I grabbed a bunch of these up as soon as I read about how fast they tested. Beyond that, they are tubeless ready and inexpensive. But wow have I been disappointed. In very low mileage, I have gone through three of these, two of which have suffered multiple punctures in each tire. At one point I was dealing with multiple punctures on the same ride and road, and this was on one of the smoothest roads I ride, where I’ve never flatted before. And this is all within a few hundred miles of opening each of them. I’m pretty aggressive with sealant so most of these sealed themselves, at least initially and/or partially. In fact, I never actually had to swap in a tube on a ride, I just had to keep stopping every few miles to pump the thing back up all the way home. Those rides are the best.
Anyways, this could be just shit luck on my part, but I find it hard to believe these tires aren’t terrible, unless I’m the only one seeing these kinds of issues. Do you have mileage totals and flat/puncture counts (or lack thereof) for your Corsa Speeds? Are they holding up for you?
These tires are not expensive; are apparently super fast; and set up easily tubeless. But if it’s a flat every 300-400 miles type of thing on average roads, that’s a non starter for me
I used them for about 500 miles… really didn’t like wet/damp weather performance after sliding out in the winter on my road bike. No flats and some crappy road conditions with all the winter storms NorCal had…
If you want to see my vote on this, you’ll note that I just listed my Supersonics in the classifieds. I’m all Vittoria Corsa Speeds (+ another tire that will remain secret for now).
Cross Speed TLR are without a doubt the fastest tires we’ve ever tested and I agree with your assessment that they setup tubeless super easy and ride beautifully. Having said all that, you don’t get to be the best at that other stuff without some compromise somewhere and they are clearly less durable and have less puncture resistance than the other tires mentioned.
We’ve been recommending them for lots of athletes we work with as racing tires, which is a sort of concept that used to be just the norm, but has really died out over the last dozen or so years. I’d recommend treating them like we used to treat silk tubes in the old days, keep 'em covered when you travel, glue any little cuts or nicks in them and use them for raceday. We’ve also found that Orange Seal or Stan’s Race Day sealant are a good match for this tire as the sidewalls can weep a bit, so the thicker sealants tend to not only seal larger holes faster, but you will get less permeation of sealant through the sidewalls…just be sure to replenish or change sealant more frequently.
If any of that sounds like too much hassle, then there are numerous other tires that can be run within a 1-2 watts or so of that tire with latex tubes that will be much less work.
Is this the current wisdom? I haven’t read my Thomas Gerlach lately.
I have ridden the Corsa Speed at 3x 70.3 and a sprint locally without issue. I still have them mounted up. The front one is always oozing but I have yet to have to refill the sealant.
Any chance you are working on a nice blog post summarizing your findings? Have you done any recent work to find the optimal tire pressure on these Corsa Speeds?
I had a conversation with TG a few months back and he theorized that Continental’s casing is more durable than the CS’s casing. For me it was too much of a pain to install the CS’s on my HED Jets so I’m just running a 23mm GP TT on the rear and a 20mm SS on the front with latex tubes and sealant. The way I look at it I’m giving up ~1-2 watts in the rear and likely picking that back up in aero on the front and I can actually change the tires relatively easily if needed.
If you want to see my vote on this, you’ll note that I just listed my Supersonics in the classifieds. I’m all Vittoria Corsa Speeds (+ another tire that will remain secret for now).
I’m running them with latex tubes and sealant. I’m on my 3rd tire and 5th ride.
I intend to run only for races.
Tire 1 - tune up ride. Sidewall blow out rounding a corner < 1 mile from home. Okay it happens.
Tire 2 - made it through tune up ride and race day, but suffered a cut from a small piece of gravel. Didn’t go through the puncture layer. Now a trainer tire, as I am not willing to risk it, as they are a tough tire to get on and off my rim.
Tire 3 - made it through tune up ride and race day.
So, here I am 3 tires and 5 rides. The data on the Michelin Power Competition looks good, but almost nobody is riding them… I will have to keep watching threads like these before I make my next purchase.
One thing is for sure the Corsa is statistically fast but anecdotally fragile.
I’m running them with latex tubes and sealant. I’m on my 3rd tire and 5th ride.
I intend to run only for races.
Tire 1 - tune up ride. Sidewall blow out rounding a corner < 1 mile from home. Okay it happens.
Tire 2 - made it through tune up ride and race day, but suffered a cut from a small piece of gravel. Didn’t go through the puncture layer. Now a trainer tire, as I am not willing to risk it, as they are a tough tire to get on and off my rim.
Tire 3 - made it through tune up ride and race day.
So, here I am 3 tires and 5 rides. The data on the Michelin Power Competition looks good, but almost nobody is riding them… I will have to keep watching threads like these before I make my next purchase.
One thing is for sure the Corsa is statistically fast but anecdotally fragile.
I’ve been riding the Power Competitions since last summer - I really like them. Hard to get on at first - which seems to be typical Michelin but they loosen up nicely. I find them to be fast, and I like the feel coming from 4000s II. Corner well, like you said - test well. And no sign of wear or cuts yet.
Rode them in Lanzarote and a training ride before. They held up, even through the 4km gravel stretch. N=1 all good!
Have since mounted the same pair of tyres tubeless on 7.8s. It is doable with just tyres, but i can’t see myself ever able to mount them with a tube on these wheels.
Cross Speed TLR are without a doubt the fastest tires we’ve ever tested and I agree with your assessment that they setup tubeless super easy and ride beautifully. Having said all that, you don’t get to be the best at that other stuff without some compromise somewhere and they are clearly less durable and have less puncture resistance than the other tires mentioned.
We’ve been recommending them for lots of athletes we work with as racing tires, which is a sort of concept that used to be just the norm, but has really died out over the last dozen or so years. I’d recommend treating them like we used to treat silk tubes in the old days, keep 'em covered when you travel, glue any little cuts or nicks in them and use them for raceday. We’ve also found that Orange Seal or Stan’s Race Day sealant are a good match for this tire as the sidewalls can weep a bit, so the thicker sealants tend to not only seal larger holes faster, but you will get less permeation of sealant through the sidewalls…just be sure to replenish or change sealant more frequently.
If any of that sounds like too much hassle, then there are numerous other tires that can be run within a 1-2 watts or so of that tire with latex tubes that will be much less work.
Hey Josh
What other tubeless tyres do you recommend? been trying schwalbe pro one and i basically flat every ride. Looking for something a bit more of a compromise for training and B races, but also race tyres slightly more durable than CS (based on all the anecdotes of flats from other people).
What other tubeless tyres do you recommend? been trying schwalbe pro one and i basically flat every ride.
Yeah this is the issue right now. The only two tubeless road tires on the market that are reasonably priced – the Schwalbe Pro One and the Corsa Speed – have such poor puncture protection/resistance that it virtually eliminates one of the primary advantages for running tubeless on the road anyways. I don’t understand why Continental hasn’t gotten into this category yet. Somebody needs to come out with a tubeless road tire that is great for racing and holds up for training, like those at the top of the Conti clincher range.
At any rate, now I’m running the S-works Turbo tubeless tires, which are slow *and *expensive.
I raced a half that had wet roads and passed many competitors stopped changing a flat. All-in-all, two races and two short training rides on my pair with no flats. Tires still look more or less as-new. That being said, they are a PITA, I am doubtful of my ability to get a tube in there on my ENVE in a real pinch if the sealant doesn’t hold, and I may consequently switch back to Conti w/ tubes.
The tubeless w/ sealant vs tube is an interesting choice, at least with these tires: lower odds of getting a flat, but higher odds that flat is catastrophic given how difficult/impossible it may be to put a tube in.
IMO, there have just been too many negative comments about the tire that I don’t feel the extra watts saved are worth it. Yeah its fast… really fast. But mounting issues, blowouts, prone to cuts and flats… yeah no thanks. I don’t need more stress on race day. I’m big on race confidence and believing in your setup. If you are always worried about something or not 150% confident in your setup… there is something wrong.
I’ve been running 23mm ss front and a 23 mm tt rear. I have a few 20mm ss on order that should be here in a few days and plan to run those on the front the rest of the year. I’ve even thought about running a 23mm ss in the rear.
I don’t get the appeal of tubeless. I really don’t. What am I missing? It’s no faster than the same tire with a latex tube under it. Obviously pinch flats won’t be a concern. But then you have to deal with the mess that is sealant. Even with sealant I feel you are more prone to flats compared to a latex tube with sealant. What about fixing flats? Is everyone just planning to put in a tube for a quick fix during a race or just solely depend on the sealant?
I dunno, as a contrarian, I’ve used the Vittoria for about ~180mi on HED Jet black for ~60 and Enve pre SES for ~120 (that was in races at Santa Rosa and Deuceman) and have had zero issues. I’ve also been using the Schwalbe Pro One set up tubeless on my road bike for at least the past 4-5 weeks, zero issues. And this is Tucson we’re talking about. Flat city for the unprepared.
I never really understood the appeal of tubeless when I lived in NC. But here in Tucson I switched to tubeless on my road bike for a few reasons
I was getting annoyed with the Vittoria latex failures I had been experiencing this spring. Random valve area failures that were unexplainable and on different wheels.
I haven’t gotten a flat in a year and a half with conti 4000s II w/ latex tubes for training or conti TT w/ latex tubes for racing.
Mounted up a pair of VCSs to test them out on my training wheels. Did a 60 mile ride then a few crits on them. Maybe the 4th or 5th ride, in a crit on a closed course in a park that doesn’t get much traffic (so clean surface), I got a cut so large in the VCS that the sealant wouldn’t seal it. I tried using one of the “bacon” plugs that Tom A recommended but the cut was so large it wouldn’t stay in the tire. So that tire is basically done. And so am I with using VCS tires. And I’m still picking sealant off of my bike and shoes, that shit went everywhere.
Back to the 25mm 4000s for training and I think I’ll pick up some supersonic 20mm for my front tire and keep running the 23mm TT on the rear for racing.
