam running around the center! My only complaints so difficult to mount, and really hard, and I run them at 90 PSI. But if I don't have to fix a flat, who cares! Awesome tires!
I bought a set of these a couple of years ago for my road training bike. After over 3,000 miles, I've not experienced a flat. Rolling resistance is light, and they hold their grip very well, though they do get a bit sketchy in heavy rain.
I use this tire on road bike. I use it on asphalt surfaces 40 to 80 miles per week. Durable, low rolling resistance, flat free . Tread lasts for over 2000 miles. I am on my 4th or 5th set. I have not found a better road bike tire.
Usually used Gatorskins. These have a more effective looking tread. Also, with the Gatorskins, I hit something sharp and one of the belts within the tire broke and punctured the tube. Weird.
I've ridden in the rain, occasionally in the high 30s, but no snow. Anyway, so far so good with the 4 Seasons, but it's early.
I have the 700x28 mounted on Spinergy Stealth wheels on my tandem. They measured at 27.5mm soon after mounting. I wanted something just a little faster than Gatorskins without giving up too much reliability and puncture protection as handling the big bike on a flat tire can be a little bit dicey. I weighed both tires using a hanging scale and they both weighed exactly the same which I took as a sign of quality manufacturing.
