Gator skin tires
 

For those of you who use them, do you put them mostly on the rear wheel,and use some other tire for the front?

I have two on order right now, for front & back.

i have two, front and back. they're great. kinda expensive tho but pretty beefy.

who did you order them from ,how much ea. ?

yep. both.

i got them at my LBS. i think they retail for 60 each. i have the ultra gator skins.

http://www.hedgehog.co.nz/index.php?...product&id=786

i didnt order from that site but i found that to verify the price. i always get a deal since i'm tight with my LBS so i think i got them both for 60.

They list for $34.95 US at Nashbar.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...eid=&pagename=

yeah, those are them. maybe i got ripped off! ;0

poor gators.

i hear they taste like chicken

The best tires I have ever used in reguards to puncture resistance, durablility, and miles (over 3000 miles) before I rotated the front to the back. Well worth every dollar.

what color is the sidewall (black)???

First street ride on new road bike last season I blew the sidewall out on the rear and got an UltraGatorSkin to replace it. I did get another flat (a large staple) but hey, kevlar can't stop everything. I probably have about 500+ miles on it with no problems otherwise.

Seems expensive, though - I think I paid about 35 at my LBS (might be wrong about that).

The sidewall is black.

Odd thing - I noticed in a chart in Performance catalog that max psi is supposed to be 90 for these tires. Mine are usually 115-120. Looks like other Kevlar belted tires are rated lower as well - but I don't understand why.

The sidewall is a darker brown. Personally I had a lousy experience with the gators. Chunks of tire missing, puncture flats through the sidewalls and in the end I had a 5mm gash in the thread section that quickly expanded to 1.5 inches. Pricey too. Not impressed at all.

If you want bombproof go with 28mm Vittoria randonneurs $23 at the LBS. If you want a nicer ride and still great durability go for Vittoria Rubinos with the wirebead. Come in cool colors too. $23 at the LBS. Seems like a flimsier tire but so far I've had great luck with them.

i just picked 3 more pieces of glass out of my 25's while cleaning my bike....25's front & rear...though i will swap out for a 28 in the rear soon....but then again the 25's seem to be performing great....an i have to grab a set for the ladies' bike....

i said it in another thread and i will say it here, gators' are one of the best tires i have rode in the wet , and we have been having quite a bit of that here lately.

Guess I had two Monday Gators.

what size did you have? where they 25's or 28's? and what psi were you using? but then again you do tend to skid alot where i do not....hhhmmmm....

used 25s and inflated to recommended pressure. I think that was 125psi. Don't skid that much really.

hey 46x17, where did you get the randonneurs?

after trying out gatorskins, i much much prefer my Vittoria Rubinos...

Freewheel on Hayes.

Be advised though, the randonneurs ride kind of tankish (that is why I prefer the rubinos). Tough as hell though. Makes gators look very sissyish.

I currently have 700x23c ultra gators on my daily ride. They seem to be holding up pretty well compared to the craptastic Panaracer and Soma tires I had on it before. I never had a problem with Armadillos, but the Gatorskins feel like they have much less rolling resistance, and they feel more surefooted in the rain that we've been experiencing here lately. I have had three flats on them, one was very suspicious front flat, which happened on the train home from work, the suspicious part being that every other bike on the rack (three others) mine was on also got a flat, and the flat looked like someone had pushed a needle through the top of the tire, very uniform across all the bikes that were affected. The other two flats happened simultaneously on tuesday as I was riding home through the pouring rain and happened upon a rain-hidden car-killer pothole which resulted in two instant pinch flats and slightly bent deep-v sidewalls :mad: Doesn't seem fair to blame any of those flats on the tires, so I'm still happy with them. My skidding hasn't gotten the best of them yet, so we'll see....

Yes, definitely less rolling resistance than the armadillos. I liked the gator's ride too. Not bad at all. But I sure got a lot of flats and then they just started falling appart. Could have been a bad batch. Currently superstoked on the rubinos. Very nice ride and much tougher than they look.

Also the dented sidewalls are easy to bend back into shape. Look for some hard metal shims and put them on either side of the dent and then grab them with some vice grips, wrench or pliers and bend them back. Did this twice so far and with great success.

Cool, thanks for the tip!

Ques: i know 700x23 is narrower than 25's, but is it also shorter too? or are 25's taller than 23's