Gatorskin Hardshell vs. Gatorskins 💥 What's the difference? 💥 You'll be shocked at #4

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[@nicholassmith2009]

so as a commuter in NYC, I need the hardshell. Gotcha.

[@jonpatterson4183]

Great video! I always use Gatorskin Hardshells! Personally, I don't care about weight, rolling resistance. Flats is all I care about! I live in southern California with crappy streets, so no flats are top priority. This year I have had maybe 3 to 5 flats, with about 7 to 8 thousand miles of road riding. (Addressing the comment by Shawn Bolan... Personally I'm dreaming of that magical year of no flats!)👍

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

I agree with you. A year without flats would be epic

[@Geekoid-iu4ct]

I've stopped racing but still ride aggressively--very fast for an old guy. Yes, there are faster tires with lower rolling resistance but nothing is slower than a flat tire. I ride over 13,000 miles a year and have had far fewer flats after switching to Gatorskins.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Good to know. Thank you for watching and subscribing

[@MrTeff999]

Since my last entry, I switched to 37 mm Continental all season tires with heavy duty TPU tubes from Tubelito. Pressure is 45 front and 50 rear. Ride is very smooth and rolling resistance seems unchanged. Feels very secure in the corners. I’m very happy with this setup.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Thanks for sharing

[@michaelchitwood5566]

Here in Aurora, CO, the bike paths have alot of broken glass and thorns. Since I need the flat tire protection, My road bicycle has a pair of CONTINENTAL GATORSKIN BLACK EDITION ROAD TIRE (BLACK) (FOLDING (DURASKIN/POLYX BREAKER) 700x28.

[@Chef_rome]

Yep I ride platte river trail. Commute to work from Rino to Sunnyside. Tons of trash to look out for.

[@MrTeff999]

We ride a tandem with a combined weight (including bike) of about 340 pounds. We've had good luck with a 32mm Gatorskin on the back and a Continental All-weather on the front. Pressure is 65psi rear, and 60psi front. I'd like to improve the ride quality by going to a 40mm tire, but I don't want to sacrifice rolling resistance or puncture resistance. There are too many choices.

[@MrTeff999]

Since my last entry, I switched to 37 mm Continental all season tires with heavy duty TPU tubes from Tubelito. Pressure is 45 front and 50 rear. Ride is very smooth and rolling resistance seems unchanged. Feels very secure in the corners. I’m very happy with this setup.

[@ShawnIsBatman]

I have been a Conti Gatorskin user for years, 100% due to flat protection. Last year I ran Gators on my ALU wheels for when the road conditions were expected to be more sketchy and then started to run Conti GP 5000's on my carbon wheels when the conditions were better. I live in Nebraska so our highway conditions can vary widely and the Spring (after the Winter thaw) can be particularly questionable for road conditions. Last year was a zero-flat year for me!! I seem to alternate years, I will have a zero-flat year followed by a year with 5-10 flats...hoping to break that trend this year! I plan to run the same setup this year, however, I will be introducing Latex tubes on both wheelsets to see if I can pickup some gains from the lower rolling resistance. I will likely opt for the Gator Hardshells since my goal is flat protection and my roads are not 'Cali-smooth'.

[@johntechwriter]

Sorry to say, but Cali is no longer smooth.

[@Charlie-tw5lj]

I've used both. Size 700c25. The gater skins never had a puncture and lasted 5 years (10,000 miles) . Just got the hard shells . Both great tires. They handled the tough roads of Blackstone VA with ease. 😊

[@brierpatch]

I used to ride Gatorskins and a few years ago switched to the Hardshells. Love both tires but riding the streets in Phoenix (cactus thorns & broken glass) I made the move to Hardshells for the extra protection. I have the Hardshells on both of my bikes, single and tandem. My wife and I ride 12 months a year so maybe it is the Phoenix heat but I only get about 2,200 miles out of a tire.

[@miket.8844]

Really appreciate such a comprehensive comparison on these Continental tires. I live near Oak Ridge, TN. and am in the process of upgrading to the hard-shell from stock tires. The area has been a mecca for cycling championships the last few years, so the roads are decent. However, a recent sidewall issue nearly left me stranded. With winter approaching, I’m hoping the hard-shell will carry me for awhile. There’s a handful of reviews on Amazon from customers who’ve had sidewall failures that I was concerned about, but your BRR reference kinda sealed the deal for me. Keep up the good work!

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Thanks

[@ChicagoCryssie1127]

Thanks for the info

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

You bet

[@mtb71]

A man of many talents!

[@johnwjeromejr]

I'm all thumbs when it comes to roadside flats therefore prevention is key for me. I'll go with the most puncture resistance - it's a no-brainer for me. Speed is not much of a consideration for me because my speedier days are far behind me.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

I find riding is faster than standing on the side of the road anyway!!! Ha ha

[@luisjohnbonilla3856]

The regular gatorakins are also like a super skinwall tire so they're a comfier ride and nicer to yer wrists especially if your riding rougher roads like in Boston. People sleep on the performance benefits a little bit of comfort can bring. Comfort = Endurance

[@oscak41]

I also live in Kocaeli Turkey and I bought Gatorskin for 48 frame and 26 rims (bike24) and I have traveled more than 1000 km; I have never experienced any explosion or other situation. Gatorskin is nice, but honestly, I have my eye on hardshell.

[@gringolandiaenglish]

Yeah I live in Chile and the roads are very broken and I get flats on my stock tire whenever I hit a crack the wrong way. I have a schwalbe marathon plus green guard 28 on the back and I never get flats on the back tire

[@Poopyheaddd]

I just got some gator skin hardshells after getting constant puncture from the Bontrager R4 Hardlites. I will test them out tomorrow! My area is filled with a ton of debri on the bike lanes.

[@Charlie-tw5lj]

Those are great tires. Let us know how they perform 👍

[@Lukas_911]

Hi! Just found your video and I had to subscribe to your channel! Thanks for the quick and flawless review about the 2 tyres. I live far away from Cali. I live in Italy close to Alps 😂. I have easy access to great rides both in Italy and Swiss. While Swiss roads are just perfect, Italian roads are a pure disaster. I ride a SuperSix Evo 🇺🇸 on Continental GP5000❤️. Got 2 punctures during the last 3 weeks. I'm an avid climber and I climb also during winter if roads are not snowy. No matter if it's 25° F... I'm addicted to mountain roads 😍. After the last 2 unlucky events, I'm looking for stronger tyres for winter. It's not pleasant to stop to replace a tyre while it's really cold. Your video helped me a lot and I am quite sure I will go for the hardshell version from late October. I will feel safer with those ones while riding up to 6500 ft in winter time. Thanks a lot 🙏 and greetings from Italy

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Not only are they safer going uphill, but it will be more fun and safer going downhill. Welcome to the channel Italy!!!

[@lucretiuscaro]

I live in Birmingham UK, and the roads are the true definition of a "nightmare." I am currently ridding 25c hardshells in my fix gear bike, but I am now taking into consideration the 28c option (still balancing the pros and cons). So far, after a year, I had no flats, so fingers crossed!

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

The 28’s are REALLY nice!!!

[@martinblanchard4262]

Great vid. Very informative. Been running Gatorskins for years but considering a switch to the Hardshells for that little extra protection. No real complaints about the Gatorskins and I can find both tires for the same price. I too live in Phoenix (yo @brierpatch) and there does seem to be alot of debris (metal shavings, glass, thorns, etc) on the side of the lane or in the bike lanes where I ride so thinking the Hardshells might be worth trying. Again, thanks for the great vid.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Glad it was helpful! Sounds like the roads are awful there.

[@jwpr90]

Thanks for the vid! Not used Gatorskins before but I used Hardshells on my TransAmerica tour and performed wonderfully. The only thing they didn’t seem to stop were the ‘tire-wires’, as I call them, tiny wires that scatter on the road when a trucks tyre decides to eject itself from said truck!

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Thanks for the info!

[@smokeybeard2549]

Im in the market now have rode the gator skin reg, gator skin grand prix 4 season. Both awesome tires but I do a lot of rail trail riding with my road bike. The area I live has horrible roads as well and have been experiencing lots of flats. I think the hard shell is what I'm looking for if only they had hard shell 4 season 🤔. Because I do like the extra grip provided by the 4 season grand prix. Especially in the rain.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Sounds like a plan

[@nemure]

I use tannus tires. They last almost forever and you won't get a flat ever 100% since they are solid airless tyres 😂 Rolling resistance though is noticeable

[@s1alker564]

lightweight race tires are great if you're in the pro peloton with a train of support cars following you. But for us in the real world riding in real world conditions the Gators are a good tire.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

True

[@richardmulligan2540]

Eastern South Carolina….just ride for fitness….regular gator skins work for me. One flat in a years time. I’d say that’s not bad. I’m in the rural area so our roads vary from smooth to rough but glad you explained the difference in the two tires ( now I know). Thanks

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Thanks for sharing!

[@Silidons91]

I live out here in Beaumont/Cherry Valley (Riverside County) and I use the Hardshells. I still get flats sadly because the roads in the county suck.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Some places are worse than others based on the local trees

[@larryleach248]

I live in Maine lots of loose gravel on the side of the road and pot holes. I use the regular Gator Skins with no issues so far.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Cool

[@johntechwriter]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the surrounding hills are ringed with two-lane roads nearly ideal for cycling. (These roads are low on cars because all the commuters use the freeways.) I say “nearly ideal” because though these two-lanes have shoulders, they are NEVER cleaned by the county. The result is strewn debris you can’t avoid riding over, and it contains a lot of broken glass. It is the worst kind of broken glass - having been run over again and again by cars and reduced to tiny razor-sharp granules that if picked up by a bicycle tire will work their way through the tread and eventually the tube. (Even if you use GatorHardshells, check the center area of your tires after every ride.) And if that isn’t enough, we’ve got goat’s head thorns in the area. One of the two flats I’ve had using Hardshells was a goat’s head thorn through the sidewall. That thorn was as sharp as a hypodermic syringe. For years I relied on my Hardshells but a month ago something came over me. I thought to myself, I’ve got this lightweight Specialized Tarmac and have been burdening it with the heaviest tires on the market. So this time I opted for a set of Conti 5000s. I don’t know, maybe the bike ran a little lighter. But I can say for sure I had a puncture two days ago. And as a retired geezer I can relate that changing tires is a lot more work than it used to be. So I got my S.O. to come get me. Upon arriving home I checked the tire and I needed to partially inflate the tube and hold it under water to find out where the leak was. On the corresponding section of the casing there was zero evidence of a puncture but nevertheless something got in. So I got on my PC and ordered a replacement set of Hardshells. On the local roads I see high-end sport bike riders fixing flats all the time, and I don’t want to ride with that little stressor in the back of my mind. This lesson cost me $100, but that amount is a fair price to pay for being 99 percent certain I won’t be stuck with a puncture as the sun was setting and a chilly wind began blowing in from the Bay.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

True. It's a lot more fun to ride than to fix flats on the side of the road and save 100 grams. Thanks for watching!

[@EliTheEnlightened]

If you’ve got great road then why wouldn’t you use a more supple tire? GP4 or even ultra sports

[@strongheaded]

I understand it so, the gatorskin is a hardshell light. Ride the hardshell for 10k+ kilometers w/o flat or puncture in the flanc. Great durable product. (Home base: hilly countryside in middle europe.)

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Thanks for the tips!

[@nukeelec]

Great video that will help me choose the correct tire. Please work on your microphone technique. I just about fell out of my chair when the volume increased as you got closer to the camera!

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

At what point in the video? I’m not sure I hear it. I’ll try to fix it but I don’t know which part you’re talking about

[@nukeelec]

@@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia It happens throughout the video. Volume is fine, then LOUD, then fine then LOUD. It might be due to you moving closer the the mic at times.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

@@nukeelec I see what you're saying. I have no idea what's happening because I'm not moving closer to or farther away from the mic. I have no idea how to fix that. Sorry.

[@flytoak]

May be they’re talking about places where edited clip is appended, the volume is relatively higher than previous clip. . 0:27, 0:52 & 2:50 kind of places ?

[@josephhilt2423]

St. Louis, lots a nasty metal shards

[@guitarsandhandlebars]

Minneapolis, MN. Streets of gnar. HS over everything.

[@Pip2andahalf]

I am curious about one difference you did not mention: according to what I had found, I was surprised to learn that the gator skins have 180 TPI and the hard shell have 60 TPI Could they have reduced the TPI on the hard shell in order to compensate for added weight due to thicker tread? Or maybe that is how they accomplish the same rolling resistance between the two models

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

I have no idea. You'd have to ask the company why they did it.

[@jtrlatinist2227]

I’m here because I really wanna get faster on the road on my gravel bike without losing the possibility of turning off on a gravel path. I really just need to bikes.

[@robertailloud1130]

You should try the GP 5000, they are way faster and are not prone to punctures in the conditions you describe

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Thank you.

[@DigitalCity-sj4es]

marginal at best .

[@bertmortier7678]

Thanks for this video. I'll get the hardshells, as I live in rural Ireland! By the way, has anyone ever told you that you have a striking resemblance to Robert Picardo?

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

I don’t know who that is

[@bertmortier7678]

@@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia The actor who played the holographic doctor in Star Trek Voyager

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

@@bertmortier7678 cool

[@steveflor9942]

Thanks for the the very good comparison. Answered all my questions. 👍👍👍 Was running GP5000Str. Hit a lemon size rock descending Glendora Mountain Road. It was NOT good. Going back to tubes and Gator Hardskins (28mm) Cheers

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Most important part of GMR...not hitting those stupid rocks...Here's our video on Mt Baldy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6qvk4GBgc-rmqc

[@steveflor9942]

@@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia Oh yeah, I've done that ride more than a few times.. 👍👍👍 Usually have lunch on the back porch of Mt. Baldy Lodge on the way down. Verrrry cool.

[@Xolotl44]

I live in Mexico City area, and believe me or not, I have had at least 20 punctures with the Hardshells. I have been using them since August, perhaps 3000 km Not for the tarmac or glasses but for the little pieces of tiny wires that many trucks throw into the road when they are breaking with their shity tires, they literally disintegrate them. However, being honest these tires have been the best tires I have bought and I´m still using them. They still have plenty of life

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Wow! Can you try tubeless or those liners?

[@Xolotl44]

@@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia I´m still using old-fashioned rims, I need to get some tubeless compatible for trying it

[@bruceperry1408]

Check your tires OFTEN and you can remove the wire (I had flat today because I did not follow my own advice). Had to pull out with teeth! ONCE but no flat. You can carry a minature plier also!

[@fixed_geartv]

Hard shell suck… new tires less than 20 miles and have already 4-5 flats in less than a month 🤦‍♂️… Switching tires asap

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

What will you switch to?

[@fixed_geartv]

@@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia Not gonna start a band wagon…?

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

@@fixed_geartv I have no clue what that means.

[@fixed_geartv]

@@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia meaning I will not comment on new stuff.. I work in silence

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

@@fixed_geartv good luck on your tire choice then.

[@DigitalCity-sj4es]

Southern Ca rider as well but in the palm desert area. The big issue here on the roads is goat heads from the landscapers blowing debri onto the roads. I run the hardshells and have zero issues. in fact this am my front tire stopped 4 flats from happening from those thorns. only tire i will use.

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Good to know.

[@marcustardin4406]

Great comparison ... bicyclerollingresistance reference. This video was exactly what i´m targeting. But i will get the hardshell because here in Rio de Janeiro mountains, rains a lot and we have lots and lots of thorns. Sometimes i got like 1 clincher leaky per month! that what i needing to regress. Now i days im using Michelin power Endurance tyre.. but i will try it! (The funniest part is that my bike is almost the same yours? kkk Its an expert roubaix sl3) cheers!

[@cyclinginsoutherncalifornia]

Thanks. I get the itch to get a new bike, but I love this bike.

[@marcustardin4406]

​​​@@cyclinginsoutherncaliforniaas feedback to my Roubaix friend: I did oone 1 tyre change only. Put the Hardshell on the back and 2 months without any flat!!🎉 Front tyre still Michelin Endurance...and for 2 months 2 flat tyres on the front😅 Its soft, itsngreat for long rides, but...say goodbybe to Michelin😂