Continental Gator Skin

700c x 25 @ 3K each from Stay Tuned

Having decided to keep the Merida Scultura 200 for good as a weekend rider for fast ego boost rides, I decided to invest in a pair of good tyres. I know what a pair of good tyres, properly filled, can do to biking comfort. This I learnt after installing the Schwalbe Marathon Tour Plus on my Surly LHT. They improved the ride quality by several notches. 

Today I brought home two Continental Gator Skins from Ritabrata for the Merida. These are reputed to be very good and puncture protection is quite fabled. They are not so fast but puncture protection and long life are two important factors. I am glad that they are now available in Calcutta. Unlike the Schwalbe these were properly packed and are relatively new. The Schwalbes never came in such original packaging. I think the packaging was thrown away to hide the old import date. But that's a different story.

The Continental tyres are folding, as you can see from the image to the left. Made in Germany. Size 700cx25. They have other non-folding rigid variety also as well as ones with wire beads. I am not sure if they are available here in India. My previous Maxxis tyres that came OE with the bike are 23. These new ones cost me, post discount, 3K each. I am yet to install them. I intend to ride this bike on the weekends for fast rides. So I can wait till the next weekend. I am in two minds whether to put them in with the spare Schwalbe tubes I have. Keeping tubes packed for too long might not be good for them. 

I plan to go for at least one brevet event and use this cycle if I find the comfort of the tyres to be good on the highway. Doing the brevets with the LHT might be a tall ask for me. After last Sunday's low pressure ride to Salt Lake I am not too sure how safe it will be for me to attempt those ten hour events. Right now there is no question of going anywhere. Everything has come to a crushing halt. 

I will make few more posts. After the installation - detailing the problems, if any and other observations. After the first ride - because comfort is a very relative thing and we forget or tend to take it for granted after a few rides. And the last one - after about 1000 km, whenever that comes.

July 29, 2020 - The installation (Velo 9 reads 775 Km)

Today being a complete lock-down day I installed the two Gatorskins on the Red Roadie. As usual installing a new tyre being difficult, this was also a little difficult. Folding tyres have this habit of losing their shape a bit. This was no exception. There were a few places which were out of true and the tyres were deshaped. But once the tube was properly inflated those crease marks went away. 

There was a paper stuck with the tyre under the plastic band with which it is tied. That paper has all the legal warnings etc in almost all European languages. Basically a useless piece of legal document. The place where the paper was in contact with the tyre had gone a little off colour. Possibly some mild acid or some chemical from the paper had leached. 

Anyway, with some effort the tyres were both installed. On the front wheel I put the new Schwalbe tube I had sitting in my saddle bag for long (it really has a very long presta valve because at the time I bought it that was the only thing they had at the Giant store on Bentinck Street). The older tube came OE with the bike. It has a patch repair done by me under the tube. I rolled it up and intend to keep it as my spare tube in the saddle bag for the city rides. If I ever go out of town on a brevet I will perhaps carry a new extra tube. 

The rear tyre had a Maxxis tube earlier changed by me. I have kept it. I had planned to buy a new Continental tube from Ritabrata last night but that didn't happen. Neither did he pick up the phone nor did he answer my message. I can take that later. This will do for now. 

I cannot ride the bike with the new tyres tonight due to the lock down. Will ride it tomorrow and report it. 

Tonight I also changed the two pedals. I had the smaller pedals on it that Happy Earth gave me with the Surly. I removed them and installed the ones I had bought from Firefox store when the Merida came. I think it's a Wellgo. Incidentally I also did two small videos showing how to install and take off the pedal. I will put it up on youtube once and for all so that I don't forget.  

I will also change the saddle and install the Probiker one. Later gator :-)

The Gatorskins had a tough feeling to the touch. It's not the rubbery feeling at all, like you would expect in a tyre. It's more plastic than rubber. The tread pattern is very distinctive. Like some tribal art or motiff. 

July 30, 2020 In Which Direction?

While installing I ensured that the first letter G was to the left so that the tire rolls in a logical way while going forward. I did not think these were directional tyres. But now I find it is mentioned on a forum that they indeed have a directional arrow (though many believe it is just a marketing gimmick). Will have to go back home and check it out for myself. If the arrow is in the opposite direction I have to take them off and change the direction.

Later The Same Night

Yes indeed they have a directional arrow. It was a real challenge to find it out. A very very subtle arrow on just one side of the wall (unless I missed the other side). I had to find it out with a flashlight. And of course I had installed them the wrong way. Didn't get it right even by mistake. So I had to change them.  No matter who says what, if the company says it should be installed in a certain way, I would instal it in that way only. 

For the front tire I just reversed the skewer and turned the wheel over. So that did not require the tyre to be taken off and reinstalled. The rear one cannot be given the same treatment. Had to take it off the rim and reinstall the tyre. This second time was much smoother than the maiden attempt. It got installed pretty easily. Funnily Gatrorskin still reads the same way :-) I didn't notice that they wrote the name in two directions. So no matter how you install it the name would read left to right.

There is a very subtle difference in the tread, depending on the correct and incorrect direction. There are two triangles. One large and the other small on the sides. Now that the installation is done correctly the smaller triangle is ahead of the larger one. Big deal? I have no idea. But Continental's design team doesn't think the direction is important enough. No one would notice the arrow and the tread is not as obvious as the Schwalbe Marathon, for example. 

Tonight I also installed the Probiker saddle. 

July 31, 2020 - The First Ride

 

Tonight I went for a short spin around Peep Inn and Menoka. Just a little over 2 Km. It was a lovely feeling. In terms of comfort over bumps and potholes it is not a patch on the Surly or the Schwalbes but as against my Maxxis Detonator they are a marked improvement. Tomorrow I intend taking it out in the morning. Will write a longer post about the impression after that.

I am measuring this bike on the Velo 9. I also intend to measure the tyres on Connect. Added it as a gear. I intend to keep the Garmin 130 exclusively for the LHT. 

Comments After 1373 Km - January 15, 2021

It's been quite some time since I wrote the above. The tyres have been since used more than I had initially expected to. These days, with Monisha going to work almost every day of the week, I am not getting a chance to use the LHT so much (I used to commute to work with it earlier during her WFH phase). So I ride the Red Roadie in the evenings - about 35 km each night from 8.30 to 10.30 pm almost every night of the working week. That's how the mileage shot up relatively quicker than anticipated for me. 

Another major reason for this higher than expected mileage is the tyre itself. They are so much more comfortable than my 23 mm Maxxis tyres and much faster than my Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour that I feel more partial towards the Red Roadie now. My average speed now comes to around 20 kmph. This I think is fairly decent given potholes and assholes on the roads of Calcutta, not to speak of the massive traffic on most roads. On the Schwalbes my average is 15 kmph.

To make the bike more comfortable I recently fitted it with my Brooks saddle from the LHT. Now a good thing has just become even better :-)

I do not know how good this tyre is on wet roads. I have seen many reviewers talk about poor grip on wet surfaces. But I don't normally ride in wet weather. So that's not a major concern for me. I had one fall when the tyre skidded on a plastic road divider and another time I almost skidded on a tram line in front of Triangular Park because I didn't realise there was a small groove just on the side of the track. These are not the tyre's fault. These are my fault. I should not have tried to cross any of these from the side keeping the wheel parallel to the object I was trying to cross.  

Touch wood there has not been any incident of puncture on the road so far. I have in fact stopped carrying my pump on these city rides. The pump in any case is useless for high pressure tubes. I think there is a Presta/Schrader adapter somewhere in the saddle bag. I can perhaps get it filled at any tyre inflation point. But I will check tonight how the pump behaves if the tube didn't have any air in it. If it can take me to 40 I am good for a slow careful ride home. But can I really change the tube in the night, sitting by the road side? I don't want to think about all these really and banish these thoughts from my head.

A very important thing in the world of tyres in India has happened. The Modi government has banned the import of tyres from abroad. This now means that in India you can now only buy Ralson tyres for your cycles. There might be other local brands. I am not aware of them. I am lucky that I have German tyres on both my bikes. But this pair of Gatorskins might require replacement later this year if my current rate of biking is sustained over the next few months (today in mid January I have already done a good 400 kms and the tyre is already close to 1.5K).

I intend to request one of my nephews or nieces to bring me the folding tyres. Let me see who comes next. Bringing the tyres for personal use is not illegal. One never knows. The policy might be changed also. Technically it is not a ban. They have made a licensing provision. If you want to import you have to apply for permission. Reality is that these licenses are not being issued and nothing is available in the market legally. EU has apparently sought clarification. But it may not yield anything much because India's tyre imports are mostly from China and Korea so EU is not really affected. 

I spoke to Minku, one of the largest tyre traders of Calcutta. But only car and motorcycle tyres. He said companies like Michelin and Pirelli who did not have any manufacturing base here in India are affected. Their tyres are not available in the market. No wonder EU enquired about the ban. 

Michelin's India website has a big notice on the home page that they are facing supply shortages due to the import restrictions. I wonder what their sales staff are doing.  

German cycling tyres have very few takers in India. I am one of those :-(