Originally Posted by
Road Fan
Which Gommis do you have? I’ve used the Champions and the Espressos. IMO the Champions are much better than the Conti Giros, and the Espressos are among the best I have ever ridden, though I have not sprung for any Veloflex or FMB.
In cheap tubulars, my pecking order is (bottoms first) Conti Giro, Vittoria Rallye, Yellow Jersey Service Corse (feels like a tubular, repairable, no fractures experienced) and Gommitalia Champion (smooth and lively feel, flexible and compliant, as nice as the classic Vittoria CX and similar). These are all too “old school” to have breaker layers, so flatting is possible.
I like the Velox Jantex tape. I tried the heavy duty Tufo once, and it’s too hard to undo. I’d probably try the regular Tufo, and I’m curious about Cafe Espresso. Drawn to the cafe culture thing, I guess!
The Gommis are Champions and they look good, although I hope they will stick down well at the valve. They've been settling on these rims for awhile now, but they 'push up' a bit at the valve. I may clean/trim the base tape there to help. The Giros look really, really good in construction/finish but of course it's about the ride. Maybe they ride like the YJ tubies - don't know the thread count. Having 2 pairs of the Champions, the Giros and the Challenge Elites on their way sets me up well for the near-future I think. Thanks for the feedback on the Champions - until today I'd not heard anything about their ride from anyone who'd used them. And I'll look into the Jantex tape as well; I still have the remnants/box of that stuff from when
Wildwood and I teamed up for a once-only tubular-taping session.
Just curious what you didn't like about the Giros. Obviously I haven't used the NOS pair I have, but I did run them in Hawaii for a short time before giving them up for clinchers across the board. Can't recall how they rode...
Thanks for you .02
DD