Are Conti GP4000s Direction-Specific?

Triathlon Forum
21

I have the Fulcrum Racing 5s as well as the Conti GP4000S. Sure enough, after this ordeal, I looked last night and my front tire is mounted correctly and my rear is backwards, haha.

Suprised the opposing forces haven’t ripped the bike in half!

It’s the rear that is on backwards, I’ll probably just burn through it on the trainer this winter and put a new one on in the spring in the correct direction.
Its funny you mention the trainer, I was thinking maybe if I get a trainer this winter I will put a trainer tire on so I don’t cook my GP4000… then the thought of having to replace the tire TWICE ended that idea!

22

That would garner large amounts of 4 letter words… 4000s aren’t cheap!

23

Checked mine, both backwards. F

24

Ok, well issue resolved. Here’s the story, I was trying to sort this out for my Dad… or should he just mount what he has?

hmmmm, decisions, decisions… I’ll leave it alone for now.

25

Yes they are
.

26

Yes they are.
It doesn’t really matter. It’s not going to stop you or explode or lose traction. IMHO conti just placed an arrow to get people to shut up about the direction.

27

The “shark fins” should be swimming in the direction of rotation.

28

yep arrows point fwd.

29

so I just bought my first set of GP4000s and so searched for directional threads and found this gem:

Absolutely irrelevant. Siping on bike tires does nothing except increase (albeit slightly) rolling resistance and decrease traction.

Check out Sheldon Brown’s comments: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires#tread

30

4000s aren’t cheap!

another good one from the time machine
.

31

Yeah it is a shame that for so long the best Vittoria tire has a tread pattern. I think that made it pretty bad in the wet.

so I just bought my first set of GP4000s and so searched for directional threads and found this gem:

Absolutely irrelevant. Siping on bike tires does nothing except increase (albeit slightly) rolling resistance and decrease traction.

Check out Sheldon Brown’s comments: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires#tread