My go to tires
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
- Fit: True to size
- Size Bought: 700c x 23mm
I purchased a pair of these over a year ago and put roughly 6,000 plus miles on them with no flats. I'm in Northwest Arkansas which has a fantastic paved trail system. The trails have areas where fine, very sharp flint rock is deposited, usually following a rain shower. The roads are OK, but the bike lanes typically are not cleared allowing a lot of road debris to accumulate.
I was a devout user of Continental GP4000 IIs, but was constantly getting small, pinhole punctures from the tiny shards of flint. This was especially true of the back wheel where most of the weight is. After installing the Gator Hardshell I have found flint stuck in the tread, but have yet to have a flat. My latest find was a 4mm shard stuck straight into the tread.
There are those who will say "well just get tubeless tires and you won't have to worry about it". I've ridden on tubeless tires on a mountain bike and had a puncture that was troublesome to fix. I also tried to help someone that had a flat tubeless tire that ended up calling someone to pick them up because the tire wouldn't hold air. That said, I think I'll stick with what's worked best for me and these tires.