One of the most important things to get right on your bike are the tires (or tyres if you swing that way). They are your connection to the ground. A great set will let you ride fast, safe and stay relatively flat free. A bad set will leave you feeling nervous on fast corners or go flat if you look at them sternly.
Today I’m going to review the Giant P SL-2 front and rear tires in 25mm size. All told, between 2 sets, I’ve put about 8000km on the tires in the last year.
First off the tires always rode well. They handled a bit of chip seal with some give, but always felt like they hooked up with the pavement coming down our local mountains at 70km/h or more. The cornering was superb, I never felt like I was loosing a corner because of a lack of tire performance.
My big issue with the tires were flats. The fastest I went through a rear P SL-2 was 1 week. The longest a rear ever lasted was 2 months. I had a set of Gatorskins around as winter tires so I swapped them on and never flatted again. I was able to ride both front tires till they were simply worn out and the performance never degraded as far as I could tell.
Mounting
One of the issues I had with the tires was getting them back on the rim. I can hand mount Gatorskins Ultremo’s and a host of other tires with little grunting. No matter how hard I grunted, hand mounting always failed with the Giant P SL-2. I continually had to resort to a tire lever to get that last bit on the rim. Even having them on for a while made no difference, they were always a bear to get off and on.
Recommended?
Ultimately this is not the tire for me. I was always getting flats and that simply makes the tire utterly useless no matter how fast the tire is otherwise. Nothing is slower than a flat tire.
If your riding in debris free areas then the Giant P SL-2 is a great fast tire. It will corner well and treat you to a smooth ride. If you have any chance of some debris steer clear. You’re just going to have to replace them fast.
If you liked the post why don’t you check out the Continental Gatorskin or Schwalbe Ultremo DD tires on Amazon.