On Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 5:48:02 PM UTC+2, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 8:45:36 AM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote:
My Continental 4 seasons came in yesterday and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to take my Campagnolo Siroccos out into the garage and mount tires in a couple of minutes. That tubeless wheel is still siting over in the corner with the tire only partially mounted. I will NEVER EVER get another tubeless rim again. They can shove their tubeless tires where the sun don't show and my intentions are to never believe gimmicks again unless they are far less physically demanding like my Garmin which changes the speedo from the front wheel to the rear and gives me all sorts of added information such as how many calories I burned - 36 miles and 2900 feet of climbing is worth one cookie. Lord help me!
I got an additional tool in the mail yesterday and took it down in the garage to try and mount the Continental GP5000TLR on to the tubeless wheel. The result was that it cracked the carbon wheel. So yet another reason to go back to aluminum clinchers and clincher-only tires. I now have four Aero carbon wheels that have either been destroyed by delamination from SLIGHTLY too much inflation pressure or been cracked from the mounting stress of putting these new "tubeless tires" on them.

Another thing - the first set of GP5000TLR's mounted slightly easier so I was running them for perhaps 800 miles and the cord was showing through. Now these are racing tires with exceptional traction and that should come as no surprise but be aware that they are NOT good for training or sport riding.

Perhaps this is why the normal GP5000 clincher tires are not very popular.. People who fancy themselves racers generally use sew-ups because the pros do and not because they know why the pros do.

The clincher GP5000 is the most popular tire on this side of the pond. From my experience they have excellent wear characteristics. My front tire already has done 11500 km and I replaced my rear tire after 4500 km after my first flat. I'm on my second rear tire now for 11500-4500 = 7000 km (yes I can't believe it myself) and it needs to be replaced. I will do that after my first flat. I have a new one ready from the beginning of this season; still waiting for that flat. Up to now it is exceptional dry this season.

Lou