I apologise for miserably failing to rack up 10,000 miles over the spring, but I did get a good feel for the grip and ride quality bit of the equation. But Vittoria argues that the addition of graphene massively reduces tyre wear while actually improving the grip and ride quality. > Beginner’s guide to bicycle tyres: find out everything you need to know about tyre typesĭurability and grip are often seen as opposites in tyre choice: a tyre that's going to last 10,000 miles is also one that'll dump you in the ditch on the first wet bend. Is this the graphene factor at play, allowing more compliant ride qualities without the high thread count? This surprised me, as the thread count on the Randonneurs is a paltry 33tpi, compared with the Contact II's 180. It was certainly far superior to what I've experienced with Schwalbe Marathons, which are often the default choice for this style of tyre. If I'd been riding blindfold (!) I'd have been hard-pressed to tell the difference. I feared this might make for a draggy or heavy feel, but in fact, the general ride quality was very similar. A chunk of this is likely to be down to the addition of Vittoria's 1.3mm-thick Solid Shielding puncture strip. Vittoria's claimed weight for the 700x32 is 580g, the claimed weight for the same sized Continentals is 495g. Where the Randonneurs and the Contacts diverge is in the weights. > Buyer’s Guide: 10 of the best road bike tyres
On the open road, progress was smooth and reasonably quick not record-breakingly fast but midfield over Strava segments I've ridden many times before. The maximum recommended tyre pressure of a mere 75psi might be significant, making for a more cushioned ride. They weren't excessively jarring, either. For a fairly narrow tyre they performed very well, taking the uneven gravelly surfaces in their stride and only threatening to spit a little traction on the steepest, loosest sections. My winter riding includes many and varied surfaces including a lot of miles on the converted railway lines of County Durham. Anyway, regardless of all that, they proved surefooted on greasy, shady lanes going up and down some of the most testing bends that I make for when trying out tyres. It's also very rare to hit the speeds required to aquaplane a bicycle'. Bicycles tyres just don't have the inertial mass to force water out through the grooves in the way car tyres do. The Randonneur Techs come with 'subtle siping for wet weather use' but Vittoria's own tyre product manager, Christian Lademann, rather gave the game away when he told Cyclist magazine that 'the grooves on tyres are just for show, a confidence booster. In my experience these mainly serve as traps for tiny pieces of grit or glass that can penetrate the casing. Also like the Continentals, and many other tour-orientated slick tyres, they come with a tread pattern ('sipes') for water dispersal.
VITTORIA RANDONNEUR CROSS WEIGHT FULL
Like the Continentals, the Randonneur Techs come up narrower than advertised – these nominally 32mm tyres measured more like 29mm once installed that's fine by me because they need to fit under the full length guards and they did. It's a small thing but a hint, perhaps, of how the tyres have been manufactured to hit that sub-£35 price point. There were a lot of threads of surplus rubber from the moulding process all around the edges of the tread which buzzed against the inside of the mudguards for the first 20 miles and are still in evidence now. The manufacturing quality was okay – a little untidy around the bead but no bald bits of casing there, as I've seen on some tyres I won't name here. On my touring rims it took a single tyre lever to persuade the last bit of bead over the top.
They've also proven fast-rolling and grippy and are reasonably light, but they have been prone to piercing by the odd thorn, which isn't all that welcome in the winter cold and filth.įitting the Randonneurs was pretty straightforward.
These have racked up over 3,500 miles so far in mostly poor conditions and over a lot of gravel surfaces and still have plenty of life left in them. Test-wise, these Vittorias were going to have to live up to the Continental Contact IIs fitted to my winter bike.
The qualities it believes graphene brings to its tyres include better grip, durability and puncture resistance. In fact, Vittoria has been experimenting with it for 12 years, and it certainly seems that the company's in it for the long-term. That most exotic of materials nobody seems to know what to do with has been turning up in bicycle tyres for some time now. Vittoria says the Randonneur Tech is 'powered by graphene'. The Vittoria Randonneur Tech is a city and touring tyre that delivers a good ride and, seemingly, impressive puncture resistance – I put in close to 300 miles on these, without a flat.
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