I bought a “Continental Grand Prix 5000 Tubeless Road Tyre” earlier this year from a well known purveyor of bike parts. Fitted it with a tube as I couldn’t be bothered with tubeless at the time, been riding it ever since.

Yesterday I mounted it tubeless and went for a ride. Apart from going suddenly very flat on a corner giving me a chance to use my rad bike handling skillz, it was fine.

Today I noticed that:

– It doesn’t have “TL” anywhere on it
– The sidewalls leak

Obviously I can’t send it back 8 months later.

Do I put a tube in it, or carry on riding it? What’s the worst that can happen?

I have to pay for my own dental treatment if that’s a factor.

Sounds like you’ve been sent the wrong tyre, I’ve not seen a drop of sealant leaking out of mine in the 2 years or so they’ve been on. Think I’d be keeping a tube in there

Yup – wrong tyre. Mine (six of em) all have TL on the tyre.

From 2014-2018 I ran several non-tubeless road tyres and non-tubeless rims in a tubeless setup for tens of thousands of KM. The only time I ever had an issue was where a tyre deflated while at work and de-seated itself. Without a track pump I couldn’t get it to re-seat, so had to put a tube in to get me home. None of these were at pressures in excess of 70psi. I use 32mm tyres for road and bigger for gravel

I’m still using Schwalbe Pro Ones on non-tubeless rims on the SS. They work fine. These are 28s at 80-90psi.

Should look like this, if it doesn’t it’s the non-tubeless tyre. IMHO they’re a waste of time as a tyre goes, the sidewalls are made of rice paper.

What’re you doing to a road tyre that puts the sidewalls in peril?

I’ve done around 25k km on them and they’re great. Grippy, long lasting, fix easily and well, seal okay, mount (mostly) okay and aren’t too expensive. They do seem to have a little less grip when not loaded. I can spin the rear on a wet/damp hill when pedaling out of the saddle.

If you still have the invoice that states tubeless ready then it’s worth contacting the shop to complain, a full refund/replacement would be a bit much given the usage but perhaps some form of goodwill isn’t an unreasonable expectation.

What’re you doing to a road tyre that puts the sidewalls in peril?

Did 2 in a fortnite just riding the usual local lanes, one total side wall failure that got replaced under warranty and the other an un-sealable cut in the sidewall caused by a bit of gravel, never done anything like that to any other road tyres over the last 12 or so years!

Sounds like you have the standard version, which just happens to be the best tubed tyre this rider has ever experienced…and I’ve gone through more than enough rubber in my time. Also beware that in the TL spec – only the very latest version announced last week (probably not on the shelves yet?) is compatible with the increasingly common ‘hookless’ rims, the previous design was a no-no for those.

only the very latest version announced last week (probably not on the shelves yet?) is compatible with the increasingly common ‘hookless’ rims, the previous design was a no-no for those.

There’s a difference between “designed for” and “compatible with”. Two of my sets of GP5000TLs have been ran on hookless rims (different size and manufacturer) for over a year and several thousand KMs without any issues at all. They work exactly the same as hooked in that they pop onto the rimwall and stay there when deflated. So long as the Tyres aren’t baggy on the rims (and this certainly isn’t my experience for ANY tubeless road tyres) then there’s not a problem.

I’ve done around 25k km on them and they’re great.

Crikey! I only get max 5k km from mine. How on earth do you stretch them that far…? 🤪

I only get max 5k km from mine

Currently over 6.5K km on my non TL GP 5000s and they’ve still got a bit left according to the tread wear dimples. I bought another set over the summer as I’d been expecting these to wear out sooner but they just keep going.

My mileage (kilometreage?) is spread across 4 sets.

The commuter has done the greatest distance with some 8000km since April last year. It’s still on the same tyres.

I run GP5000TLs on my summer road bike in 28mm width. They last a full summer season say 10000-12000km. Never had any problems with them over the last two years they areas near to fit and forget you can get. Last years set were squaring off on the corners when replaced. I didn’t want to push them too far with respect to grip.

I personally wouldn’t run the non-tubeless GP5 without a tube, it’s not designed to be run tubeless and will have a weaker sidewall as a result. Too risky on a road tyre with increased pressure over an MTB tyre.

I used to run non-tubeless MTB tyres ghetto style but there’s a lot less pressure involved and tubeless is obviously the norm off road now.

I concur with what others have said, GP5 (and GP4 before them) are the best road tyres out there having tried most of the big names.

We all have one mate in the group who’s a ‘pot holer’ capable of destroying ANY tyre on a bike usually talking the hind legs off a donkey at the same time! The very nature of road tyres means they are more delicate than gravel or MTB tyres. I’ve never ripped a hole in a road tyre in 45 years of cycling.

Thanks everyone. I have put a tube in.

I’ve never ripped a hole in a road tyre in 45 years of cycling.

I hit a pot hole last winter and the impact tore two GP4000 28mms and trashed both inner tubes (latex).

That was an expensive ride.

There’s a difference between “designed for” and “compatible with”. Two of my sets of GP5000TLs have been ran on hookless rims (different size and manufacturer) for over a year and several thousand KMs without any issues at all. They work exactly the same as hooked in that they pop onto the rimwall and stay there when deflated.

Interesting!

Just bought some Zipp 404 Firecrests and struggling to find any hookless tyres in stock!

Although a pair of Pirelli P Zero have just turned up today…

Sounds like you have the standard version, which just happens to be the best tubed tyre this rider has ever experienced

This. Love them with latex tubes. I’ve damaged the odd sidewall. An improvement on the 4000s. Just wish they made a 21c for the three trispokes 🙁

As always with these kinds of threads I’m always amazed at how people know how may moles they’ve used their tyres or other bike bits for. How do you do it? Do you keep a log or something? I’m not even close to being that organised!!

As always with these kinds of threads I’m always amazed at how people know how may moles they’ve used their tyres or other bike bits for. How do you do it?

There’s an app called Pro bike garage that allows you to set up the components on each bike, service intervals etc and then it syncs with strava to track hours/miles for each part. Obvs if you don’t save your rides on Strava it gets a whole lot harder but I’ve found it a good way to keep track of fork and shock servicing, a reminder to check chain growth etc

I don’t use my tyres or other bits for moles, I just let them be..😉

Interesting!

Just bought some Zipp 404 Firecrests and struggling to find any hookless tyres in stock!

Although a pair of Pirelli P Zero have just turned up today…

Just make sure they are the right width. Some of the Pirelli’s are hookless compatible, some are not!

P ZERO™ Race TLR 28-622 and P ZERO™ Race TLR 30-622 are compatible with hookless rims according to ETRTO 5bar/73psi max pressure limitations.

P ZERO™ Race TLR 24-622 and P ZERO™ Race TLR 26-622 are NOT compatible with hookless rims.

@shermer75

I just use a spready to track my running, cycling etc and assign a bike to each ride. I’m not doing loads of component or wheel swaps so this gives me a good record of mileages. Same for shoes when running.

I know Strava etc does it but ‘they’ have your data en ligne and I prefer to have an offline copy as well.

Just make sure they are the right width. Some of the Pirelli’s are hookless compatible, some are not!

Yep, got the 28mm ones which are….

As for tracking life of components, you can do that in Strava with Add Component to a bike. I track tyres, chains, etc using it.