Being sick and tired to deal with Conti’s Gp 5000 flats,something I carried along since using their 4000s, I decided to call it a day and set up some Pirelli Cinturatos. Be aware that neither with the 5000 or the Cinturatos I went tubeless yet. Needless to say I felt the Cinturatos horribly slower, I felt like the bike was actually high on pot. My Garmin did not lie either, basically lost 1Km/hr of speed over my 5000s . But leave alone the lost speed, it’s the idea of riding a boat that basically killed me.
Million dollars question: will going tubeless and sealant improve my 5000s flat protection? The deal is to avoid at all costs roadside flat fixing.
Also,it was my first ride with today with Cinturatos,should I give it a bit of extra time to get used to them ? Will going tubeless eventually help ?
yes, if you want even more protection get insert too
I checked bicycle rolling resistance, that’s just a slow tire not meant for road racing
It will absolutely improve your flat protection…but there is no guarantee you will be able to avoid all roadside repairs if you get a sidewall gash or very large hole in the tire.
As said already - you basically went from a Ferrari to a VW beetle in terms of rolling resistance. You also picked up more weight per tire.
The Cinturato is just a slower tire but does offer puncture resistance.
A lot of road debris out here, and 100% the Cinturatos with Orange Seal have been the only tire to keep rolling without drama.
The Specialized Roubaix Pro 30/32 also performed well but on 25mm internal rims they expanded too much and after 500 miles I had to take off the rear tire because they were starting to rub the chainstay when putting down a lot of power on my Tarmac. Kept the front tire on for 1200 miles and no issues, but it is the rear tire that attracts most of the flats.
Here is my list of fast tubeless tires that fell victim to all the debris on our roads:
- Schwalbe Pro One
- Zipp Tangente
- Conti 5000 TL
- S-Works Turbo RapidAir
- S-Works 2BR T2/T5
- Pirelli P Zero Velo Race
- I had a set of 5000 S TR in 30c (?) and couldn’t mount them without extreme force, on 3 different sets of rims, so I sold them. Regardless they have lower puncture scores than the 5000 TL and many of the others above, so its fair to believe they would also fall into victim category
All of them had a flat within 500 miles that required patching the tire. Some I made it home on low pressure, and some required putting a tube in roadside to make it home. Going to 32c delayed or avoided the issue. Again with Orange Seal regular - the endurance sealant doesn’t seal as well.
All of those tires I bought 4 and used all 4, so its not like I didn’t give them a chance.
The Cinturato are 2-3W lower rolling resistance than Conti Gatorskin or Gator Hardshell. A little better road feel too.
Another option is trying Mr Tuffy liners:
Beyond training, the Cinturato 32c are what I use for dirt/gravel roads out here. Great slick tire for easy gravel on a road bike (Specialized Tarmac and Trek Domane).
Cinturato is the best puncture resistant tubeless tire for crappy roads. And its not fast.
Luckily roads are very clean here,the last hole I had was caused by a very tiny glass shard and it took the tire a couple of days to lose pressure. Probably I’ll take the gamble and I’ll try them tubeless. I could not praise enough how my Canyon Endurace felt like a proper race bike, but the Cinturatos turned it into a, well……endurance bike.
Great, a 100 euro worth of tires that will most likely get sold at half price… 
The soil here has little tiny rocks that slice tires, especially when it’s wet. I run tubeless Cinturatos with Stan’s and still regularly get punctures. The sealant will usually stop the leak but eventually the tire has little slices and wet spots all around the circumference. I think I’ll give orange a try my next tire change.
Put 'em on a set of back-up wheels? 
I was thinking about it but I don’t have any and not planning to buy them anytime soon.
personally I’ve never been a fan of the road feel on Conti 4000 or 5000 series. And the 5000 S TR is not cheap.
Yesterday my next 2x2-pack of tires arrived in the never ending quest for “best” overall tubeless tire
$54 a tire. A little more puncture resistance and better road feel vs the S TR.
And from time to time, I’m still rocking the Cinturato rear tire because its indestructible. A couple years ago I posted this somewhere, Cinturato with 2000+ miles and 20 “weeping” holes that I circled, but that tire wasn’t losing pressure:
Update after a couple of weeks. I’m loving these tires. I’m tubeless now and once I’ve found the sweet spot with the pressure the rolling resistance issue became barely noticeable. But the feeling of being able to ride on all sort of road crap and come out unscarred is priceless.
Exactly
I still run clinchers. Use Conti 5000 25s with psis round mid to high 80s.
I train in South Florida which doesn’t have the cleanest of roads. I’m a huge proponent of the tire liner option. Huge comfort on longer rides is worth the few watts of loss in efficiency for me.
If I were battling for podiums in races I’d probably remove them for races, but sadly that’s not the case. For training, though, will not go back to not having them.
Why not run the P-Zero Race instead of Cinturato? Very close in rolling resistance comapred to GP5000, but much better puncture protection and road feel in my experience.