Old 07-08-20, 06:08 PM
  #72  
aclinjury
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Relax folks, let us step back and review the OP's requirement and/or desire:

This is what he asked:

I'm not opposed to paying for quality, but I wonder if the difference between say, the UltraSport IIs that I'm riding on currently compared to GP5000s is big enough? Is it something I'll really notice? I've put thousands of miles on USIIs and they've performed reliably. GP5000 users: what makes them worth the extra $15 or so per tire
Googling shows that the cheapest Conti Ultrasport is $15, and the cheapest GP5000 is $35, that's more than double the price of an Ultrasport.

But OP's questioning also brings in a sense of "value judgement" as he's asking is the difference "big enough". What is "big enough". He doesn't tell us what is big enough he's looking for, maybe because he doesn't quite completely realize all the nuances to the question he's asking.
And from the tone of his questioning, he doesn't seem he's asking because he wants to go racing, and probably he's not asking this for his time trialing effort either, does it?

On the other hand, he stated that he has put thousand of miles on the Ultrasport and they've performed reliably. So I take it that reliability is an important factor. But OP also wants to know if the GP5000 will make him really notice the difference.

Well money may not be an object (and to what extent) to the OP, but I will assume that if he's asking this question, then money and the concept of value is an object to him. Will he appreciate going 1 second faster per kilometer if he switches to GP5000s? That's 100 seconds worth of saving in a 100km ride, now some of you say, there are 2 tires, so it shold be 200 seconds saving right? Not how it works. My position on this is clear, it don't make one bit of difference, save your money. Two tires is a saving of $40, is it not? And a cut GP5000 will cost more than twice to replace. Is this a big enough difference?

I, personaly, feel like some of you just emphasis one thing, rolling resistance, without addressing the OP's overall value question much. Now if OP was asking to hellbent shaving 100 seconds off his metric century, then ok, bring in the esoteric science!
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