The reason I'm writing about them today, is that Wednesday night, before my ride, I noticed a bit of gouge in the rear tire. I worked the debris that was in it out, then rode on it anyway (it was only 15 miles). Then last night I replaced the back tire with another Continental Ultra Gatorskin tire that I bought on my lunch break.
The fact that I rode on a damaged tire for 15 miles isn't what impressed me. What impressed me was what I found when I pulled the old tire off my wheel. I checked it out, and while there were a few cracks and dings on the outside, the inside of the tire was still perfectly intact. Even where I thought there had been some of the inner tube bulging out it was still perfectly smooth.
This, of course gave me second thoughts about replacing this tire, but all it would take was another good shot by a sharp stone, piece of glass or pointy tooth from a piece of roadkill I never saw coming for me to have a blowout and losing untold minutes on the side of the road booting the tire and replacing the tube.
At first I resisted the idea of puncture-resistant tires because when you gain in durability you lose in something else, whether it is weight, rolling resistance or traction. But as I thought about it, I realized I don't race, don't try to keep up with any fast riders and waste too much time and money replacing lightweight bike tires.
To my surprise, it seemed I hardly lost anything when I switched to the durable Gatorskins. I'm as fast as I ever was (okay, this is probably due to fitness) have had no issues with loss of traction and at 230 grams (for 700x23), the Continental Ultra Gatorskin is anything but bulky.
So unless you weigh your food, ride on a full-carbon bike with all Dura-Ace (or SRAM red) components, and analyze your power output after every ride, you'll find value in the Continental Ultra Gatorskin tire.
The Continental Ultra Gatorskin is available from DirectBicycleParts.com, Bob's Bicycles, and REI.
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