SafariX

I am currently in the market for a set of deep dish carbon wheels (like the 2010 Easton EC90 TT).

I currently ride Michelin Pro3 Race on my Easton EA90 SLX and Mavic Kysrium Elites.

What is a durable, high performance and lightweight tubular tire for a set of tubular carbon wheels?

I know nothing of tubular tires at the moment....

Fox Farm

Oy! This has been discussed a bit here. I use Tufo Elite tubulars and have for 5 years now. I like them much more than the Conti Sprinters I used previously. I have not tired Victoria but they are also very good tires.

jfmckenna

There is a lot to choose from but I have found that durable and high performance/light weight typically do not come in one package. I am racing on Veloflex Criteriums now and I think they are great but you won't get a whole lot of miles out of them as the grippy tread wears fast. Conti makes a gatorskin tubular tire, I've never used it but if it's a hi-mileage tire then my guess is that they don't have the road feel of a good quality racing sew up and that's the only reason I ride tubulars. So for durability I prefer clinchers. But to each their own.

iab

+1 to Veloflex, Criterium or Carbon.

rc32

You should really give the forum search function a try. This has been discussed here ad nauseam.

Having said that, my preferences are:

Veloflex Carbons, Vittoria Corsa Evos and Challenge Criteriums would be my pick as all around awesome tires.

Conti Sprinters are decent, especially for the price you can get them for at outfits like PBK these days(about $37 with the latest discount code). Just be sure to give them a thorough stretching since they are more difficult to mount than the ones mentioned above.

cc3chan

From experience, Veloflex Carbon and Vittoria Corsa EVO CX for best ride but lower durability with the edge to Veloflex for better wear, and Continental Competition for decent ride and much better durability.

Currently running Vittoria Corsa EVOs on Zipps. Thinking about trying the Schwalbe Ultremo tubulars sometime in the future.

dgasmd

Agree with most of it. I ride tubulars only and my order of preference is:

1. Veloflex Carbon
Best ride quality, the most costly of all 3, but wears out too fast for me.

2. Vittoria EVO CX
Awesome ride quality (85-90% of the Veloflex quality), last longer than Veloflex, cost less than Veloflex.

3. Continental Competition
Last the longest of all 3 (50% more at least than the other 3), it is by far the cheapest of all 3, has the better (not by much really) puncture resistance, has the crappiest of ride quality and build quality.

I have changed all of my wheels sets to Vittorias now. Not going back to anything else anytime soon.

carpediemracing 

+1 Vittoria EVO CX. I have them on a few sets of wheels. I have 2 more new ones. I guard them jealously. Over the recent past I've bought 12? 15? for various wheels, and try and rotate them so they wear evenly (else the front tire just gets old and cracks).

I had one flat myself on my recent CXs at some race, maybe 3-4-5 years ago, I forget.

The other flat a Champion Systems rider borrowed my wheel (I have no idea who it is) - he flatted his wheel in Prospect Park NYC. I'd also punctured a wheel (actually, this must have been the other flat), so after I put a spare wheel on my bike I was down to just one extra wheel. It happened to be the right end, I lent it to him, he flatted it, gave it back to me, said it would have flatted anyway and left. Nice. Moral of that story? Don't lend a wheel to a guy just because he is sponsored by a clothing company from which you buy many thousands of dollars of clothing, and don't buy any more clothing from that company, ever again.

And if you ever borrow a wheel with any kind of sponsor logos on your kit, you make up for however different the wheel is before you borrowed it and when you gave it back.

Since our team is sponsored by a shop that does Bontrager, and since Bontrager tubulars are made in the same factory as Vittoria tubulars (as well as Michelin clinchers for that matter), I decided to buy some Bontrager tires. Have two pair, their nice one and their second niceset one. No idea how the are since they are leaning against a wall right now. They look grey and black

I'm making a guess too. I figure we'll see Michelin tubulars next fall. They partially own a factory that makes tubulars. They make tires there. They've given out Michelin branded tubulars to their teams in the past (for those that don't want to use clinchers). And tubulars, although a small segment of the market, I think must be kind of consistent. Kinda sorta like the $15k bike market, or the $200k sports car market.

cdr

merlinextraligh

I've been using Vittoria EVO CX the last 2 seasons. The rears last around 1000-1500 miles. Given that I just use them to race, that means I replace them every year, which works out well, giving you new tires, with new glue to start each year.

Thus I don't see longevity to be an issue, at least for how I use them.

rollin

So what I'm hearing here is that my Continental Competitions are not the greatest ride. They felt good to me having not ridden tubulars for the past 20 years. I went with Continentals because I love the GP 4000 clinchers.

Good to know.

Looking for ride quality not major durability in a tubular.

I have a change coming up.

dgasmd

I cannot speak for clinchers, but I suspect this holds true to them too. Crappy and cheap tubulars come with crappy build quality, crappy duration, and crappy ride quality. I personally think the only reasons to ride tubulars all the time are ride quality and increased puncture resistance, the latter can be voodoo though. Getting cheapeash tubulars defeats the purpose completely, although it does allow you to rejoice in the walmart mentality that you "saved" a couple of dollars. If I wanted to just save money and could live with the ride quality difference, I would go with the Continental Competition. If ride quality was a concern, and it is for me personally, I would go with either the Veloflex or the Vittorias.

rollin

^^ I hear you. I only chose Continentals because I love their clinchers, hell their current clinchers are better than the tubulars I rode in the 80s.

jfmckenna

The competitions are ok at best, they don't squish up like a nice sew up in the corners but you can almost get that feeling with them and they are not so cheap that they don't align correctly or have bumps in them. The nice thing about the competitions for training is that they are a bit more durable, have a reasonable tubular road feel and a butyl tube that holds air longer so you don't need to pump them up all the time.

SafariX

I think Im going to try the Vittorias. Nashbar has them here for $111 https://www.nashbar.com/bikes//Produc...2_207395_-1___.

Are these the same tire at Amazon? https://www.amazon.com/VITTORIA-CORSA...9446068&sr=8-6

Are there any better places to buy them?

dgasmd

If you pay that much for the tire you should be beaten senseless with a bamboo stick, naked in front of a nursing home!!!!!

Go to either of the 3 places below and see who has them in stock. The last 2 can use Paypal, which will save you the credit card fee for foreign transactions. Also, the first and last will save you extra as they have free shipping too.

PBK If you use this one, put in USA15 as a discount code for an extra 15% off.
Ribble
Wiggle

jrennie

The step down is the one to run. The RXL tubular not the RXXXl is my favorite tire, especially on HED wide rims.

FixedFiend626

Bought a pair on eBay for 105 shipped. Granted they are the older ones (290 TPI) but still, 111 Per tire? I've seen Veloflexs on ebay for 150 a pair.