revchuck 

I'm one of them. I put a set on my racing/training wheels in February and have 2k+ miles on them, including a 103 mile road race with 20+ miles of gravel. (I crashed in a race in late March, broke my collarbone and was off the bike for six weeks, would've had more miles otherwise.) I've found one little cut on them. I'll probably get ~4k miles from the rear, but will switch it to my spare wheelset when it gets too squared off.

Having said that, I think you've had bad luck and/or aren't careful about where you ride when around debris. I've put a lot of miles on Conti Grand Prix tires - including two iterations of the above road race - and haven't seen the amount of cuts you've had. The GPs use the same tread compound as the original GP4000S.

Carbonfiberboy 

Well, I ride year-round in the PNW. In the winter, they sand the roads with fine stuff that tires pick up, and they don't sweep in the winter, so the broken glass builds up. The shoulders are pretty well strewn with glass and flints. Impossible to see, much less avoid. Plus because it's wet, debris sticks to the tires. Plus they don't maintain the city streets in Seattle. There are huge potholes that have been there for 20 years. Plus it's a tandem. Schwalbe ZX and DD are worse flatters than the GPs, FWIW, though they have great grip.

popeye

Risky business. New tire goes on the front and old front goes to rear.

vwchad

+1 on the winter riding conditions of the PNW roads. Hard on tires and the brake surface of rims.

Super D

Aaron Gwin! ;-)

FFWD in the video to 1:56:30

Red Bull TV - UCI MTB World Cup 2014: Leogang, Austria

Dunbar

Not really, takes a lot of guess work out of when to replace tires. The people who run their tires down to the cords can ignore them if they want to. I honestly wonder if the low tire mileage some are posting is because they're throwing away perfectly good tires?

I run staggered tires sizes - 23mm front; 25mm rear. Will probably switch to 25 front; 28 rear GP4000S II's when I wear these tires out. Although nobody seems to have the 28's in stock yet.

deepakvrao

Bad, very bad experiences with sidewall cuts on the original GP 4000s. Gave up on them a long time ago.

Bacciagalupe

I also had a lot of sidewall cuts. Switched to the Grand Prix 4 Seasons, which is basically the same tire but with some sidewall protection.

Nebby10

The Pro4's really run wide and they're even wider if you have a wide rim. I think I measured the 25mm version at a bit over 27mm with my Boyd rim.

redlude97

So you used a race/training tire that has virtually no sidewall protection in a place that you expected to get sidewall cuts and got sidewall cuts. Shocking.

Dunbar

The 4 seasons are much closer to Gatorskins than the GP4000s in terms of rolling resistance and flat protection.

deepakvrao

Why would I 'expect to get sidewall cuts'?

Chandne

Deepak, I think in a place like Bangalore you will need a much tougher tire...maybe Gatorskins? What are you using now? I am originally from Calcutta (roads much worse than Bangalore) and I don't think I could even ride a true roadbike there...ever.

redlude97

Based on your location...I mean just look at the physics of a sidewall cut. You have to run over something relatively large to cut the sidewall. GP4000s were never designed for this time of debris, so expecting them to hold up against that type of damage seems unreasonable.

deepakvrao

Currently using Ultremo or Michelin Pro 3. Not sure whats on the wheelset that I have on now. Like I said below, yes, we have crappy roads, but some decent highways too [decent, from surface point of view, not from point of view of safety].

Not defending the crappy roads that we have here, but I drive out of the city and ride on pretty decent roads. Not much worse [often better] than what we ride in say rural France, which we do at least twice a year.

Long Tom

Just bought a set of GP 4000s, the new ones. I'll be sure to hit lots of stuff with them.

I'm curious if I'll feel a diff between them and the stock (Specialized) tires that came on my Roubaix. I'm gonna be a bit disappointed if I don't.

The frugal person is me says I run the Spesh rear down to the cords before I swap them out, though.

revchuck 

^^^Depends on which Specialized tires came with your Roubaix. The Specialized Roubaix tires are pretty sweet, as good as the Contis and Michelins we like so much.

Long Tom

They are the Roubaix Pro tires I think. It was a $3800 bike so I think they out their good tires on it.

It'd be sorta ironic if I liked them better than the Conti's, considering I just had a gasped-but-paid-it-anyway moment with them!

i can't complain about the Spesh tires, but having no frame of reference, I can't make any kind of informed report on them. They have handled a fair amount of gravel, and some sticks quite well.

Alias530

Good lord... I have maybe 800 miles on my first set and the rear wear dimples are more than half gone. The front looks brand new. I don't anticipate getting more than 2k out of this set.

Drew Eckhardt 

Right. I didn't notice a difference in ride quality or speed between the Gatorskins and GP 4 seasons, although the 4 Seasons wore out in 2500 miles not 5000.

I didn't mind the short life but wanted something for it so I tried the GP4000S next. Rolling resistance is lower and the ride better at the same pressure. After 1637 miles I moved the first one from front to back where it's spent 4021 miles without reaching the bottom of the wear dots. They don't seem to flat any more frequently than the Gatorskins, although obviously the sidewalls aren't as protected.