I mostly ride on a flat paved trail that has some boardwalk sections, and not to mention some real gators. So the ride is not as smooth as riding on the road, nor is it a fast-paced course. I had the bike shop install the tires to save me that frustration of installing them myself, and then went for a ride. I was very pleased with the smoothness of the ride. I could feel it. These are some great tires and worth the price.
I'm the type of rider that is very used to GP5000 (mounted on my campys wto 45)and after reading reviews about gatorskins tires I decided to click the button, this tires are tough!, I chose this tires for my winter/rough roads to prevent flats and they haven't disappointed me , I mounted them on a spare wheel set (bontrager aeolus 35)which was not difficult, they rolls good , they are not as fast as GP5000 but the intention is prevent flats and keep me training on winter.
Used to buy the Conti 4000's which were really suitable for the paved trails I ride. But, I could count on a few flats EVERY month. Florida sand thorns. Switched to the Gatorskins and no more flats! Been through about 5 pairs of these and they really wear well. I do rotate them to get most miles. Very happy.
Ride in Hawaii over littered roads, either up or downhill with plenty glass, tire wire, pig guts and the occasional discarded virus mask. Mounting them (32s) on Swiss 470ds was nearly impossible (old man in 70s) but so far (400miles) no problem. They do, however, seem taller than wider so I've taken to riding them at lowest pressure. I more concerned with comfort than speed. Hope I never have to find out if, as one reviewer stated, they loosen up with time. As usual, great deal from BTD, and black is beautiful
The tires mounted without issue, I did a bare-handed install. So far so good, I've only put a few hundred miles on these tires in both wet and dry conditions. The tires ride smooth and seem to have good traction, while not picking up road debris. I'm very satisfied with them and I would recommend them
Great puncture resistance. A quite light tire though really. Only weighed slightly more than the Continental 5000 tires I purchased. I will keep buying these, especially with the excellent sale prices that bike tires direct offers occasionally.
This is my second set of Gatorskins. My first set lasted 10 years and I ride a lot. I have been a Bike Tires Direct customer for over 10 years. Always returned to BTD as they have great pricing, quick delivery and NO issues. I did recently run into a defective item and reached out to BTD. This (In my opinion) is where the rubber meets the road. Their Customer Service was OUTSTANDING!!!. They immediately responded and promptly sent a replacement. I will note that that the defective item was NOT the fault of BTD and could have happened with any company/product. The manner in which BTD handled this tells you that it puts its customers first. BTD is a pleasure to work with and I will continue to buy from them.
Gatorskins provide excellent protection against a large percentage of flat-causing debris on the road. No tire is perfect, but these really offer everything you could hope for. They may be slightly heavier than optimum, but really aren't that many grams heavier than GP4000s, which are a terrible tire, wear-wise.
I usually get about 2500-2800 mi on rear Gatorskin, and over 6000mi on front tire.
I'm 180# and majority of roads I ride are pretty smooth pavement.
I made the switch to Gatorskins after my first puncture with the tires that came with my TREK Domane. I have never had one issue or puncture with them over thousands of miles of riding. I don't race, I'm a self challenge riders who typically does 2 50 mile rides and 1 70 mile rider per week. I live in Chile and some of the roads I'm o are major-league chip seal with lots of stuff embedded in them and don't get me started on what is on the roadside. All this to say, I LOVE Gatorskins and BTD always has great deals.
-Longevity A+
-Durability A+
The only thing that I don't like about them, is after a little while strings of material from the tire start floating away from the tire. It concerned me at first until I read that Conti's do this. I snip them and keep going. It's just an annoying thing.
Both my wife and I have these tires on our road bikes - both of which are Trek cycles. Years ago (maybe ten) we started using Gatorskin tires after multiple flats using another brand of tire - which clearly was not as puncture resistant as the Gatorskins. They usually last use a couple years - I ride about 1,500 miles a year and my wife rides about 1,800 miles a year.
I had purchased the Continental Gatorskin "Black Edition" 700c x 25 tires when they were offered for a sale price from Biketiresdirect. I figured at that price, buy them now for the future. I recently had a chance to sell my older Trek 2300 road bike (that I haven't been riding) to a friend, and I decided to mount the Black Edition tires on the Trek before I sold it for him. It really helped make the bike in like new condition! He was very pleased to see these quality tires on the bike.
When I initially mounted the Black Edition Gators on some DT SWISS R460 rims, it was a little tough and required pretty good torque on my levers. After about a month of riding on them, I noticed the directional arrow on the side of the tire was wrong. So here was a good opportunity to correct it and see if the tires had stretched out a bit. Too my surprise, they had definitely loosened up. Now they are not only very easy to get off the rim with my wimpy levers, but I can get them back on with bare hands ! ( Just start putting the 2nd bead of the tire on the rim at 180' opposite of the valve stem and finish at the valve stem).
I have them on my rain bike and they handle very well on Portland's leaf-slop streets.
These tires ride extremely well, and provide good traction under a variety of weather conditions. They are very durable. I have not had a flat since I started using these.
I ride an average of 500 miles/month. The tires don't even seem to wear. Never had a flat yet. Since riding with these I have not purchased any other road tires. I have several bikes and use various sizes of 700c and all are excellent. I prefer the folding tires
I've run original gatorskins for years as I do a combination of 40m commutes and long weekend rides. Biggest complaint with originals was sidewalls unraveling before tread wore out. Black edition seems to address that issue, at least has no visible mesh on sidewalls like original.
Beyond that, with about 1K miles, wear is great and ride is about the same (overall good). Seems the tread is less sticky, but just my visual impression - no issues with loss of traction.
I've been using Gatorskins for years because they are durable and smooth rolling. The Black Edition rides just like the originals. Hopefully,these will continue the Gator reputation for durability. The only difference so far is the lack of a brown waffling pattern on the sidewalls. Don't miss that one bit. Reduced sale price made these a really good value.
