… in praise of vittoria corsa elite tires

[thwart]

Okay, these are such great tires I thought I should post something about them.

The downsides of tubular tires:
They can flat, and then you're in some trouble.
They wear quickly.
They're expensive.
They're difficult to mount.
They lose lots of pressure in a short period of time… what a hassle, have to pump them up before every ride.

Well... these tires don't have at least four of the five outlined above.

You can pick them up for ~ $50-$55 per tire, they're tough, flat resistant and they wear slowly. The pictures below are after 400 miles of use, with lots of climbing out of the saddle (therefore much more wear on the rear tire). Top is the front, bottom the rear.

They have butyl tubes, so you can go at least 3 days before you have to top them off with your pump. In spite of that they (somehow) seem to ride just as smoothly as latex tube tires.

And they are super easy to mount, go on straight (even easier than other tires made by the same company). No fuss, no bother.

Oh, yeah. Get the 25's.

[avalonracing]

I feel the same way about Vittoria Open CX clinchers. Best tires I've ever owned.

[juanj]

Thanks for the report! How do these compare to the Open Corsa CX or SC, which go for about $70?

[thwart]

Originally Posted by juanj

Thanks for the report! How do these compare to the Open Corsa CX or SC, which go for about $70?

I've ridden both, but not a lot of miles on the SC's. Well, IMO the ride is awfully close in quality, and after you get in the first 25-50 miles of use, the grip seems about as good.

Wear rate is better, air pressure loss is dramatically better.

And they're easier to mount up and get straight on the rim than either of the other Vittoria tires.

[rain dogs]

This thread

The Corsa elite is a tubular last time I looked. Does it make sense to compare it to the open corsa tire (either cx or sc)

There is no Open Corsa Elite is there? I don't think so.

I agree that Vittoria makes the tires that get my money. I'm out of the tubular game now, but the open corsa's are excellent.

[LJohnny]

I have 4 of these coming, should be here early next week. I've heard a lot of good things about them in the past months.

[buldogge]

I'm pretty sure Tom is comparing the Elite tubular to the Corsa CX and SC tubulars...FWIW.

-Mark in St. Louis

Originally Posted by rain dogs

This thread

The Corsa elite is a tubular last time I looked. Does it make sense to compare it to the open corsa tire (either cx or sc)

There is no Open Corsa Elite is there? I don't think so.

I agree that Vittoria makes the tires that get my money. I'm out of the tubular game now, but the open corsa's are excellent.

[Scuzzer]

I've only got 100 miles or so on the set I glued up last week but I really like them so far. Btw, I paid $38 each for them from Ribble with free shipping. In hindsight I should have ordered more than two but I was skeptical that a tubular priced so low would work so well.

[teleguy57]

+1 to all the positive comments. If I don't look down, I have a hard time telling whether I'm on my Pave CGs or Corsa Elites -- both in 25mm. Thanks to OldPotatoe for being one of the first to call them out as a great tire, which helped me decide to give them a try. Now if they only came in a tan sidewall...

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by teleguy57

+1 to all the positive comments. If I don't look down, I have a hard time telling whether I'm on my Pave CGs or Corsa Elites -- both in 25mm. Thanks to OldPotatoe for being one of the first to call them out as a great tire, which helped me decide to give them a try. Now if they only came in a tan sidewall...

Did you mount them on the Nucleons?

They are berry nice tires. And as thwart mentioned, the price makes them a no-brainer. First ride on them I sliced the front tire on construction debris and it didn't hurt 1% as much as losing a Corsa SC (with under 1000 miles) to sidewall rot a week later. I'm a cheap bastard.

[teleguy57]

Originally Posted by LJohnny

Just got the corsa elite in the mail. First thing I noticed was that there is no removable core. Luckily for me they just make it on the wheels.

Mine are removable... I carry one of these.

Originally Posted by beeatnik

Did you mount them on the Nucleons?

They are berry nice tires. And as thwart mentioned, the price makes them a no-brainer. First ride on them I sliced the front tire on construction debris and it didn't hurt 1% as much as losing a Corsa SC (with under 1000 miles) to sidewall rot a week later. I'm a cheap bastard.

As a matter of fact, I did Have Pave 24 tubs on my Nemesis, then got Pave 25 tubs on my next order and have those on my Bontrager D3 3 wheels. In theory the wider tubs would be on the Nemesis, but the glue job on the 24s is just fine so I left them on. Still thinking a tan sidewall tub will look better on the Bontragers, so I may just have to pop for Veloflex Roubaix as an upgrade over Vittoria SCs. Would be wonderful if the Corsa Elites came in tan, but for the price that's way too much to ask.

On cheap -- we're bros....

[LJohnny]

Very well, that will do the job!

[MattTuck]

Originally Posted by thwart

The pictures below are after 400 miles of use, with lots of climbing out of the saddle (therefore much more wear on the rear tire).

This just made me laugh. I know what you're getting at, but all I could think of was the insinuation that you're laying down rubber every time you attack out of the saddle.

More seriously, at this price point, it actually seems reasonable to consider tubulars.

[thwart]

Originally Posted by MattTuck

… you're laying down rubber every time you attack out of the saddle.

Now that is funny.

Attack? I need to stand to climb just to get up the hill…

[cua90]

Do the Elites have the latex coating on the base tape?