Continental unveils the "strongest" and "fastest" ever Grand Prix 5000 tyre models

Pot00000000 wrote:

Wow, you lot really are a bunch of toxic pricks. 
If you don't like GP5000s or can't afford them, shut up with the moaning and buy something else. 

Wow, you seem nice

Im lovely, but every week, every product it's the same old moaning and bickering. FFS go ride your bikes.

Pot00000000 wrote:

Im lovely, but every week, every product it's the same old moaning and bickering. FFS go ride your bikes.

You are correct. The tone on road.cc at the moment is very sour.

The people are revolting.
They must be beaten until their mood improves.

You could always stop scrolling at the end of the article and avoid the comment section. No-one is forcing you read other people's posts (or add a pointless, shitty reaction to them) so it seems you're just as much of a prick as anyone else.

Do you have an opinion on this news item?

As a serial offender, your opinion isn't valid. 
 

edit for autocorrect stupidness 😀

Ta.

And then this one.

Better than being a cereal killer 🥣 I suppose 😃.

That's a little Frostie...

Auto correct is a little flaky 

Bollox

I've tried them all. I'd never leave home without my Conti 4 seasons.
Doubt I'm paying 90 quid for one of these new fandangles though. I only pay 80 quid for the wife's 4wd tyre.

The GP4000 was never a high end road racing tyre, because it was a clincher, and the pros all ran tubulars. It's only recently that the pros are moving over to tubeless, and it's only recently that Conti have made tubeless road tyres, so it's only recently that the GP5000 has become known as a top end race tyre. Before that, both were just brilliant, fast tyres for weekend warriers.

In marketing terms, these two new tyres makes a lot of sense. The GP 5000 is a very well recognised branding, with everyone knowing that a tyre with that stuck on the side is going to be a fast tyre. If I was Conti, I'd want to capitalise on that, which would need to be through selling more tyres, and thus a growing range of tyres with that branding.

But this isn't a massive range expansion. There has been a TT version of the GP4000 or GP5000 for some time, so it makes sense to make a TR version of that. And then, why not a tougher version for those who want to go fast on less than ideal roads or compacted gravel that would/could result in punctures if running the standard version of the tyre.

Maybe these new 5000 AS tyres are a spiritual successor to the Grand Prix tyre which was more robust than the GP 4000/5000 tyres?

Also shows that the confusing naming strategy from Continental is not a recent thing!

Adding the word "tubeless" to a road bike tyre seems to validate a price hike by £20-30. Funny how MTB tyres aren't priced as crazy despite all being tubeless compatible and requiring much more materials....

The amount of material in the tyre is pretty much irrelevent. The type of material plays a part, but ultimately it R&D and manufacturing costs.

Road tyres need to deal with much higher pressures that an MTB tyre, so the contruction needs to different, and I'd imagine the R&D needs to be more rigorous.

Does this justify the difference in price? Other than needing to cover those extra R&D costs, there is also a quote somewhere that goes something like 'I'll decide how much something is worth, based on people are willing to pay'.

joules1975 wrote:

The amount of material in the tyre is pretty much irrelevent. The type of material plays a part, but ultimately it R&D and manufacturing costs.

Road tyres need to deal with much higher pressures that an MTB tyre, so the contruction needs to different, and I'd imagine the R&D needs to be more rigorous.

Does this justify the difference in price? Other than needing to cover those extra R&D costs, there is also a quote somewhere that goes something like 'I'll decide how much something is worth, based on people are willing to pay'.

I concur.. however I'd argue against R&D costs. These for Conti would be an ongoing operational cost and unless a completely new product which requires additional human resource and or new testing equiptment or machinery.. clearly in this case none of which would apply then 'R&D' costs should not factor. 

We are talking about a pro level tyre here. A tyre the hour record was broken on. There are cheaper tyres out there if you aren't needing the margianal gains these tyres offer. I'm using Hutchinson Challengers, good all weather tyres that are less than £30 each. I'm sure the GP5000 All Seasons would be lighter and get me to work a few seconds quicker. but I'll pass.

Pro-level means nothing in context, as at the 'Pro-level' they used the same £50 tyres as I did a handful of years ago.. History tells us that the 'only' justified expensive tyre were ten year old matured hand crafted by Belgium hobbits in darkened caves tubulars at the 'pro-level'. 

I brought a couple of £70 Conti tyres the other month and felt sick about it... now it seems the goal posts have just been moved again. 

We're led to believe that a £50 tyre now costs £90 (not the hour record one, the other one) and we should be pleased about it.

I know 'capitalism' and 'if peope will pay it' and all but the % increase seems a bit of a mickey take even with Brexit and material costs taken into account.

peted76 wrote:

Tyres have gone up in price in what four years from £50 for a premium top of the range item to £100.. that simply cannot be written off by blaming brexit and the price of materials. 

It's bollix.

GP4000's had an RRP of £60 - £70 10 years back prior to brexit but were being sold online for half that. Brexit happened then they weren't.

Plus inflation / Sterling wobbles / pandemic etc etc and here we are. Luckily there's plenty of cheaper options out there 

Just to counter your fake news, you can buy a pair of gp5000s for 60 quid, or 30 quid a tyre.

The ones that are expensive are the 28mm variety favoured by overweight cyclists - the 25s (and 23s) are reasonable. Tubeless has always been a scam and more fool you if you have tubeless setup.