28's or 25's for racing

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Luften
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2012 11:31 pm

by Luften

Thanks for the responses everyone. I thought to write a roundup in case it's helpful for others:

Clinchers:
- Go wider for more grip
- Run lower pressures paritcularly with the wider tires. I'm running 80psi now with the Corsas and testing going down to 75psi at the moment. 78-80kg rider. So far it feels fine.
- Vittora Corsa G2.0 are very grippy tires. Slower and louder though, but worth it for me. 25mm size inflate to 27.5mm on the 19c Bora WTOs so they're basically equivalent to 28mm tires.
Other clincher tires:
- Conti GP5000 in 28mm size. I haven't tried yet but they reportedly should inflate relatiely true to size, maybe 28.5mm on the high side. Reported faster rolling than the others, and decent grip (but Corsa wins here), but overall less good ride quality with the lower tpi build.
- Veloflex: 25mm ProTour Race inflate to 26mm on the WTOs. Lovely plush ride (even at higher pressures), but I felt lacked grip through the corners. I still need to go back and test with them now that I've improved my cornering though as this might be a bit of an unfair judgement on them.
- Specialized Turbo Cotton... ?? I'd be interested to hear more about these.
- Michelin or Pirelli...?

Tubulars
- 25mm width seems enough, for me at least. Ride quality and grip are better overall than with the equivalent size clinchers.
- I've also lowered the pressures here too. Running 80psi on the Veloflex Protour Race tubs and the ride quality is fantastic. Grip is good and I'm comfortable on them, but for comparison the wider Vittoria Corsa G2.0 clincher (27.5mm inflated) is still grippier than these.
Other good options seem to be:
- Vittoria Corsa G2.0 25mm. Bit heavier than other options, but probably grippier. I think I'll try these next.
- Conti Competition 25mm ProLTD version only. Reportedly best for rolling resistance, in the middle for grip, but possibly less good than Vittoria or Veloflex in ride quality.
- Specialized S-Works Turbo Allround 2 - I'm curious to hear more about these as well, especially with a 26mm size version.
- Michelin or Pirelli...? Again not much info here. Pirelli looks interesting with a 26mm size available and 275g weight using a TPU inner.

If anyone can fill in the gaps on the Specialized, Michelin or Pirelli tires that would be great. Cheers.

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