Originally Posted by
ericcox
I'm running 26mm PZeros Race TLR on FFWD RYOT 55 rims. They are hooked. Well, now a mullet with PZero on front and a GP5000 on the back. The GP5000s are a pain to mount. To mount the rear (which was had about 800 miles on it), I used a crank brothers lever together with a tire jack like tool whose name I forget. I had to use a CO2 charge to get the bead to set.
In contrast, the Pirellis were easy. I mounted the first one with a single standard park tool lever, and the second with thumbs. Got the bead to pop with a standard pump. The Pirellis hold air better, and generally feel more supple, though that's hard to measure.
I do think the GP5000s are probably more durable, based on the wear so far, but when my current ones wear out, I'm going back with Pirelli.
Excel was running a sale on a Pirelli 2 pack, but only had 26 and 28 in stock. I will say the 26s set up tubeless are very comfy - I did a century a few weeks ago on them. My cross bike with 33mm schwalbes running tubeless is more comfortable for sure, but for road use only, the Pirellis feel great.
Thanks, good to know. I will be keeping my eyeballs peeled for the Pirelli's, even though I still have a good amount of life left on my Bontrager R3's, I don't want to get caught not having something on hand. I too have the crankbrother's lever and have only really had to use it once or twice a while ago. One good thing about using the R3's is that the tires are super easy to mount and remove on the Bontrager rims. But I would still like to have a backup plan as tires can be hard to get right now.