Continental GP5000 32mm Tested as a Gravel Tire

OneSpeedMark wrote:
I spent this past September riding Terra Speed 40mm tires in Spain. First Girona, then Andalucia. I would have liked to have my road wheels along, especially for the Terra De Remences grand fondo, but I was consistently impressed with how fast they were, and how well they handled the Girona singletrack and very lumpy gravel in the Alpujarra. 

Save for the a potential fast wear issue, mentioned above and something I am now monitoring.

I put in a request to do some gravel tire testing without tubes.

Zerort wrote:Then there are the Panaracer slicks 32 (35s and 38s) which are by far the fastest gravel tire I've run (I've tried everything mentioned above and more). At $50, they are the gravel champs. Nothing even compares.

I've used the 38 mm GK+ slick and the 36 mm SB Pro enough to have an opinion  I like the GK+ but the SB Pro has better puncture resistance, longer tread life, and doesn't tramline.  I don't race or use instruments so I can't tell if there's any difference in rolling resistance.  The dimensions and weights are close.  The GK+ is indeed attractively priced but the longer life of the SB Pro offsets the cost.

Zerort wrote:Then there are the Panaracer slicks 32 (35s and 38s) which are by far the fastest gravel tire I've run (I've tried everything mentioned above and more). At $50, they are the gravel champs. Nothing even compares.

As a side note, I've never ridden them in mud conditions but if it's dry, I've never had a traction problem cornering or steep climbs.

My wife and I use GK+ slicks as our road/"groomed gravel" tires.  They are very fast.  But any gravel roads that are slightly rutted from high vehicle use (camel humps) they get kinda sketchy on the off-camber stuff.  I can still ride fast, it's just very unnerving.  You can feel that slick tire wanting to push down the side-hill....   even if it's not super pronounced.  This is the crossover point for me to go to something with a little side-tread, like the GK SS. 

The 650b Maxxis Ramblers are like a MTB tire in these conditions.  Total confidence.  You can ride all out on the side of a steep rut.  And they are nearly as fast on flat, groomed gravel as the GK+.  Kinda amazing.

chas wrote:

Well, I can't ride the terra speed all the time as they wear out so crazy fast (maybe not if you only ride gravel, but I ride a mix).  

They are the fastest treaded tire (according to BRR), but for better tread life and puncture protection, I'm thinking the Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H, or the Michelin Power Gravel are a better choice (for me) as the difference in rolling resistance is negligible.  

They do wear crazy fast and that could quickly become a cost factor when doing many miles.  I had noticed the same but then thieves solved the issue for me by stealing the bike they were mounted on.  O.t.o.h. I believe there's a definite tradeoff between hard-wearing compounds and low grip vs soft compounds, high running costs and higher grip.  I remember a 4 month experiment with Hutchinson Sector tires -on a road bike- in 32 mm.  Great in dry conditions, fast rolling, almost no wear at all.  But a death trap in the wet.  Zero grip when cornering/braking.  I normally almost never come off but with those I crashed 3 times, on my daily commute that I can ride with my eyes closed, on pavement.  3 times it had rained.  After the third crash, with a helmet that had taken a serious hit but did its job, I took them off and binned them even though they almost looked like new after 4000 km.

Xenophon wrote:

They do wear crazy fast and that could quickly become a cost factor when doing many miles.  I had noticed the same but then thieves solved the issue for me by stealing the bike they were mounted on.  O.t.o.h. I believe there's a definite tradeoff between hard-wearing compounds and low grip vs soft compounds, high running costs and higher grip.  I remember a 4 month experiment with Hutchinson Sector tires -on a road bike- in 32 mm.  Great in dry conditions, fast rolling, almost no wear at all.  But a death trap in the wet.  Zero grip when cornering/braking.  I normally almost never come off but with those I crashed 3 times, on my daily commute that I can ride with my eyes closed, on pavement.  3 times it had rained.  After the third crash, with a helmet that had taken a serious hit but did its job, I took them off and binned them even though they almost looked like new after 4000 km.

I took a good look at my set and was stunned to see how fast the tread is wearing.  I started the season with Terra Trails and switched over mid-season, so the Terra Speeds do not have many miles on them; maybe 500 at most.  1000 miles max before they wear out?

John wrote:

I took a good look at my set and was stunned to see how fast the tread is wearing.  I started the season with Terra Trails and switched over mid-season, so the Terra Speeds do not have many miles on them; maybe 500 at most.  1000 miles max before they wear out?

Sounds about right.   :-(

John wrote:

I took a good look at my set and was stunned to see how fast the tread is wearing.  I started the season with Terra Trails and switched over mid-season, so the Terra Speeds do not have many miles on them; maybe 500 at most.  1000 miles max before they wear out?

They wear IN quickly, but they don't wear OUT super fast. I know that sounds silly, but I have well over 1k on my first pair. I was kind of mad seeing how worn they looked after one ride, but they seem to stay in that middling worn state for a long time. My second pair isn't quite to 1k, but has the entire 5 days of Oregon Trail, Gravel Worlds 150 and quite a bit more on them and look great. 

dangle wrote:

They wear IN quickly, but they don't wear OUT super fast. I know that sounds silly, but I have well over 1k on my first pair. I was kind of mad seeing how worn they looked after one ride, but they seem to stay in that middling worn state for a long time. My second pair isn't quite to 1k, but has the entire 5 days of Oregon Trail, Gravel Worlds 150 and quite a bit more on them and look great. 

Great feedback!  Thanks.  do you think they wear faster on road or gravel/dirt?  I presume road and half or more of my miles are are roads getting to and from gravel.

dangle wrote:

They wear IN quickly, but they don't wear OUT super fast. I know that sounds silly, but I have well over 1k on my first pair. I was kind of mad seeing how worn they looked after one ride, but they seem to stay in that middling worn state for a long time. My second pair isn't quite to 1k, but has the entire 5 days of Oregon Trail, Gravel Worlds 150 and quite a bit more on them and look great. 

I had about 700 miles on my pair before the bike was stolen.  At the time I thought I'd get maybe 1200 miles out of 'm.  I rode about 65% (average condition) pavement, 35% gravel on them. 

For me, any tire that lasts for under 1300 miles falls into 'crazy fast wear' but I commute on my gravel bike and clock up about 7500 miles/year so at the rate of one pair (or at least the rear tire) every 1000 miles that sticker goes up pretty fast.  Having said that, it's a thin line between 'fast wearing but grippy' and 'hard wearing but slippery in wet conditions' and a visit  to the ER or a new bike isn't exactly cheap either.

John wrote:

Great feedback!  Thanks.  do you think they wear faster on road or gravel/dirt?  I presume road and half or more of my miles are are roads getting to and from gravel.

Sorry, but I don't have a guess for that and it falls outside of knowledge area. 

Xenophon wrote:

I had about 700 miles on my pair before the bike was stolen.  At the time I thought I'd get maybe 1200 miles out of 'm.  I rode about 65% (average condition) pavement, 35% gravel on them.

I had at least 1200 miles on my first pair and did a dry CX race on them in September. The knobs are pretty low, but it did what it needed to for my usual mid-pack cat 3 finish.

John wrote:

Great feedback!  Thanks.  do you think they wear faster on road or gravel/dirt?  I presume road and half or more of my miles are are roads getting to and from gravel.

Road, undoubtable.   Much of my "gravel" is as hard as asphalt, and they wear very fast on the road (and hard pack).  I think 1,000 miles would be generous (rear only).  They wore twice as fast as my GP5000 tires, and even that is generous.  

chas wrote:

Road, undoubtable.   Much of my "gravel" is as hard as asphalt, and they wear very fast on the road (and hard pack).  I think 1,000 miles would be generous (rear only).  They wore twice as fast as my GP5000 tires, and even that is generous.  

That is pretty strange because their 'black chili' mtb tires seem to last forever.  I can't seem to wear out my rear Raceking Protection and I kind of want to try some new tires.  

ccand51997 wrote:
That is pretty strange because their 'black chili' mtb tires seem to last forever.  I can't seem to wear out my rear Raceking Protection and I kind of want to try some new tires.  

"Black Chili" might refer to a family of compounds, some softer and some harder.  I'm pretty sure a compound optimized for pavement wouldn't be ideal on dirt and vice versa.

I don't think there's anything -outside the marketing departments- as a compound optimized for gravel.  First of all because the term 'gravel' can cover almost anything and you can't optimize for that.  Pretyy sure that what's considered 'gravel' where I am won't be the same as in, say, AZ.   Imo it boils down to softer compounds that -all other things being equal- wear faster for more grip and harder compounds that intrinsically wear slower but offer less grip.  All the rest is in the carcass design and the tread, not the compound.

Different compounds can also have different hysteresis (energy absorption) which will affect rolling resistance.

ccand51997 wrote:
That is pretty strange because their 'black chili' mtb tires seem to last forever.  I can't seem to wear out my rear Raceking Protection and I kind of want to try some new tires.  

Not sure about that.  Again, this wears almost  50% faster than my gp5000 tires (or maybe more accurately the GP5000 lasted at least 50% longer).  Both are "black Chili"   I'm thinking if I only ran single track with them, they could potentially last forever (well, I do like to go sideways).

Just looking at the rear tire - this is probably about 750miles  The center knobs are smoothed down.  I typically run them about 40psi, so that the 5 rows of tread are in contact with the ground (basically the ones light grey below).
 

If ya still want them, they are 20% off.
https://bikecloset.com/product/continental-terra-speed-700-x-40-cream-sidewall-fold-protection-tr-black-chili/?mc_cid=a44abac3c2&mc_eid=d24b336ec6

chas wrote:

Not sure about that.  Again, this wears almost  50% faster than my gp5000 tires (or maybe more accurately the GP5000 lasted at least 50% longer).  Both are "black Chili"   I'm thinking if I only ran single track with them, they could potentially last forever (well, I do like to go sideways).

Just looking at the rear tire - this is probably about 750miles  The center knobs are smoothed down.  I typically run them about 40psi, so that the 5 rows of tread are in contact with the ground (basically the ones light grey below).
 

 

Mine have 500 miles and look like that, just a bit less worn in the center.