ContinentalGatorskin Black Edition 700c Road Tire(Return to Product Page)

I do a lot of shopping around for everything I buy and these were rated the best tires for my fixed gear application. I found the best price at bike tires direct online. The black edition gatorskins look great on my bike thanks to them not having yellow lettering that I was absolutely not going to allow on my red and chrome bike. The tires are still going strong and would recommend them to anyone looking for a lighter weight ultra durable tire.

Gator Skins have been my go to tires for a number of years now. These black version of the tires are not only cheaper than the gold label version but I was also able to get the bigger size for my e-bike. Just like the version I have used on my regular carbon fiber road bike, I expect to get many miles on these tires without flats.

Mostly a road bike rider averaging 135 miles per week on the typical trash and glass strewn roads in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. My previous tire of choice was the Continental GP5000. If I lived outside of a big city I likely would have stayed with that tire. While the GP5000 had a slightly smoother ride and may have even been slightly faster (emphasis on slightly), I eventually became tired of getting flats. I would estimate that I easily get 60 to 70% fewer flats on the Gatorskins than on the GP5000. The evidence is anecdotal, but that's all got. I went with the black edition strictly based on appearance.

I got these for their resistance to blowouts. I read many reviews that rated them highly for that. I live and ride in Florida, so "cold" weather use is the low 40s. Thus far I've put 1,375 miles on these tires. The rear one is just showing signs of wear, but it looks only about 1/3 worn. So my estimate right now is 3,500-4,000 miles. Not bad.

These ride well and corner well in wet conditions. I've had no indication of slippage at all when the roads are wet. I do ride on some roads that have been sealed, and I've previously slid out on other tires when they were wet. These hold tight.

I've run over road glass, not on purpose, but the recycling truck near me dumps little piles of glass here and there and I've hit a few. The tires show no signs of being cut or punctured. Previous tires would have been flat on me.

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.

This Gatorskin tire is a bit cheaper than the standard Gatorskin, but it has the same components. I have over 3400 miles on these and they don't look like they have worn hardly at all

This tire will give you confidence to ride through most road debris. Goat heads,glass and most garbage!!! I ride So Cal desert and mountain roads which can have a lot of goatheads. Had a piece of glass make its way into tire which is rare. Black version looks better than old version. These tires have noticeable resistance and weight but overall well worth it. Great protection and longevity!!!

I race on other tires but I train on Gator Skins. They are puncture resistant and long lasting. The larger sizes of 28 and above are easier to put on and off wheels which is a huge benefit. I highly recommend these for training purposes.

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

Superior ride, handling and durability.

I've been using this brand for 10+ years.

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.

I've been buying Gatorskins for awhile now and really like them. They are durable and well made. Knock on wood, I have not had any flats with these. These are the first Blackwall versions I've owned and they go well with my Cannondale Bad Boy Disc.

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.

I replace my Bontrager R3 tires that are crazy speedy but often flat so tried Gatorskin and only one thing they feel like they are connected with magnet to the ground super safe hope flat would be less with them but only disadvantage is speed, they are totally lazy comparing with R3 if you can compare those two tires. Very happy with my purchase traded speed for comfort.

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.

Nice fresh rubber gatorskins in 28mm. Smooth!

When I first got into riding a number of months ago, my friend forwarded me the BikeTiresDirect email regarding this offer. Although my current tires were perfectly fine, I decided the deal was too good to pass up. This week I had a blow out in my rear tire and subsequently changed out to my new Gatorskins previously purchased. I am glad I did. Great price back then and they were easy to install. First ride is today. I am looking forward to it.