I received this email from Enve today. They specify state that the Vittoria Corsa Speed TLR has proven safe and reliable in their testing. This is the tire listed in your second link. It comes as TLR or tubular. They are probably the fastest clincher tires available, but have a reputation for being fragile.

I wonder if the 2.0 version will fix some of these issues.

Hmm, interesting timing as I just did IMNZ on those last saturday. The second mode of failure - bad coming over rim - is not likely to happen on mine given the swearing and fatigue inducing process of getting the sodding things onto the rims. I won't be crude, but they were very very very very tight, and it needed a lot of skill, lubrication and force and still ended up with blood spilt before I was done. I do wonder in some ways if the tightness of the bead is in part contributing to the issue, where levers are ending up creating micro tears in the sidewall.

As for the latter, then I've been using the open corsas for years, but will say that the last couple of years I have for the first time seen some wear on the sidewalls exactly as they show. Now I've not had any failures but I have swapped them out when I've seen it.

As vittoria say, it's a race tyre, and not training. So I don't reckon you're going to go from visually fine to blow out in one ride, but it is a point about front tyre blowouts. I've had a few in my years on downhills and it's been scary as. Last one was a main highway at 72kph with trucks coming past at 100kph. Stayed up but did cost me a new tyre, tube and pair of shorts.

Great, I just ordered a set of Corsa G+ Opens for my road bike :l

Been thinking about Turbo Cottons, but was having trouble pulling the trigger at $80/tire. Corsa's were $82 for a pair WITH Vittoria latex tubes.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

I just bought the same tires/tubes - great deal. I've been riding them for over a year now and they are super-smooth, comfortable and durable. FWIW

Right here with you, the deals they have on the G+ are awesome which kinda makes you wonder.
I used the Corsa G+ for almost a year racing/training and they were mostly fine, I don't think i ever had more than 1000KM on a pair before changing them anyways.

The Corsa Speed G+ seems to be the safe/fast option, but potentially having to deal with the punctures if i am running with tubes.

It’s not a mystery why they’re so cheap. The next generation of the Corsas were revealed last week, and most sizes/applications are already for sale on the Vitoria site.

These looked like a close second to the Turbo Cottons for ~half the price, with bonus latex tubes thrown in. I’m sure they’ll be fine. I’m a fair weather rider. Seems water exposure Is one of the contributing factor to the sidewall degradation.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

My gut feel is these "test results" say more about Enve wheels than they do about any particular tire construction...

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What you mean. They are fine fine wheels. Just make sure you don't use some of the consistently favourite tyre choices over the last 20 years, and make sure you use some really specific rim tape or there is a fair to middling chance you'll die when the front explodes without warning. But that's a minor downside when you think about how cool they look.

(for the international audience, please be aware the above text includes British sarcasm and should be read as such)

Rim cutting the tire sidewall resulting in a blowout, and tire coming off the rim... resulting in a blowout. Both of these could be solved by a proper bead hook, and a more rounded edge to the rim lip.

Frankly I think the sidewall cut near the bead is nearly always caused by improper brake shoe adjust. This is not uncommon. Hard to believe the rim would cut it unless it was really sharp. Also, if the tire blows off the rim because the hook is inadequate, this can sometimes rip the sidewall at the bead.

Yeah...IMO Enve has a long history of questionable/dodgey claims and design decisions...starting with their decision to go with "ENVE" as their name after they found out they couldn't use "EDGE" <LOL>

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Not Enve wheel related...I picked up some Roval AL35's on Ebay cheap this fall for training wheels. I mounted up some new Conti 4000's. Two trainer rides was enough for the sharp bead edge to cut through the rear tire casing just above the tire bead. I ended up filing down that edge and am keeping an eye on it before I go out on the road.

rich

Please explain the mechanism by which you believe this can happen.
I have NEVER seen a rim cut a tyre, plenty of brake shoes, but never a rim.

In 2 trainer rides the wheel cut through the tire? If this were the case people would have been crashing all over the place within days of this wheel being released and we all would have heard about it and all of those wheels would have been recalled and destroyed.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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I don't think this was a typical wheel set because I've had other roval wheels before and after this model, so this was not intended to be a beatdown on specialized.

I'm just pointing out that a sharp bead edge will in fact cut a tire.

I had a Corsa tire cut the other day. Zipp 404s. Hit a pot hole pretty good. Side casing right need the bead had a 1/2 long cut in it. Blew out two tubes before I figured it out. It was thin and not very long. First one I figured I just pinched the tube.

These new low rolling resistance tires do have their draw backs, but give me a once a year flat to gain 5 watts any day.

Imagine the bead hook on the rim is a capital P in profile. The round part of the P mates with the indentation above the bead on the tire. The bottom of the hook on my rims was square shaped instead of rounded, and very sharp. This edge cut into the tire on the outer diameter of the tire bead allowing the tire pressure to pull the casing around the kevlar material and the tube to buldge out.

As I said to rowtotri I don't think this was typical of this rim and is not a knock on Specialized.

Rich

I love the recent ENVE MTB wheel review on Pinkbike. The reviewer had two catastrophic rim failures on rims ENVE sent for review. Then the third was also jacked up so the reviewer threw his hands up and gave them a bad review. The ENVE CEO response was awful. He had a chance to go full Tylenol and own the failures. Instead he spouts some stuff about how it's better that your wheel implodes on the first ride because it's so much better than implosion after wear.

...not to mention admitting their QC isn't always up to snuff...doh!

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