We've received a limited edition Grand Prix 4 Season from Continental.
It's listed as North America exclusive, but apparently this is the only shipment coming to Japan.
Since quantities are limited, they're only making direct orders from shops
that have strong sales track records with Continental—
basically creating that "you better order this" kind of pressure with their phone calls, so
I ended up stocking a few pairs.
↓
Already sold out. Sorry about that.
I installed a pair on yesterday's Rapide as well.
Originally it had Specialized 24C tires,
but since the Dix brake wheels were bought for rainy commuting,
the customer trusts the excellent wet grip performance of Continental's Grand Prix line
and asked me to swap out the tires.
↑The 4 Season in the photo above is mine.
The color of the polyamide fiber sidewall protection against cuts
is black on this limited edition.
Also, the Grand Prix 4 Season normally comes in 23C and 25C sizes,
but the limited edition is 25C only.
I run the 4 Season only on the rear wheel of my regular commute tire,
and it has clearly different characteristics from the Grand Prix 4000 SII.
With the Grand Prix 4000 SII,
after considerable long-term use, the tire itself stretches and gets about 2C wider.
A 23C becomes roughly 25C, and a 25C becomes roughly 27C.
I've measured this with calipers before, so there's no mistake.
This is the R-SYS that'll come up in the next post,
and since the customer happened to stop by at the right time, I asked to measure
the tire width while they were here, beyond what they originally came for.
The sidewall says 23C,
but the actual measurement slightly exceeds 25C.
It's been on the wheel for about three months.
I kept the calipers at that measurement
and tested it against a different 23C tire.
When I hold the calipers against the left side of this tire in the photo,
there's this much clearance on the right side. This one is roughly 23C as marked.
You can see from the tread that this one isn't brand new either—
it's been used a fair bit.
With the Grand Prix 4 Season,
tire growth isn't completely absent, but
from my experience, the progression is definitely slower.
I think the sidewall fiber is restraining the expansion.
It's listed as North America exclusive, but apparently this is the only shipment coming to Japan.
Since quantities are limited, they're only making direct orders from shops
that have strong sales track records with Continental—
basically creating that "you better order this" kind of pressure with their phone calls, so
I ended up stocking a few pairs.
↓
Already sold out. Sorry about that.
I installed a pair on yesterday's Rapide as well.
Originally it had Specialized 24C tires,
but since the Dix brake wheels were bought for rainy commuting,
the customer trusts the excellent wet grip performance of Continental's Grand Prix line
and asked me to swap out the tires.
↑The 4 Season in the photo above is mine.
The color of the polyamide fiber sidewall protection against cuts
is black on this limited edition.
Also, the Grand Prix 4 Season normally comes in 23C and 25C sizes,
but the limited edition is 25C only.
I run the 4 Season only on the rear wheel of my regular commute tire,
and it has clearly different characteristics from the Grand Prix 4000 SII.
With the Grand Prix 4000 SII,
after considerable long-term use, the tire itself stretches and gets about 2C wider.
A 23C becomes roughly 25C, and a 25C becomes roughly 27C.
I've measured this with calipers before, so there's no mistake.
This is the R-SYS that'll come up in the next post,
and since the customer happened to stop by at the right time, I asked to measure
the tire width while they were here, beyond what they originally came for.
The sidewall says 23C,
but the actual measurement slightly exceeds 25C.
It's been on the wheel for about three months.
I kept the calipers at that measurement
and tested it against a different 23C tire.
When I hold the calipers against the left side of this tire in the photo,
there's this much clearance on the right side. This one is roughly 23C as marked.
You can see from the tread that this one isn't brand new either—
it's been used a fair bit.
With the Grand Prix 4 Season,
tire growth isn't completely absent, but
from my experience, the progression is definitely slower.
I think the sidewall fiber is restraining the expansion.