Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

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Mububban
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Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Mububban » Thu Sep 08, 2016 10:26 am

Hi guys

I'm paying off a new Giant Contend that comes with stock "Giant P-SL 1, Front and Rear Specific, 700x25, Folding" tyres. I'll be riding my bike on solo weekend rides and commuting (13km each way). Bike paths near me are bumpy and roads are average, not excellent and not horrible either. I'll never race nor likely do over 50km on a single ride, although one of those week long cycle touring holidays is on the bucket list.

I'm considering upgrading straight away to something rated for puncture protection, but has anyone got any feedback on the stock P-SL1 tyres?

Thanks
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Derny Driver
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Derny Driver » Thu Sep 08, 2016 11:02 am

Mububban wrote: I'm considering upgrading straight away to something rated for puncture protection, but has anyone got any feedback on the stock P-SL1 tyres?
Thanks
That would be a downgrade :D If you're throwing away the PSLRs can I have them?

Why not just ride them until they wear out before putting on some nasty hard slippery gatorskins or whatever?

http://road.cc/content/review/62843-giant-p-slr1-tyre

Velt
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Velt » Thu Sep 08, 2016 11:32 am

I can't tell you what to do but I found continental gp 4000's to be a noticible upgrade

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Mububban
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Mububban » Thu Sep 08, 2016 12:25 pm

Derny Driver wrote:
Mububban wrote: I'm considering upgrading straight away to something rated for puncture protection, but has anyone got any feedback on the stock P-SL1 tyres?
Thanks
That would be a downgrade :D If you're throwing away the PSLRs can I have them?

Why not just ride them until they wear out before putting on some nasty hard slippery gatorskins or whatever?

http://road.cc/content/review/62843-giant-p-slr1-tyre
Is there a difference between the P-SL1 listed on my bike, and the P-SLR1?
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Duck! » Thu Sep 08, 2016 1:40 pm

The SLRs have a softer, grippier racing-oriented compound and a lighter casing. Faster, but less durable. The SLs are reasonable tyres; not fantastic, but not horrendous either. The early versions were a bit ordinary, but the current generation have improved. Ride them until they die, then replace with something that best suits your needs.
Derny Driver wrote: Why not just ride them until they wear out before putting on some nasty hard slippery gatorskins or whatever?
Gators are one of the more rideable tyres in that sector. Yes they're harder and less grippy than supple race tyres, but they're considerably more compliant than most other durable offerings (I'm probably supposed to say nice things about Schwalbe because the shop I'm in sells them, but I just can't). You just don't want your first ride on them to be in the wet! Some combination of the tread compound and moulding release agent residue does make them a bit slipperier than others when very new, but they scrub in over a few rides. I've done many thousands of km on Gators, and can't recall the last time I had a puncture.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Derny Driver » Thu Sep 08, 2016 3:07 pm

I know you're a Gatorskin fan Duck. Revving you up :wink:

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Mububban » Thu Sep 08, 2016 4:18 pm

Duck! wrote:The SLRs have a softer, grippier racing-oriented compound and a lighter casing. Faster, but less durable. The SLs are reasonable tyres; not fantastic, but not horrendous either. The early versions were a bit ordinary, but the current generation have improved. Ride them until they die, then replace with something that best suits your needs.
Derny Driver wrote: Why not just ride them until they wear out before putting on some nasty hard slippery gatorskins or whatever?
Gators are one of the more rideable tyres in that sector. Yes they're harder and less grippy than supple race tyres, but they're considerably more compliant than most other durable offerings (I'm probably supposed to say nice things about Schwalbe because the shop I'm in sells them, but I just can't). You just don't want your first ride on them to be in the wet! Some combination of the tread compound and moulding release agent residue does make them a bit slipperier than others when very new, but they scrub in over a few rides. I've done many thousands of km on Gators, and can't recall the last time I had a puncture.
Thanks Duck, I'll give the stock tyres a go and cross my fingers. And Gatorskins seem to get a lot of votes.

Last question then - folding vs wire bead for the (eventual) next set of tyres? Wire is heavier but has stronger sidewalls from what I've read?
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Duck! » Thu Sep 08, 2016 6:52 pm

No effect on sidewall strength, but wirebead does make the tyres slightly stiffer.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby lunar_c » Fri Sep 09, 2016 11:58 am

GP4000 II's and lightweight tubes transformed my Defy 1 .. And then lopping 300g off the wheelset made it a really decent training bike.

The SL's are okay but definitely feel sluggish.

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby hamishm » Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:16 am

My Giant TCR Advanced came with these tyres. I had to brake reasonably hard while descending once and slid along the road quite nicely. So now I use these tyres on my trainer. I never had anything like it with years of riding on GP4000, GP4000s and GP4000s II.

Throw the Giants as far and as quickly as possible...

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Arlberg » Tue Sep 13, 2016 7:07 pm

Duck! wrote:I'm probably supposed to say nice things about Schwalbe because the shop I'm in sells them, but I just can't).
What don't you like about Schwalbe tires? I'm thinking of the Schwalbe One clincher in particular which generally seems to get very good reviews.

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Duck! » Tue Sep 13, 2016 7:39 pm

Sidewalls are consistently fragile and prone to splitting, "grip" on the heavier duty tyres makes Gatorskins feel like sticky race tyres, and they're frigging expensive.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby bychosis » Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:21 pm

If you are worried about punctures $20ish for a set of tyre liners could help, and then you can run any tyre you like with having to look for puncture protected ones. I haven't had a puncture since fitting some Mr Tuffy liners in two bikes.
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby ironhanglider » Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:30 pm

bychosis wrote:If you are worried about punctures $20ish for a set of tyre liners could help, and then you can run any tyre you like with having to look for puncture protected ones. I haven't had a puncture since fitting some Mr Tuffy liners in two bikes.
Isn't that odd. I fitted tyre liners and got punctures from the liners!

Cheers,

Cameron

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby bychosis » Wed Sep 14, 2016 10:58 am

ironhanglider wrote:
bychosis wrote:If you are worried about punctures $20ish for a set of tyre liners could help, and then you can run any tyre you like with having to look for puncture protected ones. I haven't had a puncture since fitting some Mr Tuffy liners in two bikes.
Isn't that odd. I fitted tyre liners and got punctures from the liners!

Cheers,

Cameron
I have been told that sometimes where the tyre liners overlap you can get a wear point and cause an issue. I was told this while repairing a flat in a tube from one of my lined tyres, the hole wasn't in the linered area, was rim tape related. Part of my commute is along a steel fibre reinforced concrete pathway and prior to instally Mr Tuffys I was getting about one puncture per week from the metal fibres in the path. Since installing the liners a couple of years ago I haven't had a puncture from the fibres, but have pulled plenty of fibres from the tyres.
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Bourney » Fri Sep 16, 2016 9:35 am

My Defy came with PSL-1's and I've gotten 2,500km out of them so far with no punctures or issues (watch me put a jinx on myself now)

Granted I much prefer GP 4000's, but I figure I might as well get some use out of these, rather than throwing money to the wind straight away.

I do agree that in the wet they can get a bit slidey, but I wouldn't say it's horrendous.. then again I don't push that hard in the wet.

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Mububban » Fri Oct 14, 2016 4:20 pm

I've only done 300km on the road bike so far but I've gone through some broken glass, the usual gutter/kerb cr@p and I went over something yesterday that I didn't see with both tyres that made a loud disconcerting *crunch POP* sound. Both tyres survived though and so far, no grip problems or braking slides (I have a couple of downhill braking zones leading up to traffic lights and a roundabout).
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Mububban » Sat Oct 22, 2016 11:15 pm

Copped my first puncture today, with a ~15mm nail burying itself into my rear wheel. I feel like any tyre would have been undone by that!
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Mububban » Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:43 pm

hamishm wrote:My Giant TCR Advanced came with these tyres. I had to brake reasonably hard while descending once and slid along the road quite nicely. So now I use these tyres on my trainer. I never had anything like it with years of riding on GP4000, GP4000s and GP4000s II.

Throw the Giants as far and as quickly as possible...
So, I just experienced this today. Coming downhill approaching a roundabout, a car turned without signalling rather than continuing on straight, and I had to jam the brakes on harder as I was only gently braking. The back locked up and slid, I wasn't going to stop in time and had to power on through before they turned. And that was in the dry.

Partly me not being cautious enough approaching the roundabout, but that was a mild pucker moment.
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby chriso_29er » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:35 am

I have now done 2500km on the SL1 23c that came on my new TCR. Lots of wet rides over winter including mountain decents. Seem fine to me. Not sure of this sliding thing, in the dry my bike will endo if I pull the brake hard enough!
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Duck! » Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:08 pm

Mububban wrote:
So, I just experienced this today. Coming downhill approaching a roundabout, a car turned without signalling rather than continuing on straight, and I had to jam the brakes on harder as I was only gently braking. The back locked up and slid, I wasn't going to stop in time and had to power on through before they turned. And that was in the dry.

Partly me not being cautious enough approaching the roundabout, but that was a mild pucker moment.
Any tyre will do that in those circumstances; rear brakes are extremely ineffective in emergency situations (and barely effective at the best of times).
Last edited by Duck! on Thu Nov 03, 2016 1:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Thoglette » Thu Nov 03, 2016 1:27 am

bychosis wrote:If you are worried about punctures
...stop worrying.

They'd have happened by now. Relax and enjoy the supple options.
Last edited by Thoglette on Thu Nov 03, 2016 1:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Thoglette » Thu Nov 03, 2016 1:30 am

Mububban wrote:The back locked up and slid,
Derney Driver will be rolling his eyes at this point ("young folk of today" and all that)

If you're stopping HARD the back brake is not doing anything at all. (It's called a "stoppie" when you get the back wheel off the ground - and yes, normal bicycles can and will do this)
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Mububban » Tue Nov 15, 2016 5:40 pm

Copped my second puncture in 500km, this time a front puncture this morning, didn't notice it until I checked my bike on my lunch break. The tube had a small hole but I checked the tyre and couldn't find anything. A thorn perhaps?

I also found the P-SL1 tyre to be a real b!tch to get back on (did I mention how skinny I am?) and had to use some washing up liquid as lube to overcome the rubber's friction. Let's hope it's all okay and I get home with no more dramas.
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Re: Giant P-SL1 tyres - worth keeping or upgrade?

Postby Howzat » Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:14 am

If you do upgrade, Conti GP 4000s have better grip and better puncture protection than Gatorskins.
Gatorskins are intended as high km, long wearing tyres.

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