Hippy is right Conti tyres suck arse!

And considering it took me over 3 months to skid through a hardshell, but it's not been 2 weeks and I've nearly gone through a Gatorskin Ultra, they're quite different.

I've been rocking the Hardshells for six months. I commute to work every day and I've had one puncture in that time. (Which was a twisted piece of metal.)

Thumbs up.

hardshell is the commuter version of a normal gatorskin. OR hardshell is the hardcore puncture proof verison of an ultra race, but called a gatorskin?

Conti need to get some brand clarity.

Doubt I'll be skidding much, only places you really need brakes are on them mountains, skidding would probably result in epic narrow road/ mountain/ sheep related fail.

Also in need of a pair of 27 x 1 or 27 x 1 1/8. Looking at Conti Ultra Sport (possibly with panracer kevlar tyre liners) cause their pretty cheap. Just how shit are they grip and roll wise??

Hardshells were specified by me. Fixedgearlondon went through a lot of Tires and when I met Continental they asked me what would make a good tire for Fixed gear riding... The Gator Harshell and the Super Sport+ were the final out comes.

Hardshell is hand made in Germany, but the SuperSport+ has a lot more silica with a yellow breaker inside...

Think the supersport plus's will be my next fixed tyres. Have been nothing but impressed with the hardshells, the only slight negative is the lack of coloured protection layer, so it's hard to know when you're about to skid through it.

The Supersport+ is skiddier (Is that a word?) than the hardshells... They wont last you as long.
But it depends how you ride!!

o right. Hardshells it is then.
Anyone used a Durano Skid yet?

Just took delivery of normal gatorskins, and yes, have to agree the sidewalls and paper thin. I wouldn't use them inner city where there is glass a plenty etc, but out in the hills I reckon they'll be rate.

Continental tyres, as Hippy says are shite. I knew this years ago, yet rather than wait a few days for an internet delivery (this was over Xmas), I bought a pair Conti Cyclo-X tyres to finish off a build. 300 miles and 5 bastard punctures later, they've been replaced by a pair of so far (600 miles) perfect Schwalbes.

Utter shite.

been running std gatorskin 28's on my SS for 8 months comuting. One puncture (thorn). Great tyres

Had 2 gatorskin 700x23's fail in 2 days.

They just split.

Had their TopContact tyres on all winter and was quite happy with them but they're not quite 120psi slicks... Oh, and the sidewalls on even them are a bit pants.

So what do we conclude from all this then? As a forum noob I've been listening and listening well. Thusly I've steered well clear of Contis and opted for many other options such as Maxxis Refuses (only defeated by what must have been a machete hiding in a puddle), Armadillos (bombproof but a bit plasticky in feel).... but what of Contis? Is it a batch thing? Went home to Norfolk at the weekend and dropped in to Mick Madgett's bike shop (he's a legend and something of a guru, he wouldn't remember me but my first three bikes came from his shop and I get a bit misty eyed walking into that place) what did the man himself recommend? Gatorskins of course. Couldn't understand my prejudice, but happily sold me some Rubinos instead (so far so good, roll and grip brilliantly, spray less kak up my arse in the wet and cheap so no big cry if they do hit something big and sharp).

I am confuse! But Hippy (a man I've never met but am compelled to listen to) says no - so no it is.

Looking at this thread Conti seem to have reliability problems. Some people like me never have any problems with Contis whereas others have major fails like rhowe ^^

I'm on to my 5th set of ultra gartoskins without any problems. I ride them in on my road bike then kill them off on the fixed until the carcass of the tyre is showing through and chunks are coming off. Had about 3 punctures in the last 5yrs using them. Some people blame the tyre before thinking that the shit/cheapo tubes might be at fault.

my normal gatorskins have developed a problem, and they haven't even been ridden yet!
in 27 1 1/4" size.
must have not checked the inner tube very well, a small lump of grit stuck to it, so when inflated its almost busted through the uber-thin sidewall, from the inside :p
more like user error/ failure than product failure. But i'm pretty surprised by just how weedy the sidewalls are, probably should have been made of higher TPI material.

F*cking conti's.
I commuted 22 miles a day for 2 months on some cheap cross Scwhalbes (not hardcore puncture resistant - did have the liteskin strip or whatever though) and got 1 puncture.

I've used my contis for less than 100 miles and got two punctures allready. FFS

Why did you change to Contis?

I've had rubino pros in various states of decay on my road bike for about 3 years, no punctures. I had to do a little switch round of tyres and conti 4 seasons ended up on my road bike, went for a ride. got a flat tyre.
It might have been the glass that seemed to be everywhere i went, but it might have just been Hippy's curse.
The 4seasons were either free or cost price (I would never "buy" their clinchers)

Think about how the rubber might help cause punctures, consider that the case may not get pierced until the foreign object has gone round a couple of times, contis seem to pick up a shard and hold it there, maybe other tyres shed the sharp stuff earlier and therefore avoid as many failures.

I swapped worn right out Rando for a Gatorskin to match the front tub.
I skidded twice outside my house to see if it's all well and later on discovered a 1 inch slash.
Weird.

I changed to conti's because I changed bikes and needed to buy skinnier tyres - Made the assumption that there a big manufacturer and can't be any worse than schwalbe/specialized etc. Even the trade prices would suggest that there better quality ( Armadillo £7 - Gatorskin £13)

Now I'm not surprised why you were se weary of that 650c Conti I offered you:-)

Think about how the rubber might help cause punctures, consider that the case may not get pierced until the foreign object has gone round a couple of times, contis seem to pick up a shard and hold it there, maybe other tyres shed the sharp stuff earlier and therefore avoid as many failures.

Time to bring the flint catcher back?

Time to bring the flint catcher back?

And that reminds me of an advice given by someone on the bike forums to run your gloved hand on top of the front tyre to remove the flint.
Well, I've tried it, Sherlock, and was two months off my bike.

Running your hand over the tyre was something I learnt quite young. Especially on outdoor tracks.

Super Sport Plus... lasted quite a while with occasional skiddies, then absolutely imploded this morning. Full of glass and bits of metal and all cut up.

Had much better experience with the Sports Contact.

Had to buy an emergency gatorskin.