Now, after 14 years since the original GP 4000 was released, the legendary tyre has been given a complete overhaul and Continental claims it is better in every performance metric. Continental believes a comfortable tyre is a fast tyre – which is why the GP5000 now comes in a 32c width and is constructed with Active Comfort Technology to help smooth the sharpest shocks from the roughest roads. Spider silk like Vectran has an enormous tear resistance at a very low weight: Exactly the right properties to process into a premium Continental bicycle tire as a puncture protection insert. However, after two months of testing, it has started to peel away in one area on one of the tyres, which is a small shame.

It's only recently that the pros are moving over to tubeless, and it's only recently that Conti have made tubeless road tyres, so it's only recently that the GP5000 has become known as a top end race tyre. The latest polymers as well as specially developed carbon black particles and filler materials guarantee unique performance Active Comfort : The revolutionary approach in cycling. I mounted them on hunt aero wide wheels into a supersix evo frame and there is still plenty of clearance. Mr Coward Seem good so far, can't really tell much difference between these and the 4000 version, except that they come up smaller than the marked size on my 17mm internal rims 26.Under the tire's tread section, we still see only 2 layers of casing material, which is the same as on the 5000 S TR. Taking influence from their successful GP4000 model, the Grand Prix 5000 Tyre from Continental features the best technology Continental has to offer. The ones that are expensive are the 28mm variety favoured by overweight cyclists - the 25s (and 23s) are reasonable. History tells us that the 'only' justified expensive tyre were ten year old matured hand crafted by Belgium hobbits in darkened caves tubulars at the 'pro-level'. A Vectran Breaker is lighter, more flexible and protects more effectively against cuts than the comparable nylon breaker.

Nevertheless, where the GP 4 Season tyre leans more towards a sturdy build, the AS TR would appear to favour speed and grip over sheer resilience.

Depending on the application of a tire, we adjust the compound formulation for the specific discipline – for road or mountain biking, time trialling or downhill racing. I'm sure that when I started serious cycling mid 80's there were folk paying similar money for the very best tubular [or tubs if you can remember those]. I know 'capitalism' and 'if peope will pay it' and all but the % increase seems a bit of a mickey take even with Brexit and material costs taken into account. Both tires use Continental's Black Chili compound, but what's important, and Continental isn't clear about this, is that the AllSeason TR uses a different specification of the Black Chili compound that's more optimized for grip.