Your picture doesn’t resemble the current GP4S. Here is the stock photo, notice the complex tread figuring. Your tire looks smooth to me in your photo. Maybe post other pics of your tire?



Otto

I normally use S5000s, and had to mount a Gatorskin when I damaged a sidewall on a RR track on tour. At first I thought I was riding on my rim because the Gatorskin was so unforgiving. Gotta remember to take that puppy off before I start riding this spring!

I can assure you mine is just dirty, not worn. I will admit that the 2 tires look considerably different. Maybe mine was an older model that was hanging around at the shop for too long?

More pics

That looks very squared off for 300 miles. Have you been running very low pressure?

My sit bones are smoking supple sidewalls - and addicted.

If I deflate the 5000s to ~85psi the ride approaches the feel of Vittoria at 100 and Veloflex at 110. The Veloflex tires are tubular, the Vittoria both tubular/clincher. 5000 = clincher. Actually I have not ridden a Gatorskin in 20 yrs, so I apologize for that comparison - maybe 'Skins have become even more 'durable' for those who need them.

Ride what you please. All Conti's if you're happy. I try most all of them - Schwalbe, Pirelli, Challenge, Mavic, etc. Durability is not a priority for me. Puncture resistance a secondary consideration on all but the tandem which rolls Marathon Plus.
Veloflex tubies rule, give them a try.

IT looks like there's something sitting on top of OP's 4-season, blocking view of the tread. The sidewall looks like it took a hit, maybe from a rock. I used to have that problem with GPs in the past - take one stone in a dirty corner and it'd start snapping cords in the sidewalls.

yes - must be the fender (obscuring view of top of tire in first pic)

initially did not realize OP has fenders installed until additional pics provided

yes - also recall sidewall issue when I ran Conti GP’s back in the 90’s ... due to a run-in with a rock or whatever

I avoid rough / gravel type stuff with 32mm GP4S as much as possible - great tire but not the most durable tire for the nastier stuff ... 32mm not sufficient width for that stuff

Conti recently introduced a new GP5K AS (All Season) or something like that available in 35mm ... there is also the GP Urban available in 35mm ... 35mm still not ideal not nasty stuff - but better than 32mm

agree

just looked at my rear 32mm GP4S that has just under 300 miles - still resembles new tire ...

Same here.

Taking some time to pull our legs?

Actually, low pressure reduces wear because it spreads the scrubbing force over more rubber. It can result in casing damage due to excessive flexing and the tire getting compressed against the rim.

Regards the original post: that sure looks like a cut to me, suggestive of hitting something sharp on the road. The picture quality is not good enough to be sure about that conclusion, but surely the OP can look carefully at the tire and see if it just failed or was cut. I have put nearly 150K miles on GP 4000s and GP 5000s and while I have had sidewall cuts, I never have had a failure due to a manufacturing issue. If that was my tire and I determined it was a cut, I would have ZERO issue booting it and riding it until it wore out (mounted on the rear wheel, since front tires don't wear out).

That's a debatable comment but I meant that it looks like this tyre may have been running with an unusually wide, square contact patch i.e. at very low pressure. This may or may not be the reason for the sidewall issue. But since it's an isolated patch of damage, it's probably damage from road debris or perhaps a kerb.

Not really debatable. Tire wear (scrubbing of rubber from the tire) is due to the force applied from pedaling. There is a tiny amount of wear from braking forces, but a front tire will die of old age long before it loses enough rubber to be worn out. Since, for a given rider, pedal force on the tire is consistent, lower pressure means a larger contact patch means less scrubbing force per unit area means slower tire wear. Basic physics combined with basic material properties.

Whoa now, you're losing us! Probably most of us have no physics beyond HS and zero training in material properties. We're more likely to grasp the more common WAG.

Of course it is debatable. But maybe not if you are only focusing on the tread wear side of overall picture.

I tend to think that with a tire operated at low pressures, giving a much wider contact patch that the sidewall of the tire where that contact patch bulges will be exposed to more gravel and debris laying on the trail. But maybe not. I've not really seen a good cross section view of how that bulge really looks.

So many threads on Conti tire defects. Not sure whether that's because of some actual QC issues or just because they are one of the biggest sellers out there, so sooner or later, there will be defective ones.

I personally see Conti tires as a religion for some. My view is that there have always been better choices for less $$.

there are other good choices - and many just don’t want or need more expensive tires

but better for less $$ - probably not too many (?) - but it can depend on the individual rider and conditions

most of the tires that perform at Conti’s top level tires will have similar cost

In my own experience, I cannot feel any difference between "top level" tires and mid-level tires. I have compared top of the line Vittoria Open Corsas with mid-level Vittoria Rubino Pros. I cannot feel a difference.

I can however feel a difference between mid-level tires and entry level budget tires. I guess it's true what they say about diminishing returns.

Tread wear IS tire wear. Tire failure due to casing damage is not tire wear. If you want to posit that tires run at lower pressures fail sooner, you should offer more than conjecture.

But the OP's issue isn't treadwear. It was the scuff mark on the sidewall that I thought they ask about. So why is treadwear even a concern for this OP unless some didn't realize that that is a fender on the bike in the original picture and not the tread pattern worn off.

we finally got past the picture with the fender over the tire ... finally ... I think ... (?)

the (second) issue was the tire appeared to be fairly worn / squared given the low miles (picture was provided above - attached again)

for reference - I have the same tires / same size with approx same miles and they display almost no visible signs of wear

The pattern on the tires is still visible, at least mostly visible. But I'll go with fairly worn as an okay description. Though I don't consider that much wear to be concerned with.

What is more concerning is how much of the pattern is showing wear and where the apparent crease is that makes it looked squared off. I tend to think that the tire pressure isn't monitored and the tire is allowed to go from a more normal inflation where the loops of the pattern barely are in the contact patch to a low inflation where a majority of the loop is part of the contact patch and maybe the tire is bulged out so much while being ridden that the rim is actually making that crease that makes it look squared off.

With a tire bulged out that much on the contact patch the sidewall might easily be damaged or get scuffed by stones or other debris.

That sidewall looks to be where a seam is and may just be excess material. As far as all the concern on the wear, if they carry a load or are a larger rider, I would think that was normal.

This is what a GP5000 TL sidewall failure looks like.

I had Gatorskins with sidewalls that did basically the same. There's something about that mesh-type sidewall material that wants to delaminate where it's joined IMO. I went with Lifeline tires (a CRC house brand) after that and had a horrendous sidewall failure on my way to work, managing to limp in to the office after depleting my puncture repair kit and using my spare tube. Not the same defect--the Lifeline's threads had pulled out of the bead en-masse in one spot--but the lack of quality and need for reliability in commuting (as well as the only available 700x32c tire) led me to a tire that I once swore I'd never ride again. The Schwalbe Marathon. It's a slippery slope to turning your bike into a tractor once you have a failure or two, man, keep the faith.