Continental Ultra Race Test

The Continental Ultra Race are tires made by the German manufacture meant for the people who are not able (or want) to pay enough for a couple of GP4000S-tires. For riders who yet still wants to pay more than the Ultra Sport, along with ensuring that you are getting decent tires, with a low rolling resistance. They were equipped on some Mavic Cosmic Elite that followed with my Scott Foil 40.

On the road

They weigh 220 grams per tire, 15 grams more than GP4000S, and 30 grams less than the Ultra Sport. Weight is a big factor when it comes to wheels, and especially at the tires, because they are the outer part of the wheels. Wheels inertia is very important when it comes to acceleration, and pro riders would rather save 100 grams on the wheels, than 500 grams on the frame and own body. They are just a little bit easier than the Ultra Sport to get in speed (it can just be my imagination of course, but they do feel a bit better at that), but you cannot feel the difference between them and the GP4000S.

I have been using them for about 3-4 months, ridden 2000 km in that time, and they have been doing fine. The rolling resistance seems to be somewhat low. They are easy to maintain speed in, and the grip in corners are just fine. Also in wet conditions. I do not feel insecure in corners with them at least. I have not had any punctures yet, and I do not even think that I have been closing on getting one. They do not seem to pick up stones/gravel just as easy as the GP4000S does. Especially on wet surfaces, the difference is great.

I have tried both the more expensive GP4000S and the cheaper Ultra Sport, and I must say that they are a bit faster than the Ultra Sport, and still slower than the GP4000S. The first day I had the GP4000S, I was riding 1,5 km/h faster than on the Ultra Race, so if you want pure speed, go get the GP4000S, but if you don’t want to put so much money in a couple of tires, you can easily go for the Ultra Race. The Ultra Race was also somewhat 0,5-1 km/h faster than the Ultra Sport. Moreover, if you do not think that the tires really can do so much of a difference, I recommend you to read this. Nevertheless, the price and quality (if quality equals speed) follows each other’s at Continental.

I cannot comment on the wear of them with only 2000 km in them, but they do last longer than the Continental Ultra Sport I am sure of, because at this point, the Ultra Sport already looked quite worn out.

The Verdict

I can highly recommend these tires, if you do not care about the last extra speed you can get by switching to GP4000S instead. Nevertheless, compared to the Ultra Sport, I really think you should spend those extra bucks on these, because they seem to last a lot longer, plus they are better in somewhat everything than the Ultra Sport. They are better at preventing punctures too, than any of the other tires I have tried so far, which is only a big plus.

Written by René

Read more: http://cyclingtipsonline.com/news/continental-ultra-race-test/

Continental Ultra Sport Test

The Continental Ultra Sport tires are made by the German manufacture meant for the people who aims after some cheap budget tires, that aren’t meant for great speed, but more good tires for a small price. They came as standard with my Scott Speedster S20 equipped on AlexRims Race 28 Pro wheels.

On the road

They weigh 250 grams per tire, 45 grams more than GP4000S, and 30 grams more than the Ultra Race. Weight is a big factor when it comes to wheels, and especially at the tires, because they are the outer part of the wheels. Wheels inertia is very important when it comes to acceleration, and pro riders would rather save 100 grams on the wheels, than 500 grams on the frame and own body. They are just a little bit harder than the Ultra Race to get in speed (it can just be my imagination of course, but they do feel a bit better at that), which also counts for the GP4000S that feels a little bit easier to get in speed.

I have been using them for about 1½ years, ridden 4000 km in that time, and they have been doing somewhat decently. The rolling resistance seems to be higher than what I am used to, but that was expected. They are still easy to maintain a good speed in, and the grip in corners are just fine. Also in wet conditions. I do not feel insecure in corners with them at least.

I have had a single puncture with them, which is due to them wearing out quickly. The rear tire was more or less ready to be shifted out after 3500 km, which I did not do, and paid the price of a flat, due to not much rubber was left. That is a big minus in my book that the tires cannot last longer than that. The front tire seems more used too than they should. But that is what you pay the price for.

I have tried both the more expensive GP4000S and Ultra Sport, and I must say that they are the slowest of the three. Compared to the Ultra Race, I was 0,5-1 km/h slower on the Ultra Sport. And the GP4000S are additional 1,5 km/h faster than the Ultra Race. There is really a lot of speed to gain with better and more expensive tires. If you do not think that the tires really can do so much of a difference, I recommend you to read this. Nevertheless, the price and quality (if quality equals speed) follows each other’s at Continental.

The Verdict

I will not recommend these tires. They do not last very long, and they are really slow. For not much more euro’s will you be able to buy the Ultra Race that is a lot better overall. Especially with the endurance of the tires, there is quite a big difference, asw well as in the speed. I really think you should spend those extra bucks on the Ultra Race, or go after the GP4000S if speed is the thing you want.

Written by René

Read more: http://cyclingtipsonline.com/news/continental-ultra-sport-test/

Continental GP4000S Test

Continental GP4000S Tires are widely known as one of the fastest clincher tires on the market. It even won a big tire testing performed by the German Magazine “Tour“, having the lowest rolling resistance of all of them, along with having a good puncture resistance. They are also pretty light, coming in at around 205 grams per tyre, which is very important when it comes to accelerations. It’s important to take a look on your tires when thinking on upgrades, because they play a much larger role on the speed you can achieve than any frame or wheel can give you. Just click here to read why. I have been riding these tires on my Scott Foil 10 equipped with Shimano C35 Dura Ace wheels.

I have been testing them for a year now, where it has been both as training as well as a bit of races, and I must say that I am impressed. I have experience with two other cheaper Continental-tires, the Ultra Race and Ultra Sport.  

On The Road

Let me tell you about my first experience on these tires. I tried riding them for about 38 km, and when I got home, I had broken my own personal record by 3 minutes on that route. A route I had taken 100 times before. I simply felt flying all the time. I was convinced immediately, that these tires makes you fast. I won about 1,5 km/h by switching from the Ultra Race to the GP4000S, and I have not been looking backwards since.

Puncture resistance is decent. I have had a single puncture in that year (5000 km on these tires), but they have saved me many times. Several times when I have come home from training, and been able to get all sorts of small rocks out of the tires, which had not been able to enter the tube. They do seem to pick rocks up easy on wet roads. Easier than what im used to though, so if you are riding in the wet, be extra careful driving over small stones.

They seem to be almost (read 2-3 lines further down) as good as new too, so they don’t wear out that fast. The rearwheel does seem to be a bit more worn than the front wheel, though. I have experienced something weird with reartires a 3-4 months ago. As you can see in the picture below, they have had some sort of damage. I have no idea how this happened, but somehow the tires have gotten some sort of damage, I can imagine has to do with a stress overload. Maybe on cobbles or something. But since I’m a lightweight (65 kg) rider, I have problems imagining how simple stress should have done this. But, there is easily 5000 km more in them as they look now, I’m assure of.

The Verdict

The Continental GP4000S is for those who wants speed and decent puncture resistance too. They are really fast, maybe even the fastest clincher tires you can buy, and is a very cheap but also very powerful upgrade. If you are racing on clincherwheels, or just wants to be a bit faster in your everyday training, these are the tires to go with.

Written by René

Read more: http://cyclingtipsonline.com/news/continental-gp4000s-test/

Cheapest way to get faster on your bike

Every single bikerider has been there, and since you are here on my blog right now, you are having one of these moments: You want to buy something that will make you go faster on your bike, but you dont have the budget to go all the way and buy a set of Lightweight Obermayer wheels. 

What to do then? You maybe have 1000 dollars to spend, which you could get some nice wheels for, which usually is the thing people tell you to buy to get fastest the best way. 
But will this be the best way to go faster for that budget? 

No it isnt. Actually, the most effecient way to go faster is buying some premium tires with low rolling resistance. Rolling resistance is actually taking a lot of the effort you put in your pedals, and there is a big difference between the tires. The German "Tour" magazine made a test a few years back, on which roadbiketires was the best. You can see it in the link right here:
[www.conti-online.com] 

According to their tests, the Continental GP4000S was the tyre with the lowest rolling resistance, and comes in with a 34,3 Watt's of rolling resistance at 35 km/h. 

On the other end of the scale, there's the punctureresistant Continental GP 4 Seasons, that comes in at 53,9 Watts rolling resistance at the same speed of 35 km/h. Thats a massive difference of 19,4 Watts! For many riders thats about 10% of their total power they could save by changing from one to the other!

Now lets turn over to the wheels. Will there be a greater resistance here? Lets turn back to Tour Magazine, who tested both lowprofile, and highprofile wheels not long time ago. A link to that test can be found here: [http://www.tour-magazin.de/services/qtr/epaper_4_2011/page104.html] (The tests starts from page 86 and forward).
In the test they measured the windresistance of the wheels, and lets try to compare a cheap lowprofile wheel against a Zipp 404, the most common high-end wheel out on the roads. 

As a cheap(ish) budget wheelset, lets take a Mavic Ksyrium Elite, which comes in at around 700 dollars. At 30 km/h, this wheel produces a total amount of 7,7 Watts of drag, which is way lower than the 34-53 Watts the mentioned tires above produced at about the same speed. 

What about the Zipp then? At 30 km/h, they produce 4,5 Watts of drag, which means these 3600 dollars wheels only saves you 3,2 Watts.. Can we agree, that at these speeds, it would make way more sense spending 100 dollars to get some very good tires with low rolling resistance (capable of saving you 19,3 Watts per tyre!), instead of bursting your bankaccount for not even 4 Watts?

But of course rolling- and windresistance changes differently. Rolling resistance increases in a linear curve compared to the speed, while if you double your speed, your windresistance has increased 4 times as much as your speed. So the windresistance increases a lot more than the rolling resistance, as the speed improves. So the higher the speed, the greater the difference will be between the 2 wheels. A lot more, than the difference between the 2 tires. But how high must the speed have to be in order for the Zipp-wheels to be a better buy than the 2 tires that costs only a 36th of the Zipp-wheels?

At 40 km/h, the Mavic-wheels produce a drag of 18,2 Watts, while the Zipp-wheels produce a drag of 11,0 Watts, so a total saving of 7,2 Watts, going at a normal racespeed. Here the difference between the GP4000S produces a total amount of 39,2 Watts, while the GP 4 Seasons produce a total of 61,6 Watts. So with the tires you can save a total amount of 22,4 Watts, or what compares to 3 times more energy saved, than going on Zipp 404's.

Well, lets say it goes a bit downhill then, and we are at 50 km/h. Here the Mavic-wheels produce a drag of 35,6 Watts, while the Zipp's are at 23,3 Watts. A total amount of 12,3 Watts are now being saved. But the difference between the 2 tires are still greater. The GP4000S produces a rolling resistance of 49 Watts, while the GP 4 Seasons are at 77 Watts. A total difference of 28 Watts, still 5 more Watts to save on the right tires, than the very very expensive wheels.
So you will have to go a little bit above 50 km/h, before it would make sense to buy the Zipp's before changing your tires to low rolling resistance, and then think about, how long time on your trainingsessions, are you actually going at this speed? Not much properly, unless you live on the top of a mountain.

Therefore, my best advice for anybody, if they want to go faster on their bike for a small budget, is, go out and buy some good tires before changing to a expensive wheels, because you get a lot more speed for your money for changing tires. I know several people who actually ride these 2 types of tires i mentioned above, and they claim they ride up to 3 km/h faster on the Continental GP4000S than the GP 4 Seasons. That is a big difference! I myself, tried changing from some Continental Ultra Race to some of the mentioned Continental GP4000S-tires, and on the very first workout, i set a new record on a 40 km-course i usually ride when I get home from University, and just have this 1½ hour before dinner is served. Clearly the tires makes a difference. So as Yokohama says about their tires; "Its the tires that makes your car", I can tell you, that the tires also makes you go faster on your bike.

But if you are doing a time trial, there are other factors that will help you a lot too. Aerodynamics are very important here, because you cant hide in a peloton. Australian bikesite  Cyclingtips.com.au have this helping table you can see below, where it gives an indication of how much you can save over a 40 km course, driven in 48 minutes as the standard. So its a lot faster than a "normal" guy could do, and therefore the difference for any ordinary rider would be lower than indicated below. But it gives a good idea of where you can get most speed for your money.

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Written by René

Read more: http://cyclingtipsonline.com/news/cheapest-way-to-get-faster-on-your-bike/