While prepping my bike for a ride yesterday I saw that both GP5000 S TR tires have cracks all along the sidewalls and tread. It looks like dry rot. I keep my bike indoors, tires are less than a year old and I don’t use any harsh chemicals when cleaning my bike. Has anyone else experienced this issue with their tires?
Fingers crossed that Continental will warranty them.
Are they kept near a window? UV degradation perhaps?
No direct sunlight in my bike room so it shouldn’t be UV. I’m completely baffled by this.
Maybe sealant incompatibility? I use orangeseal endurance.
Usual causes are heat, UV, and ozone. Anything that generates/emits ozone?
It’s hard to imagine a company providing a warranty on a 1 year old tire.
I have used Orange Seal with GP 5000 S TR for a long time without any issues.
The tires are fine. Just ride them through the end of the year and then put fresh ones on next spring.
Buy Vittorias.
I have had them same issue on 1 of my S TRs. Curiously only on the front tire. The back tire looks normal.
I have been running them with latex tubes so it’s not a sealant issue either.
Let me know how the warranty claim goes. Never thought about doing that.
Trainer/backup tire.
You could check die production date, Continentals usually have it printed on the wall somewhere. The symbol is a bit cryptic to read with dots and looks like a salami pizza. You’ll know when you see it.
Mabye the tire was stored poorly before you got it?
Yeah but i purchased mine last summer and they only lunached the STR last spring i believe. So the production date won’t matter much.
All my conti tyres look like that if I look too hard… I try not to look too hard.
I haven’t used GP500s personally, but did use GP 4 Seasons for years. I tend to buy tyres in batches and one batch that I had showed the same problem. I’m not entirely sure as to the cause, but one might have been the fact that I didn’t use the bike much for most of the winter but it would have had a bit of time on winter roads with salt and stuff, so maybe this has a bad reaction with the compound.
The other possibility as somebody suggested is a bad batch, which is very possible as it never happened again
Ha, I just looked at mine. They are like that. My front is a little worse as it’s a 5000 TL that is like 4 years old (I don’t rotate tires). My rear is 2 years old and not as bad as above.
I’m not worried in the least.
Wow I get about 6 months out of mine. About 4000 miles before they wear thin.
With the 5000TL, I’ve had a huge variation in life span. My first rear tire lasted 4k miles. This was right when they came out. My next ones have lasted around 2.5k miles. My fronts just last forever if I don’t rotate them (which I don’t). I swapped out my last front just because it was ugly looking and had seen a lot of miles.
I haven’t tried the newer tubeless version yet.
That’s alot of riding though (I’m jealous). 4k miles seems like a good run!
This set is gonna last a bit longer. 107F today so 1 more trainer ride inside to add to this summers total.
Continental were quick to respond! They are going to warranty the tires and send out a new pair whenever my they are back in stock.
Hopefully just a one off problem as the GP5000 have been great tires otherwise.
