Normally The Keepers reserve our Reverence articles for products we’ve used for years, or with new stuff that has had at least six months of duty. Riding the cobbles of Belgium and Northern France can put most gear (and bodies) through six months of abuse in just a few weeks, so in this case the work these tyres have been put through there and in the months since qualifies them for a deserved earlier dose of Reverence.
Selecting what gear to run for the Cobbled Classics Keepers Tour wasn’t too hard a task; there are some things which just go with cobbles bikes like double wrapped bartape, alloy steerer fork and of course box section rims laced 3 cross. Tubular or clincher was about the only tough decision I had to make. I managed to find a cheap pair of Ambrosio tub rims, but as they were 36 hole it proved impossible to find a cassette hub in time for the tour. How bad could clinchers be? After all, Freddy Guesdon won Roubaix on clinchers in 97, and the Pavé boys would have spare wheels if something went terribly awry. It wasn’t the cobbles that would claim my clinchers, but the ham-fisted rock apes generously referred to by airlines as baggage handlers.
Choosing a tyre to run was probably the easiest task. It had to be Vittoria’s Open Pavé CG‘s, based on what I’d seen gracing Pro’s bikes in just about every edition of the Spring Classics I’d witnessed. The distinctive green herringbone tread stripe is as synonymous with these races as are crazed fans, beer and frites en mayo. Unfortunately the ‘Open Tubular’ doesn’t come in the 28mm width of it’s tubular brethren, but a 24mm version only. That extra mm wasn’t a lot but it was something. The real benefit of the tyres though is the 320TPI casing, yeilding a super smooth ride on any surface. Coupled with Vittoria’s Latex inner tubes, the feel of cushioning under the bike is definitely noticeable. Over all of the 21 secteurs we rode on the way to Roubaix, then another 15 of the worst a few days later, topped with a full complement of Flandrian roads, I only once feared I might hear the dreaded hiss from my tyres. Nailing an edge of a nasty cobble hard enough to feel the rock hitting the rim, the tyre bounced off and the slippery latex tube stayed intact. On return to NZ, I inspected the tyres for damage and was surprised and delighted to find nary a nick or any signs of wear.
I’ve been riding the Pavés ever since the Tour, and don’t want to swap them out at least until the Kiwi winter is over. The ride continues to impress with their sheer suppleness (dare I say souplesse?) over rough surfaces. They aren’t the lightest or fastest rolling, but neither am I. For summer I think I’ll try the lighter Corsa Evo SC‘s, which look just as cool with their tan sidewalls and are another Pro favourite. And if you’re worried about a green stripe clashing with your bike’s paint job, I think there should be a Rule #8 ammendment that the only coloured tyre allowed on any bike, due to it’s unrivalled heritage, is the venerable and now ReVered Open Pavé CG.
Thanks to Graeme at Cycle Sport NZ for his generosity in supplying the tyres and tubes.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/brettok@velominati.com/Open Pav/”/]
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View Comments
@frank
Could have been user error? Dude, that's a Cat 5 seating job if ever I've seen one!
I did that once with a Slime tube and a service station compressor... wasn't pretty, it looked like the Hulk had come all over me!
@frank
Might as well ride tubulars.
@Frank or anyone else, where are you getting your latex tubes?
@brett
Ha, yeah! I'm glad it was my own stupid fault, because it was too scary for it to be nice if it was chance. In 28 years, I've never had a blowout, so I was bound to get overconfident about it eventually. Never checked it after seating.
Oh, and just for Oli and Minion's sake, I'll explicity point out that I'm agreeing with you. Seems to be a bit confusing these days.
@RedRanger
I get mine at Speedy Reedy.
@Nate
Word up on that one. First thing I said to @sgt (I was riding with him yesterday, class act of a dude) was that if it was tubs it would have just been an inconvenience, but with clinchers it took a some work to stay upright.
Sidenote: it's probably been 5 years since I listened to Led Zep IV front-to-back. What a fucking awesome record. Didn't that album get a two-word review?
So would you recommend latex? Only place I see them on the web is Amazon and they are running 15$ a pop.
@Xyverz
I can sympathize with that, but not for now. I'm still tweaking the formatting of the output, but I'm trying to avoid the case where I wind up spending hours editing peoples posts because they got the formatting screwed up and didn't close/open tags. I might enable source editing, but not for now - not until I get the output the way I want it.
Hopefully, if I get this working correctly, nothing should need any manual tweaking anyway. Of course, if you like editing the source, you can just use Internet Explorer because I disabled it for IE in favor of spending the next four months debugging it. With this being a site about authenticity and quality, I'm basically giving IE the Internet Middle Finger and just working on it enough to have the site function but that's it. I've spent too much time of my life getting shit that works everywhere else to work in that fucking browser.
@RedRanger
That price seems right. The ride quality is superb, that's for sure. I've had good luck with Vittoria's but the Michellin's have been less stable.
I haven't decided yet if I recommend them - it's kind of like riding tubbies; ride quality is definitely better, but each flat at $15 is painful on the wallet, so you have to decide if the extra hassle/cost is worth it to you. Also note that to my knowledge, tube patches don't work as well on them, if at all.
Personally, I'm still riding latex on #1 and #2, but stopped using them on #3 because I'm more likely to flat on that bike and don't want to hassle with the cost.
@RedRanger
I'd heartily recommend them. The ride is smooooth, sometimes I think I've got a puncture in the front when it feels too soft (I run them at 115psi). I also run 23mm Vittoria Rubino Pro tyres but I think they only have a thread count of 120 so I'm wondering how much difference the 320 thread count Open Corsas whould be. Anyone?
@RedRanger
I found some by way of shopping.google.com for $9-10 about a month ago.
@frank
Glad you and @sgt have finally connected. All class. Bring your tubulars for the Cogal.