mm718

I am new to road biking and could use some direction on tires. I picked up some Gatorskins a couple of months ago and I've had 4 flats in 1200 miles. Today, I noticed that there is about a 1.5 inch piece of tread missing on my rear tire. (Right down to the Kevlar or whatever that next layer is). I have skidded a few times but it's not something I am in the habit of doing...

Should Gatorskins last longer than this? What do you make of the missing tread? Shouldn't I be doing a little better as far as punctures? Should I move on to another brand or give Gatorskins another shot? Thanks.

10 Wheels

Wind and flats are all part of road riding.

How long a tire may last depends on many factors.

LesterOfPuppets

Skidding can kill road tires surprisingly quick. I wasted a Forte Strada about 1000 miles in by skidding.

They do make tires for skidding but they weigh 10 grams shy of what my XC race MTB tires weigh.

These, for example.

I run Mr Tuffies to reduce flats. More weight there too, though.

Barrettscv 

I normally get about 3000 miles to the rear when using a 700x25 size, I weight 200 LBS. At 3000 miles, the tire still has plenty of rubber left, but the tire no longer has a light bulb profile and develops a square profile. The tires also have a few abrasions to the sidewall, so I remove them at this point. I'll get a flat every 1000 miles or so on the rear. I've never had a flat on the front and the front can last 4000 miles or more.

LesterOfPuppets

A common method is to buy a new tire and put it on the front, then move your old front tire to the back. That way you always have fairly fresh rubber on both wheels.

elkootcho

My last set of Gatorskins were good for about 4000 miles (about a solid year of commuting)

mm718

Thanks, everyone. Now that I think about it I've skidded twice in the last two days. I think I was reverting to my childhood when we did this seemingly without repercussion (but probably not the best idea on a road bike). I'll rotate the front tire, put a new Gatorskin on the front, and add some tire boots to my seat bag. Learning as I go.... Thanks for your input.

wkg

Don't skid if you value your expensive tires.

johnny99

Tire life depends a lot on your weight and road conditions. But skidding is not good for tires. Why do you skid your rear tire anyway? Your front tire has much more braking power and almost never skids. I assume your bike does not have rear-only coaster brakes.

ColinL

On dry tarmac you should not touch the rear brake at all. It is very easy to skid the rear by accident and 90% of your braking power is on the front anyway.

FactVord

3500 and about 500-1k miles left.

aeonderdonk

I got about 2500 miles out of my last pair (before the rear one squared off). Only had one flat with them, I think they're great.

Drew Eckhardt 

Checking my repair log I put a new set of Gatorskins on about 5500 miles ago.

I had a spare wheel on with another front tire for less than 1000 miles until I got around to replacing the rim I bent on my favorite wheel so that should be 4500 miles which have left it round.

I put about 1200 miles on a Powertap wheel I need to rebuild with another tire, and swapped the Gatorskin out a couple months ago because it went flat overnight, I couldn't find anything, and just put another tire on in case it was tire tire wire so there was about 3500 miles on the rear which had it squared off a somewhat more than the GP 4 Season on the Powertap wheel with 1/3 the mileage.

180 pounds of me, 15 pounds of commuting luggage on a rack, 700x25, 90-95psi front and 95-100 psi rear.

Depends why you are getting punctures. Nothing will stop tire wire. I've had 2-3 punctures in the last 5500 miles if I don't count the two repeats from the piece of tire wire which took me two days to find (grr) or the defective presta valve that failed suddenly while parked (as in the valve itself, air came out the top).

Send Continental pictures of your damaged Gatorskin - they might have a bad batch and do a warranty replacement.

Shimagnolo

The last Gatorskin I replaced lasted until the cords started showing and I replaced it.

mm718

Depends why you are getting punctures. Nothing will stop tire wire. I've had 2-3 punctures in the last 5500 miles if I don't count the two repeats from the piece of tire wire which took me two days to find (grr) or the defective presta valve that failed suddenly while parked (as in the valve itself, air came out the top).

The first one was a long sharp piece of rock that would have gone through just about anything. With some of the others I couldn't find anything in the tire (running my fingers along the inside & inspecting the tread).

Send Continental pictures of your damaged Gatorskin - they might have a bad batch and do a warranty replacement.

I might do that and I'll report the outcome here... Thanks.

mm718

Tire life depends a lot on your weight and road conditions. But skidding is not good for tires. Why do you skid your rear tire anyway? Your front tire has much more braking power and almost never skids. I assume your bike does not have rear-only coaster brakes.

Coming down an incline at a moderate speed applied the rear brake and then the front brake and then went into a skid. I probably could have avoided the skid but sort of enjoyed it. Didn't know that road tires would take such a hit. Now I know... I always thought front brake only would send me over the handlebars...

late

Vittoria Randonneur Hyper or Pro

ColinL

Great tires but only 1 fits most road bikes: 25mm Randonneur wire bead. All the other Randonneur series are 32-35mm at the smallest, which will fit a lot of cross bikes and hybrids, but not hardly any proper road bikes.

Capecodder

I have well over 1000 miles on mine, and they still look new. I have not had one flat since I put them on, and I'm 200lbs.

sqharaway

I don't know if that figure is quote right? I've heard the front brake has twice the stopping power, which would make it 66% of total braking power.

LesterOfPuppets

I've heard 70% on front brake. I'll still brake the same way no matter which number is closest, however.

gregf83 

All tires square off. They still work fine when square.

revchuck 

In a confluence of absolute worst case scenarios, maybe. A more likely scenario would be the front wheel locking up due to unseen dirt or sand on a roadway and you doing a faceplant. 99.99+% of the time, though, it just stops you faster. Don't use it alone, but with the rear brake.

As for the Gatorskins...I've got about 5k miles on the front and about 2k on the present rear (destroyed one rear tire on an unseen beer bottle bottom). 700x25, 90 psi front and 100 psi rear, I weigh 195.

Shimagnolo

Agreed!
I generally refrain from pointing out the bloody obvious, but I'm sure the tire mfgrs are happy to sell tires to people who insist on replacing perfectly good tires for cosmetic reasons, (and it's good for the economy).

EdIsMe

I have about 1800 miles on mine and rotated them about 100 miles ago as the rear one was showing significantly more wear than the front. The one that was on the front still looks almost brand new and is still mostly round. The one that was on rear has lost 1-2mm of tread on the center of the tire and has squared off a bit. Moving this tire to the front has remedied this slightly, although it has only been 100 miles since the switch.

Judging by the current state of wear, I'd expect these tires to last -at least- another 2,000 miles, but possibly much longer than that.

Fyi: I'm pretty small at 5'5" and ~145 lbs and have only skidded briefly a handful of times due to slick road conditions or debris on my brake pads. (Before anyone jumps on me about grabbing too much rear brake, in all of these occasions, the front brake either did not supply sufficient stopping power, or the front tire was also skidding due to road conditions.)
On that same note, I've also spun the rear tire under power twice. Both times were due to either sand or water on the road... or both.
Edit: I'm also riding 23c front and rear.