I have narrowed down my race tire to the Continental Sprinter Gatorskin Tubular and Continental Competition Tubular. I know the comp is faster, but I really like the puncture resistance and the reduced price for the gatorskin. Is the comp that much better???
Don’t know the exact numbers, but I’d say 8.5-9 minutes based on the extrapolation of 2.87 ^(FTP/mass x crr + nerd factor of 3.4 aerobars) which I ran in my head.
millions of men raced billions of miles without gatorskin tires for hundreds of years
and gatorskins are hella slow
good way to equalize a training partner if they are too fast for you to keep up
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I use Gator Skins in the winter when I ride indoors. I don’t even need a trainer, that’s how slow they are.
for racing the comp is better because they do have puncture protection to
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Are they really that much slower? I am an average cyclist. I would say my avg speed on the flat would be around 37 kph over 80k. Is someone like me going to feel the difference? I ask as I use Gator skins and they seem to be the only tyres I have tried so far that can take the roads around here (Denmark, flint - razor sharp flint!). I am doing an IM race here in August and would love to have the fastest tyres I could get for the race but I dont want to puncture! I had TUFO (came with the bike) and they wouldnt get past 200km in training. I tried Bontager (not sure how to spell) and the same issue. Gators I have ridden for around 500k now and they seem as good as new with only a few small nics. Sorry to hijack thread but I have been looking for the “perfect” tyre and so far Gators are it - now you say they are as slow as a slow thing in honey…damn
if you want a fast tire and no punctures
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get a fast tire like a bontrager aero TT or vittoria evo CX 320 tpi
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break it in for a 100 mile or so on clean roads or a trainer
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enjoy
aside from the very very fastest, most delicate tires, most of them are reasonable on durability when new.
also don’t run over stuff =)
if you take a vittoria evo cx with 1500 miles on it to a race, well yeah it might be pretty delicate by that point
The only thing for me is the PSI. I have Planet X wheels and they have a warning on them saying dont inflate tyres above 125 (I think its 125). Should I ignore that warning and get a high psi tyre? I guess the harder the tyre the more resistant it will be to punctures from small sharp flint??
IIRC it’s not actually faster to have much over 120psi anyways–you wind up bouncing more. Also, your handling will go way down. I’m sure someone will chime in with the actual numbers, but don’t worry about going over 125.