Bike tire is just as important as your car’s tire because they will affect the whole performance of our bike and it is necessary to choose the one that fits our application the most. For those who are riding on the road, Continental Gatorskin Vs Hardshell are two of the best choice in the market but won’t drain your wallet. However, like many other things, they are not completely identical so you may want to see what we can expect from them and then choose the best option.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
– How to Choose Bike Tires
– What are Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell
– What Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell Look like
– What Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell are made with
– How are the Puncture Resistance in Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell
– How are the Rolling Resistance in Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell
– Continental Gatorskin Vs Hardshell
Choosing for Bike Tires
Bicycling has been seen as the healthier solution for many big cities problems where everything seems to be packed and moves slowly as the people living in and around it leaves the house and moved around with private vehicles. Bicycling not only reduce the space occupied by cars but also remove the emission comes out of our motor vehicle, to be friendlier with nature. Not stopping here, pedaling movement is a nice aerobic workout that have many benefits to improve one’s fitness level.
What you can’t forget or neglect when being a cyclist is the equipment itself as well as safety, so make sure to always wear helmet like Kask Protone Vs Giro Synthe even when riding on the road just to be safer when pedaling. As how important bike frame and its every inch, the tire is also an important part we can’t forget to take care of because like any tires, they will eventually wear or even damaged while experiencing some stress they are not specifically made for.
Before shopping for a new tire, it is always best to pay attention to some of its features including sizes because not all bicycles and applications are made to be the same. Sizing is the most important and we can match it with the stock size to be easier but don’t forget that tire made for mountain riding and road riding may have different sizing so choose based on yours such as 27.5×2.0 or 700×23. The first numbers usually refer to tire’s outer diameter in inch or millimeters while the second number is the width.
We are sure tire tread is an important point to look at as well just like when looking for either highway or all-terrain tire for your car. Slick tire is smooth, designed for smooth surface like road or slick rock and groomed single track; semi-slick is slick in the middle/center then have some treads on the sides to help when cornering so it is commonly used for road or sometimes light off-roading; inverted tires have inverted tread to give more grip and rolling resistance, great for road with lots of potholes.
The last tire type is those with many knobs or more extreme treading which is designed to handle off-road conditions such as with rocks or roots while the wide and deep tread works well to paddle when in soft-trail conditions. In addition, we also have bike tire features like foldable, tubeless, studded, puncture resistance, soft or hard rubber bike, and tread count casing to consider as well since each have its own impact on the performance.
About Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell
If your tire has been harmed while pedaling or worn out over time, now is a good time to see what the market has to offer since there are so many of them out there made for your application. For those who are stumbled upon this article, we are sure that you ride on the road and need a tire that both can last long as well as compact for when being transported from one place to another. Among those many tire manufacturers in the market, most riders are familiar with Continental.
This company is very popular both in the UK and here in the United States because of their high performance tire especially for people who seek a replacement of their stocks so they can last and be more reliable. They also have quite the options to choose yet, if budget is limited, the Gatorskin and Hardshell will be two of the most ideal pick besides the highly rated Grand Prix range from the company. In general, both of them are equally nice pick but the latter is said to be the most puncture resistance.
However, the original Gatorskin is actually already pretty much offering in everything when talking about puncture resistance but as demand is increasing and how users always want the best, the Continental Hardshell is launched to answer the request. What’s interesting, both of them are claimed to be ideal for those who want to use the tire for working out or just as a daily commuting tire. What you may want to know first is, it seems none of them are excelling in terms of rolling resistance.
With this, we don’t think they are a reliable option if your main goal is to reduce tire rolling resistance and use the energy as less as possible. As for what Continental claims, between Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell, the latter should be the most puncture resistance in their collection so if you are looking for a training partner, it should do the work reliably.
Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell Design
What can be confusing between these close brothers is their look because in a glance, without reading the tire’s name, they are completely identical to each other but, when you try lifting these models, it becomes easier to tell since the Hardshell indeed heavier at about 270 grams for the 25-622 size while the older tire Gatorskin is only around 240 grams. Additionally, they are similarly folding type but if you need the rigid version, Gatorskin also have the option available.
From the tread design, these two are semi-slick bike with application on road since they have minimum treads on the sides. As for sizing, these tires have the common choice but when compared, the former shown to have a little bit more choice from 23-599 to 32-630 to accommodate more bikes. The maximum tire pressure for Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell is 120, the same with their thread count casing at 3/180 with width and height equally at 26 mm and 23 mm respectively.
Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell Compound
When looking for a bike tire especially those rated as puncture resistance, what you may want to know is probably the type of compound used to make the unit. Continental doesn’t specify what their newer tire is made with but chances they are the same as what being used in Gatorskin which is 3/180 carcass with DuraSkin fabric and PolyXBreaker to improve the puncture resistance. The rubber compound they used is called Durable carbon black mixture and it is made to optimize the long wear as well as grip in cold weather.
Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell Puncture Resistance
While the material used on both tires seems to be the same, it is also true that the latter is a powered up version of the older brother because when you compare them side by side, the thickness of Hardshell is about 3.7 mm while the same size Gatorskin tire tread is only 3.2 mm. If you examine the sidewall as well, we can see there is quite an upgrade here for the former 0.7 mm sidewall is now beefed up to 1.0 mm.
Being puncture resistance means they will last longer so it also means we can spend less to change to a new tires but, as you can expect, when comparing the two, it is clear that Hardshell is winning when it comes to durability due to its thicker build and it shows by scoring at 20 for the puncture resistance tread as opposed to 18 while the puncture resistance sidewall is scoring at 8 as opposed to 7 so in general Hardshell is about 11% stronger than Gatorskin.
Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell Rolling Resistance
For those who plan to use as little energy as possible and need a pair of tires that can deliver them efficient pedaling, none of Continental Gatorskin or Hardshell will be the best choice because as you can expect, they are not made for the application. However, due to being made to be less rigid, Gatorskin will be slightly better when it comes to rolling resistance since this model is scoring at 19.3 watts at 120 PSI while the latter is at 19.5 watts.
But, this much difference won’t actually felt anything in real life and if you are reducing the pressure even more for example at 80 PSI, the rolling resistance becomes higher scoring at 22 watts and 23 watts respectively. What’s surprising us is these numbers appears to be relatively small in comparison to how much Hardshell improves its puncture resistance from Gatorskin.
Comparison
For those who are concerned of continuously replacing their bike tires over short time due to damages from punctures, Continental Gatorskin and Hardshell are two ideal and best choices out there but comparing the two, it is also clear that Hardshell is the upgraded version of the former which makes it even more powerful for better durability and what’s nice as well, the rolling resistance doesn’t seem to differ much from the former version.
Continental Gatorskin vs Hardshell
Conclusion
In our opinion both of them are a great options so we can go with anything with confidence but between the two, we do like Continental Hardshell better due to its better puncture resistance ability while the ride comfort seems the same in both versions.