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review

Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR

8
£89.95

VERDICT:

8
10
Very impressive performance blended with durability, but oh so expensive
Very good grip
Rolling resistance feels minimal
Works with hookless rims
How much?!
Weight: 
299g

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A tyre for all seasons, that's the thinking behind the new Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR. The AS – All Season – is a more robust version of the company’s performance range of tyres for use year-round. It offers great grip and impressive rolling resistance, and seems very durable. It'll cost you, though.

For other (cheaper) options, check out our guide to the best road bike tyres.

Many bike brands spec Continental's Grand Prix 5000 S TR tyres on their high-end models, and with good reason – they are very good indeed in terms of performance.

With this AS model Continental has aimed to keep as much of the 5000 S’s performance as possible, but with the durability of its Grand Prix 4 Season.

2023 Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR tyres Fitted 3.jpg

Conti has tweaked its Black Chilli compound to increase grip in wet conditions and has gone for a thicker tread for longevity and durability. Beefed-up sidewalls also add to that.

Over the last month of wet roads and thorns from hedgecutting, the AS TRs have stood up well, covering hundreds of miles without showing any signs of cuts or damage. That could just be luck, but they have certainly given me confidence while out riding on the back lanes while I've been waiting for spring to arrive.

Performance-wise, the AS TRs feel great. They are carrying a few grams over the S TR, but only about 50g in total, so not enough to change the feel when it comes to acceleration or rolling resistance.

2023 Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR tyres Fitted 1.jpg

The compound has a sticky feel to it, and gives great grip even in the wet and cold, inspiring plenty of confidence in the bends or when travelling quickly through roundabouts.

2023 Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR tyres - 2.jpg

The ride is supple too, even with the boosted sidewall protection; unless you were to run the S and AS tyres side by side, you'd struggle to notice the difference.

In fact, I'd go as far to say that you could race on these tyres during the summer and train on them in the winter.

They’re designed for tubeless setups and are also compatible with hookless rims – something that is becoming more commonplace.

2023 Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR tyres - boxed.jpg

I fitted them to a couple of different rims; they fitted easiest to the narrowest ones, with an inner rim width of 19mm, needing a bit more finger power to get them on the wider wheels.

Once on the rim, setting them up tubeless was very easy, with the bead popping into place with the use of a powerful track pump.

Value

The biggest issue for me, though – and I doubt I'm alone – is the price: £89.95 each!

Panaracer's Agilest TLR tyre was given a 9/10 by Steve in his review – they are not only light and fast, but he also said they are tough enough for winter roads. All that for just £59.99.

And the Corsa N.Ext TLR tyres from Vittoria were also highly rated by Aaron, who said that they were impressively puncture resistant, grippy, and fast rolling. At £69.99 they’re a tenner more than the Panaracers, but that's still a £20 saving over the Contis.

Conclusion

From a performance point of view, there’s little to fault with the Grand Prix 5000 AS TRs. They feel every bit as good as the standard S, but with the added protection to cope with poor road conditions. They’re very expensive, though, and with many other tyres on the market offering similar performance at a much cheaper price, the competition is tough.

Verdict

Very impressive performance blended with durability, but oh so expensive

If you're thinking of buying this product using a cashback deal why not use the road.cc Top Cashback page and get some top cashback while helping to support your favourite independent cycling website

road.cc test report

Make and model: Continental Grand Prix 5000 AS TR

Size tested: 25-622

Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

The Grand Prix 5000 AS TR tyres are designed to offer the performance of the 5000 S TR, with the durability of Grand Prix 4 Season.

I found them to be an impressive balance of the two.

Conti UK says: "A welcome addition to the Grand Prix 5000 family - a tubeless-ready All-Season (AS) model. Choose the GP5000AS for maximum protection in all-weather conditions, complimenting our already established GP4Season as a tubeless alternative."

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

From Conti:

Improve sidewall protection compared to Grand Prix 5000 S TR

Improved durability over Grand Prix 5000 S TR

Rubber compound formulated for wet weather riding

Hookless ready profile

Tyre Technology: BlackChilli II Compound, Vetran Tyre Breaker, Active Comfort Technology, Tubeless Ready

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
8/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
 
8/10
Rate the product for comfort (if applicable)
 
8/10
Rate the product for value:
 
3/10

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

Great performance and durability.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Great grip and performance.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Expensive.

How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

It is one of the most expensive tyres on the market.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Possibly, if they were on offer.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Use this box to explain your overall score

Awesome performance and durability, but they lose half a star for the massive price.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 44  Height: 180cm  Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: This month's test bike  My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed,

As part of the Tech Hub here at F-At Digital, our senior product reviewer Stu uses the knowledge gained from putting well over a 1,000 products through their paces (including hundreds of bikes) to write in-depth reviews of a huge range of kit. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 160,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. Although, as he spends a fair bit of his time reviewing ebikes these days he's becoming an expert in letting the motor take the strain. He's also waiting for 23mm race tyres to make a comeback!

Add new comment

17 comments

Avatar
Wales56 | 2 weeks ago
0 likes

the 32mm has dropped in price to £49.99 if you look around - seems not to being used that much (28 is around £60)

Avatar
wickedstealthy | 9 months ago
0 likes

Just checked BRR and tubeless tire are faster when you combine the clincher with tpu tubes like revoloop. The gp5000 clincher 25mm is faster then the gp5000 s tr and way faster then the gp5000 as. It clincher has the same thread thickness as the as and much more then the s tr version. On top of that it has the same puncture resistance as the as in the middle. Only the sidewall puncture resistance is less. But for a road tire hardly a big issue. So what are we all talking about except maybe some extra comfort to give up even more speed for road tires. I'm running Pirelli tires with revoloop and gp on another bike and I haven't had a flat last year with more then 13k km on tpu inners ??? Pressure has also been dropped so I see almost no value in tubeless unless you want to run 30mm tires and ride cobbled pavement

Avatar
Veganpotter replied to wickedstealthy | 9 months ago
1 like

It's pretty great having rare flats. I get home and have sealant on my seat tube 2-3x a week but it's rare that I ever even notice on my ride. Each time, I'd be changing out a tube if I were running them. As for the pressure, that's a great advantage too. Plenty of chopped up roads and train tracks that have given me flats with a compromised tolerable air pressure in the past but it's a total non-issue now.

Avatar
Tuslareb replied to Veganpotter | 9 months ago
0 likes

2 to 3 punctures a week, seriously? What roads do you ride on? I ride 10 to 15.000 k a year with the regular GP5000 and I didn't have a puncture for over 3 years now. My last puncture was in march of 2020, using the GP5000 TL. 

Avatar
🐸 replied to Tuslareb | 9 months ago
0 likes

3 months, 8600 km, 21 punctures for the rear tyre:

https://road.cc/sites/default/files/IMG_20230429_042057.jpg

Avatar
IanEdward replied to 🐸 | 9 months ago
0 likes

Is that a Panaracer?

My old boss was similarly delighted with the number of punctures that sealed on his tubeless Panaracer tyres, whilst in the same time the rest of us suffered .. no punctures at all 😆

Avatar
ChuckSneed | 9 months ago
0 likes

19 mm internal rim width is the 'narrowest' you have to test them with? That's not a proper road rim, that's a gravel rim. Why don't you test a proper rim width (maximum 17 mm) for road riding? Especially if you're testing 25 mm tyres, which is what I'd consider the biggest for performance and fast riding on the road. Shame it doesn't come narrower though.

Avatar
Wingguy replied to ChuckSneed | 9 months ago
4 likes

Thanks for your feedback General Ludd.

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JOHN5880 replied to ChuckSneed | 9 months ago
5 likes

You better get in touch with all the pro teams to let them know that a significant portion of them aren't using proper road rims and are mounting tires too wide for performance and fast riding.  That horribly slow rider Pojcar has been using 25mm internal width rims and 30mm tires most of this spring and we know how poorly he's performed with those.....

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to JOHN5880 | 9 months ago
8 likes
JOHN5880 wrote:

You better get in touch with all the pro teams to let them know that a significant portion of them aren't using proper road rims and are mounting tires too wide for performance and fast riding.  That horribly slow rider Pojcar has been using 25mm internal width rims and 30mm tires most of this spring and we know how poorly he's performed with those.....

Wow, just think how quick he'd've been if he had ChuckSneed advising him on bike setup...

Avatar
Hirsute replied to hawkinspeter | 9 months ago
4 likes

He would not have broken his wrist either !

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andystow replied to Hirsute | 9 months ago
2 likes
Hirsute wrote:

He would not have broken his wrist either !

Or he'd have broken it worse, going 10-15 km/h faster!

Avatar
Veganpotter replied to andystow | 9 months ago
1 like

Try 25-35 kph faster!!! Ideally also with 19mm tires

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Veganpotter replied to ChuckSneed | 9 months ago
2 likes

Been riding rims on the road with 20mm internal widths for over 10yrs. A good gravel rim is over 25mm wide internally. I honestly can't imagine riding a road rim under 19mm ever again. All but the cheapest alloy wheels are wider than 19mm now unless Campagnolo makes them

Avatar
Prosper0 | 9 months ago
0 likes

I have no doubt that they're extremely good. But I just don't see how that price is viable. 

Avatar
OnYerBike replied to Prosper0 | 9 months ago
3 likes

It's worth pointing out that, notwithstanding boutique brands like Rene Herse, most tyres are very easy to find discounted. Despite these ones being newly released, they are already on sale for <£75.

That doesn't massively change the conclusions when it comes to value - £75 per tyre is still a lot, and other tyres are also available discounted (e.g. the Corsa N.Ext TLR mentioned can be had for <£40). But I would expect very few people will actually pay the headline price.  

Avatar
HaveLegsWillRide | 9 months ago
0 likes

They come in a 35mm version, are they beefed up enough to be considered for light off-road duties?

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