I have not seen anything on slowtwitch yet about these tires.
The claims brought forward by the company are quite amazing.
Better grip, better puncture resistance, and much better rolling resistance, with claims of 40% less rolling resistance than any tire ‘previously measured’ https://youtu.be/hsFsHHWJe9Q?t=3m20s
I am eager to see independent tests and/or the actual data. These could be the no-brainer silver bullet choice for tubular/clinchers.
Tires have the lowest ratio of technisex appeal to actual importance ever. Not surprised the news wasn’t carried anywhere.
I am a bit reserved as the big savings might only be within comparing tubeless tires and the general marking hype around the term Graphene.
Me too, though Vittoria has some tires with low Crr, so there is a chance these might be quite good. It would have been nice with a pure clincher version and not a clincher that is also tubeless-ready, since I assume some weight and hence maybe Crr will be added to make it tubeless-ready - not sure, though.
Vittoria has some more information (or at least vague marketing talk) on their website. If we make the (rather large) assumption that the numbers they give are even close to right, I think they’ll be better than just “quite good”.
Taking a quick look at Tom A.'s RR spreadsheet, Vittoria has two Corsa models at about 0.0031 CRR. If they’re actually able to get 20% better than that with their new Corsa Speed, we’re going to see ~0.0024-0.0025 CRR and maybe 3-4 watts saved per pair versus the Specialized Turbo Cottons, and 5-6 watts over the 23mm Conti GP4000s at 40 kph. If the tubular version has a latex tube and has more supple sidewalls than that tubeless-compatible clincher, it seems reasonable to put it in the same ballpark (or better?). If you cut that improvement in half, they’d be about on par with the Turbo Cottons.
I think some independent verification is in order, don’t you?
It would have been nice with a pure clincher version and not a clincher that is also tubeless-ready, since I assume some weight and hence maybe Crr will be added to make it tubeless-ready - not sure, though.
The graphene part is in the tread compound so I really don’t see a reason to launch only a tubeless ready tire. At the very least it will need a carbon bead. At only 205g the carbon bead might be the only thing that makes it different from a regular tire.
Also only 23mm which is a fat tire if it is the same as the Corsa, and probably not so great for aero.
Price? Haven’t seen any mention of that, but I bet they are very expensive.
Vittoria has some more information (or at least vague marketing talk) on their website. If we make the (rather large) assumption that the numbers they give are even close to right, I think they’ll be better than just “quite good”.
Taking a quick look at Tom A.'s RR spreadsheet, Vittoria has two Corsa models at about 0.0031 CRR. If they’re actually able to get 20% better than that with their new Corsa Speed, we’re going to see ~0.0024-0.0025 CRR and maybe 3-4 watts saved per pair versus the Specialized Turbo Cottons, and 5-6 watts over the 23mm Conti GP4000s at 40 kph. If the tubular version has a latex tube and has more supple sidewalls than that tubeless-compatible clincher, it seems reasonable to put it in the same ballpark (or better?). If you cut that improvement in half, they’d be about on par with the Turbo Cottons.
I think some independent verification is in order, don’t you?
I agree. I definitely want to see some third party confirmation of their numbers before I believe them. If they are correct the Crr should indeed be very low.
It would have been nice with a pure clincher version and not a clincher that is also tubeless-ready, since I assume some weight and hence maybe Crr will be added to make it tubeless-ready - not sure, though.
The graphene part is in the tread compound so I really don’t see a reason to launch only a tubeless ready tire. At the very least it will need a carbon bead. At only 205g the carbon bead might be the only thing that makes it different from a regular tire.
Also only 23mm which is a fat tire if it is the same as the Corsa, and probably not so great for aero.
Price? Haven’t seen any mention of that, but I bet they are very expensive.
On their site they only have a tubular and a clincher version that is tubeless-ready (TLR) listed, so it seems for now that is the two options there are going to offer. If a slight weight hit is the only disadvantage to being tubeless-ready I don’t personally really mind it - but the roadie crowd and marketing department might not necessarily agree.
23mm is deinifitely not in the super aero category, but I’m wondering how much the newest very wide rims might be able to compensate - like the 25mm HED Jets or the new Roval wheels. Is the standard Vittoria Corsa 23mm on the wide side like e.g. GP4000S is?
Probably not going to be cheap, but IF their claims are correct I would be willing to pay for it unless they price it at something completely ridiculous like $1000 per tire.
It would have been nice with a pure clincher version and not a clincher that is also tubeless-ready, since I assume some weight and hence maybe Crr will be added to make it tubeless-ready - not sure, though.
The graphene part is in the tread compound so I really don’t see a reason to launch only a tubeless ready tire. At the very least it will need a carbon bead. At only 205g the carbon bead might be the only thing that makes it different from a regular tire.
Also only 23mm which is a fat tire if it is the same as the Corsa, and probably not so great for aero.
Price? Haven’t seen any mention of that, but I bet they are very expensive.
My initial reaction was “if they’re actually using graphene these will be quite expensive… maybe 2x a normal tire in this category. If these aren’t significantly more expensive then they’re not likely using enough graphene to make a difference and it’s just marketing fluff.”
I’m guessing that graphene of a consequential amount would drive up the bill of materials 4x and that materials are ~25% of the cost of the tire.
Their website has been updated and the model lines trimmed. They are offering a significant number of models with graphene though.
With Graphene:
5x - off road tires (enduro and XC)
2x - urban tires
9x - road tires (tubular/clincher and race/training tires)
It looks like the entire Corsa line (fast race tire) will be gumwall. Might ruffle some peoples aesthetic feathers.
If the HYPE is real this will be an awesome technological shift. How soon until conti and michelin get on board with graphene tech?
Tires have the lowest ratio of technisex appeal to actual importance ever. Not surprised the news wasn’t carried anywhere.
I am a bit reserved as the big savings might only be within comparing tubeless tires and the general marking hype around the term Graphene.
Not surprisingly, updates that may actually improve performance get minimal attention, while the thread on disc brakes keeps growing exponentially.
I called a few shops yesterday and these don’t aren’t even listed on their distributors’ sites yet, so it may be a while before these are actually available.
is there any news on these? Have they come out? Any reviews or thoughts on them yet?
Just a bump to see if anyone has tried the new Vittorias (Graphene or otherwise) yet.
The Corsa Elite looks like it should work as a daily/trainer tub - anyone ridden one yet?
Also, the Magic Mastik glue that they use on the glueing demo - has anyone tried that yet? Does look pretty nice and simple.
So if I’m interpreting the results correctly - about 10% lower rolling resistance going from GP 4000S 23mm to Corsa Speed 23mm. Average size rider at 25mph and you’re looking at about 3W lower rolling resistance I believe.
Ok so we have a first BALLPARK test: Alban Lorenzini tested and posted results on his blog. It’s in french and I’m not sure google translate will come up good so I’ll make a brief summary and hopefully if one has more questions maybe he will step up here.
He could not do his usual outdoor test due to weather conditions so he settled for a test on rollers and made an estimate of the effect on the road.
He controlled for room temperature, roller temperature, warm up conditions for a set of different tires including conti gp4000s II and Corsa Speed 23. Once he has results he uses a ballpark approximation on the effect on the road (because he knows difference on road between the GP4000 and the Conti TT, and the difference the roller test gives, so we can use the relative results to estimate the Corsa Speed on road).
The Corsa speed is estimated to be 3W faster than the Conti TT 23mm and 4.5W faster than the Conti GP4000 25 mm (and 6.5W faster than the Conti GP4000s 23mm) (all at 35 km/h)
Obviously this won’t replace a more precise test but that’s about where we can expect things to be. Easiest watt gain ever if as they claim the tire is very grippy and more puncture puncture resistant than anything else.