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6 comments
My commuter (MTB) has bombproof Michelins because I can't be doing with having a puncture going to work.
On the jazzy wheelset that is for summer use on my road bike I have GP5000 clinchers. The combo of a light(ish) wheelset and those tyres mean that they are kept for best. So just a couple of rides last year as I got them in the autumn. No issues.
The journeyman wheelset for my road bike now has the hand-me-down 4000iiS pair that were on the jazzy wheels. My "Audax" bike has Conti 4 Seasons. I've never had a single you-know-what in four years and thousand of miles on either of these tyres. For a commuter I'd suggest 4 Seasons if you can get them next time.
I run the 25mm GP4000 SII and get very few puntures unless I do something stupid like 20mph on gravel and hit a big stone becuase I was doing a Froome! I do however run at much lower pressures which may be where the issue is coming from in that the tyre doesn't give enough and too much load goes into a small area when you hit a small stone. Try somewhere nearer 1 psi/kg as a benchmark and see how it goes.
I've been running the 28mm clinchers for several months. I had one pinch flat through my own carelessness and suffered a carcass puncture on my commute as we headed into winter due to a tiny shard of glass getting through. Overall though I've been pretty impressed with how robust they are for such a fast tyre. They don't make any claims to being the best for puncture protection but they are a top performer in terms of low rolling resistance and a bit tougher than other fast tyres. I think this is why they consistently get the "best all rounder" accolades.
On my cheaper commuter I went with Continental Ultra Sport iii as a more budget option. They have a slightly better puncture resistance score than the GP5000 (on the bicycle rolling resistance site) but I've had worse luck with them and two punctures in two days put me right off them.
A few years ago I ran Michelin Pro 4 Endurance and never suffered a puncture. Great tyre. Thing is, for every person who never suffered a puncture on a particular tyre there'll be another who had loads. A lot of it is sheer luck.
Re the budget bike it has tubeless ready rims so I took the plunge and went tubeless: Hutchinson Fusion Performance. I got the LBS to set them up. So far so good, a nice tyre that you can run a bit lower pressure and still feels fast. And no punctures! They do require topping up with air more regularly but I'll take a few strokes of a track pump before a ride over sorting a puncture in the cold and wet. It'd be worth checking to see if your wheels are tubeless compatible. I was suprised it was a feature of a £500 bike (Boardman SLR 8.6) but I reckon it'll be pretty much standard before long.
I've been using GP5000 for about a year. About a month in I had a big gash in one of my tyres while on the daily commute and had to get a new tyre. But since then I've had no punctures in the front or rear in the next 4000km. Admittedly much of this was in the summer.
Maybe it's just a bit of bad luck. I got mine from Mantel.com which was the cheapest place to get them at the time.
Like most high end/race tyres, they're not especially puncture resistant, though I've only had a couple of punctures on them. The problem comes in winter as the wet weather washes all the crap onto the roads. Tubeless might be an option?
Perfectly normal in the winter on wet commuting roads. I've had far, far worse on tyres with a lot more puncture protection than these (which I have on my best bike).
they may be ok for summer commuting but for winter then you need to search for some tyres with a bit more protection. If you like to ride reeasonably fast then some sort of mid weight tyre...else something heavier/more puncture resistant.
I combine a midweight tyre with some tyre liners on my commute as it's notorious for punctures in the rain yet I want decent speed due to a long commute. Also I check the tyres after every wet ride...sometimes I'll dig out 20+ bits of flint and glass from the tyres![2](https://cdn.road.cc/sites/all/modules/contrib/smiley/packs/smilies/2.gif)