Trigger, I know I already banged on about these these arvo, but I’m just gonna bang on a little further…
Specialized Armourdillo Roubaix Elite’s FTW! do not get these confused with the cheap heavy ‘Armourdillo’s’ which are turd
25mm casing, 23mm tread contact area. These are comfy on the rougher roads that we love to train on, yet roll quickly and have a nice lively feel that you don’t usually get with a puncture resistant ‘training/commute’ tyre. 70a centre compound with a 60a side compound keep things on rails when descending through corners, yet roll quickly in a straight line. They have a 120 TPI casing reinforced from bead to bead (hence the ‘armourdillo’ branding) and then have the Specialized ‘Blackbelt’ puncture guard for extra resistance to road debris. I’ve been running these for about 6 months with no punctures and I’ve never felt more confident descending, Shifter Dan rates them highly and if ShifterBikes had dealer access to them I have no doubt that there would be a lot of high end clincher wheelsets leaving with them on.
have I banged on about them enough? Probably… but I think that anyone that has put in k’s on them will echo my opinion, borrow my bike for a bit next time we ride.
IMHO - if you buy Gatorskins you have been thoroughly sucked in by the marketing hype machine
I reckon tyres are like a good luck charm: you stick with what has worked, cos if you change the puncture gods will punish you. happened when I went to rando hypers on the commuter: massive sidewall blowout on the 2nd ride. Stuck with them though, and now I swear by them, to the point that I don’t want to trust anything else.
haha I work for a specialized dealer, so it’s kinda my job to ‘know the jargon’ I have a couple of thousand k’s on these and I love em… wouldn’t be pushing them on here if I didn’t, give them a shot if you get the chance.
Ah, all becomes clear
There’s a lot of tyres I want to try: we should start a FOA tyre library. Everyone chip in $X, we buy a bunch of tyres and then swap them around between us. Would probably not be a great idea for the super high end/fast wearing jobbies, but for tougher ones would be fine. Someone who’s not me should organise this.
I’ve been using gp4000 4seasons 23s for the past few months and would advise against them. Im 70kgs and run them at ~80psi on tb14s. While I feel they perform a lot better now, anything close to 100psi and they felt quite harsh on the road and like they’d roll off on windy descents. They don’t really give me as much confidence in the wet as the advertising would allow me to believe, and so far the only flat I’ve had is a pinch on a particulalry rocky stretch of gravel. If I had the money now I’d probably look at changing them now.
This is interesting news, I have a spare pair of these that came with a bike I bought a while ago, totally forgot about them until now. These are going on tonight and I’ll see how they go. No doubt I will continue to need tyres as long as I am still riding so I am still interested in peoples suggestions/opinions etc.
Then cross all seasons off my list I’m going to try
Specialized, verdstein or gp4000.
Some one should just hit up the suppliers for a sample set off each tyre.
Start with puncture resistant’s first.
Then every two months change, then track, then race and so on.
Would cost them jack.
I have a couple of thousand k’s on these and I love em… wouldn’t be pushing them on here if I didn’t, give them a shot if you get the chance.