Veloflex Servizio Corse: best tubular tyre?

[LouisN]

Merlin Cycles still has some in stock ( somewhere in their Spanish warehouse ) .

Louis

[Prawn]

I've run 25mm ProTour on the rear, and 25mm ProTour Race on the front for the last six months. They've only seen ~800km of use so far (because I've been alternating between these and two other sets of wheels: The much-hyped wider / tubeless option and everyday clinchers). Observations so far: They seem less prone to picking up slivers of glass - I check after every ride and I've been surprised that the Veloflex don't pick up glass at all. They are supple, but no better than, say, Cora's G2 25mm tubs. Perhaps these two observations are related. No signs of wear so far.

[Alexandrumarian]

I just saw that brr recently tested the corsa race clincher, which should be a very similar casing to the protour race.

For my taste the tire looks very good as a mountain option:
-lighter than average
-puncture resistance above average.

Rr is ok at 13w, equal to G1.0

The low thread thickness seems to be a negative (short life compared to 5000 or Vittoria) but in the hills I would take the good puncture protection first.

Also a few W worse RR is less important in the hills (unlike long flat rides / TT)

Question is, does it really suck in the wet? (IME 5000 clinchers seem to suck in the wet: bit of braking over a strecth of damp road made the rear dance like crazy, which is a bad sign)

[petromyzon]

I would suggest that for tyres of a similar construction weight is a good proxy for puncture resistance.

I think the latter is quite hard to measure in real-world conditions and so I wouldn't expect the Corsa Race to be significantly better in terms of puncture proofing than the other brands you mention.

[mrlobber]

Question is, does it really suck in the wet?

Still a really good question. I rechecked my date of purchase of the ProTours I've described above, I bought them early October 2020. So by that point, Veloflex should have had already made their silent "improve-wet-grip" update. However, this doesn't necessarily mean they immediately shipped out the new tyres for the customers (can't check the mfg date, as the tubs are glued, obviously). I have a pair of 28mm ProTours (bought within the same order) glued to another set of wheels, unridden so far, when the proper autumn with damp roads comes, perhaps will do some "controlled" testing.

[mrlobber]

I would suggest that for tyres of a similar construction weight is a good proxy for puncture resistance.

By that measure, 25mm Vittorias are definitely "thick", as they weigh ~305 or more grams, whereas Veloflex ProTours are ~295 (as are some other 25mm tubs, for instance, Conti ProLtd ALX, Michelin Pro4).

[petromyzon]

It wouldn't be the most scientific way of doing things (perhaps some puncture belts are more advanced than others) but thicker rubber, especially on the shoulders, does seem to help.

I'm glad that Jarno from BRR does try and objectively measure puncture resistance but I'm not convinced how well the results compare to real life.

Apparently there are some grip tests coming and Michelin do quite well in those.