Vittoria cx tubs vs. Veloflex crit/carbon

[BdaGhisallo]

I currently use Veloflex carbon and criterium tubs and like them. However, I notice that I can now get vittoria cx tubs from the UK for the equivalent of about $41, about half the price of the veloflex.

Is anyone using vitt cx tubs these days? What's the quality like compared to veloflex? Will I be giving away more in ride quality and the like, than I save in price?

Thanks

[11.4]

First of all, I get domestic Vittoria EVO CX tubulars for $45/tire from several sources and Vittoria Criterium tubulars from World Class and others for about $58. Not the same price, but not a huge difference either. Check around on the Veloflex prices before you buy. World Class is a first-rate outfit and Roger is a straight shooter. www.worldclasscycles.com. Their best tire prices are when buying 10 tires (any kind, any combination) at a time, so find a couple other riders to go together on enough tires.

As for comparing the two, I ride both currently (the Vittoria comes with black rubber sidewalls and my Veloflexes have the natural fabric sidewall -- although the Veloflex is also available with a black rubberized sidewall as well). I like the Veloflex ride better, though the EVO CX is anything but bad. The black rubber sidewall detracts somewhat from suppleness of the tire, so the difference might lie partly in that difference. While the old CX tubulars gave me a lot of glass cuts and more flats than usual, the new ones seem a lot better. They're not as resilient and thus tend to skip a little more in corners. The Veloflexes rarely give me glass cuts and then typically when they're old; however, I've seen enough riders with sidewall damage on Veloflexes to warn people who are hard on tires about them (it should be a warning about taking care of your tires rather than about avoiding Veloflexes). In wet weather, they're comparable (and superb). The black rubber coating on the EVO CX sidewalls makes the basetape almost impossible to remove without tearing it when doing a puncture repair. On the other hand, it sure keeps the base tape from separating at all. I haven't used the Veloflex Black yet, so it might have the same issues. The Veloflex base tape doesn't come loose at all (unlike Contis, for example, which seem to have this problem for many people, or older Vittorias).

Right now I'd buy a Veloflex first if the prices were reasonably close. If you walk through the staging area for the start of a major European race and look at the tires, you'll see that perhaps half of the tires are Veloflexes with the label marked out with a black felt-tip or with black tread paint and sometimes with a fake label hot-stamped on. Veloflex doesn't pay for this, so it tells you something about the experiences European riders have with these tires.

Now, just to plug a different tire (not like you asked), don't forget the Vittoria Pave tubular. I'd skip the All Weather tubular -- it's a little too flat-prone and while it sticks well in the wet, the Pave does much better -- and rate the Pave as the best tubular available for anything other than dry clean-road racing. If you have to race a cobbled criterium course in the wet, you'll drop everybody on every turn with them. They last forever, never puncture, stick like glue in the rain or muck, and are extremely comfortable to ride. There's also a clincher version if you're so inclined. I'm gradually shifting my riding to a choice of Vittoria Pave and Veloflex Criterium. Great tires, both of them.

[Climb01742]

has bigmac been reincarnated? :rolleyes: 11.4, your posts are always strikingly helpful, lucid and dang smart. thanks.

[BdaGhisallo]

Thanks for the feedback. I kind of knew that I should stick with the VFlex tubs but the idea of saving $20/tire was attractive. But if I go through the expense of riding tubs all the time, then it's worth a little extra to get the best - or the best behind Dugast!!