Continental Grand Prix 4000?

Great tire.

Jim

abqhudson said:

Great tire.

Jim

Thanks for the review Jim 😄

Jaguar27 said:

Is anyone riding these? I'm just about to order a Pair but I thought I'd ask here first....

Thanks in advance!

I'm riding them, plus a couple of friends. No punctures, great grip, highly recommend.

Walrus said:

I'm riding them, plus a couple of friends. No punctures, great grip, highly recommend.

Thanks!!

A lot of people in these forums like the GP4000s. That's why I bought them about seven months ago. But I must say I have never liked them to the degree others here have. Primarily for three reasons:

1. Flats - These tires are supposed to be bomb-proof because of the hard shell kevlar lining thing but I got about 5 flats on the rear and one on the front over the course of about 1800 miles. You can definitely feel the difference in the construction of the tire but I was still getting flats. Maybe that's not a lot of flats but still...

2. Ride quality - The first ride on these tires I almost lost it in a corner on a fast decent. The bike started to squirm and fishtail. I tried to convince myself it was the frame and not the tires because I had just dropped $55 per on these sweet tires. But it was for sure the tires because I had never felt that squirmyness cornering on my Specialized pro tires. It wasn't like this all the time. The bike felt fine for the most part. It was just hard braking in a corner which was scary.

3. Sidewall issues - The sidewalls wear out on these tires quickly, but I have heard this is just the way it is with tires that provide such a good ride. I have a big lump on the rear GP4000 sidewall so I just bought a Hutchinson to see how that tire is.

All in all it's a decent tire, just not all it's cracked up to be IMO. But don't let my feelings negate all the positive comments about them.

Jaguar27 said:

Is anyone riding these?

I did. Two times. The second ride I got a huge hole in the sidewall. A friend had four punctures in a week. I haven't checked with him if he inspected the tire so maybe the last three was his own fault? Anyway his LBS told him they were [censored]. But on the other hand there seems to be a lot of people saying they are good.

Now I'm back to Mich pro race. I don't really know how the grip compares to the GP 4000, but puncture resistance seems great, never heard a bad word about them. Also the rolling resistance is much lower than for the GP 4000.

Approx 50% of my club using 4000's, 25% using pro2race (including me) and 25% for the rest.

jsull14 said:

3. Sidewall issues - The sidewalls wear out on these tires quickly, but I have heard this is just the way it is with tires that provide such a good ride. I have a big lump on the rear GP4000 sidewall so I just bought a Hutchinson to see how that tire is.

GP3000s had vulnerable side walls. Does not look like anything has changed.

Yep, great tire. Have been using all this past season with just under 5,000 kms. Good wear, great durability, good if you get caught in a bit or wet weather.

I switched after a couple of seasons on the Conti Attack tires. Little bit cheaper & just as good.

The older GP 3000 tires had great reviews. GP 4000 is only better.

I am well over 2000 miles on my GP 4000's and no flats or problems yet. I would definitely buy them again.

Thanks J, I appreciate all your comments, after all, that's why I was asking...it's nice to hear good and bad...

Just to let you know, my Six13 came with Hutches, they were a good very lightweight Tire...they jus wore out sooo fast obviously...plus I got tons of punctures...but there you go, lightweight performance and hard wearing puncture proof just don't go together in one Tire...

Thanks again!

jsull14 said:

A lot of people in these forums like the GP4000s. That's why I bought them about seven months ago. But I must say I have never liked them to the degree others here have. Primarily for three reasons:

1. Flats - These tires are supposed to be bomb-proof because of the hard shell kevlar lining thing but I got about 5 flats on the rear and one on the front over the course of about 1800 miles. You can definitely feel the difference in the construction of the tire but I was still getting flats. Maybe that's not a lot of flats but still...

2. Ride quality - The first ride on these tires I almost lost it in a corner on a fast decent. The bike started to squirm and fishtail. I tried to convince myself it was the frame and not the tires because I had just dropped $55 per on these sweet tires. But it was for sure the tires because I had never felt that squirmyness cornering on my Specialized pro tires. It wasn't like this all the time. The bike felt fine for the most part. It was just hard braking in a corner which was scary.

3. Sidewall issues - The sidewalls wear out on these tires quickly, but I have heard this is just the way it is with tires that provide such a good ride. I have a big lump on the rear GP4000 sidewall so I just bought a Hutchinson to see how that tire is.

All in all it's a decent tire, just not all it's cracked up to be IMO. But don't let my feelings negate all the positive comments about them.

Jim R said:

I am well over 2000 miles on my GP 4000's and no flats or problems yet. I would definitely buy them again.

Thanks Jim!

5,000 miles??!! that's incredible!! Thanks rem!

remdog said:

Yep, great tire. Have been using all this past season with just under 5,000 kms. Good wear, great durability, good if you get caught in a bit or wet weather.

I switched after a couple of seasons on the Conti Attack tires. Little bit cheaper & just as good.

The older GP 3000 tires had great reviews. GP 4000 is only better.

Thanks J, sounds like you had bad luck with them then...

I'm currently running Miches...they've been bullet proof, megamium 2's actually, the only drawback is they're heavy...I just got tired of punctures so I bought them just before my last century and left them on...I must have seen 40+ riders at the side of the road fixing flats, some riders I was talking to afterwards had two or three...maybe I was just lucky??

jstock said:

I did. Two times. The second ride I got a huge hole in the sidewall. A friend had four punctures in a week. I haven't checked with him if he inspected the tire so maybe the last three was his own fault? Anyway his LBS told him they were [censored]. But on the other hand there seems to be a lot of people saying they are good.

Now I'm back to Mich pro race. I don't really know how the grip compares to the GP 4000, but puncture resistance seems great, never heard a bad word about them. Also the rolling resistance is much lower than for the GP 4000.

I have never used these for 2 reasons-
1. price -here in the Antipodes, they are nearly $100 each !! although can import from UK at approx @$40
2. seen them on other riders' bikes....one guy came into LBS and bought a new pair, I said- "You have heaps of tread left, why are you replacing them?"...to which he replied, "check this out" and he removed the used ones,
fair dinkum the sidewalls looked like Trojans (USA brand- think Ansell, Durex, etc) he says "their sidewalls go bad too damn quick and these are now unrideable"

IMHO, Specialized All Condition and Armadillo are a good strong tyre and my first choice. Not all that heavy, don't listen to those who reckon their hard and slow. Also Vittoria Rubino are great.

Any word on the Michelin Krylion Carbons? Those are significantly cheaper and, although I haven't ridden them yet, my LBS is recommending them to me for my next tires because they are supposed to have a very supple ride and be very tough re: flats.

I have about 1000 miles on mine.

Just came back from a 300 mile tour. Riders on the tour semed to have alot of flats, but I had no problem. I was scared of flats since I could not bring CO2 cartridges with me on the plane and when I got there, they only had unthreaded cartridges and not the threaded cartridges I needed.

Only issue at first was they are set for 120 psi, my last tires were at 100 psi, so I needed to adjust to a slightly harder ride.

Jaguar27 said:

Is anyone riding these? I'm just about to order a Pair but I thought I'd ask here first....

Thanks in advance!

li rider said:

I have about 1000 miles on mine.

Just came back from a 300 mile tour. Riders on the tour semed to have alot of flats, but I had no problem. I was scared of flats since I could not bring CO2 cartridges with me on the plane and when I got there, they only had unthreaded cartridges and not the threaded cartridges I needed.

Only issue at first was they are set for 120 psi, my last tires were at 100 psi, so I needed to adjust to a slightly harder ride.

The 120 psi is the max pressure rating on the sidewall of the 4000s, not a recommendation. The box shows a recommended pressure of 110 psi, but I find they ride and grip sweet at 100-105 psi....at least for my 180 lbs.

Inflating 23mm tires to max pressure isn't even going to gain you any speed. I read recently that a study showed rolling resistance didn't really decrease above 105 psi, and going down all the way to 85 only increased rolling resistance an average of 2%.

The above sounds counter-intuitive. Suggest you try lower pressures, do some rollout or coast down experiments and see for yourself. The rock-hard ride may feel faster, but it really isn't....that's what I found anyway.

I have the Michelin Krylions on one pair of wheels - they definitley feel different to my Vittoria Rubinos, but they are very durable and the Vittorias sustain small cuts in the trad from glass etc - the Michelins look completely smooth. If you want no punctures & pretty low weight they are a great tire - the just don't feel as fast as or grippy the Vittorias - which are probably OK for racing & fast training. The Michelins are really a durable training tyre.