What more can you say about tyres that hasn’t already been said? We know they are the most important part on any bike, the vital contact point between the road and rider, hopefully avoiding the two meeting in an unceremonious manner. They can make or break any ride, and render the finest of bicycles as much use as a K-Mart dual-sus if they are of low quality, worn out, or even just not inflated correctly. Throw in other factors like width, tread, rubber compound, tubes or not, and the most simple component of your bike can suddenly seem one of the most complex.

Road tyres should be a lot less ‘technical’ than mountain bike tyres, right? Well, that may have been the case a long time ago, when racers used tubulars and the rest of us used clinchers, and you picked your brand, colour if it was the 90s, pumped them up to 120PSI and went with it. Then rims got wider, tyres followed suit, tubes were deemed non de rigeur, puncture protection became a priority, and comfort became as important as speed. We wanted it all, and by and large, we got it.

Over the years I, and probably anyone bothered to read this, have tried just about every brand, style, width and compound of tyre out there. Favourites have come and gone, tyres we thought were the best ever now condemned as some of the worst. Some of them I wonder how they never took my life! About 20 years ago I tried Vittoria tyres for the first time, specifically the Pavé CG. The iconic green striped, herringbone ‘tread’ patterned beauties that every Pro would run without exception at the cobbled Spring Classics, and especially Paris-Roubaix. It didn’t matter that the green would clash horribly with any bike that wasn’t green, they were a symbol of belonging, knowing, that these were the only tyres to run in April.

When I first headed to Belgium to ride these legendary ‘roads’, of course they could be the only choice. I was running clincher rims, and had a choice of 24mm or 27mm widths. As ‘rolling resistance’ was still the biggest consideration for a marketing influenced cycling demographic in 2012, I went with the 24s… I honestly thought a 27 was going to slow me down too much, comfort be buggered! I did however take the option of Latex tubes, on the suggestion of Graeme at CycleSport, the NZ distributor still to this day. I survived the cobbles, as did the tyres and tubes, and I kept riding those same tyres until it was unwise too do so. They probably would have kept going until they hit the threads. (It’s prudent to note that the tour guides we partnered with had their entire fleet shod in 28mm Pavé tubulars, and no other flats were recorded.)

Anyway, to cut a long story longer, I’ve been a Vittoria user since, and have tried just about every model from the budget-oriented Zaffiros, through Rubinos, to the top end Corsas. From 23s, to 25s, 28s and 30s. Tubes, tubeless, and tubulars on consequent returns to Roubaix. I found my brand and have stuck with it, like a faithful cowboy and his Marlboros.

For the purposes of this ‘test’ I’ve taken the position of comparing apples to oranges to pears. That is, I’ve been switching back and forth between tyres, wheels and bikes, and used that as some loose form of ‘data’ gathering. These are the combinations I’ve been using:

Corsa Pro Cotton 28c, tubeless on Campagnolo Shamal alloy wheels, on Jaegher steel bike. 70-80 PSI

Corsa Control NEXT 30c, tubeless on Campagnolo Shamal alloy wheels, on Jaegher steel bike. 60-70 PSI

Rubino Pro Graphene 2.0, 28, tubes, on Campagnolo Eurus alloy wheels, on Scandium alloy Merckx bike. 70-80 PSI

Corsa Control Graphene 2.0, 2.5 Tubeless and tubes, on Campagnolo Shamal and Mavic Open Pro, Jaegher and Merckx bikes, 70-90 PSI

Short answer: The Corsa Pros are the most supple riding of the lot, which could be partly contributed to the more forgiving ride of the steel frame. The nylon cased Control NEXT tyres were a bigger size (30c), and needed to be run at lower pressures so that they would actually fit in the frame clearances! But they were surprisingly supple as well, and the advantage of tougher casings can be considered if puncture protection is a top priority. The Corsa Pros haven’t suffered any punctures over a few hundred kilometres either.

The tyres I’ve spent most time on are the Corsa Control Graphene, in 25c. These were my first attempt at road tubeless, and were a pain to set up initially, maybe more due to my lack of experience and a compressor set to 30 or 40 PSI. Once done they held air well, and performed similarly when used with tubes. No punctures, but I did get a small delamination on the side casing from scraping something possibly, a rock or pothole, nothing a bit of super glue couldn’t fix.

The Rubinos are definitely the harshest riding of the three, but again the frame material could be a factor, as alloy is an inherently stiffer riding material (though the Merckx’s Scandium frame has carbon wrapped chainstays, and is a smoother ride than my Cannondales for example.) The Rubinos are a great tyre though, especially for a value training/winter tyre, and not that far behind in the looks department with their kinda tan walls.

As this is supposed to be predominantly be about the Corsa Pro, let’s focus on them. Another short answer: they are fantastic! The suppleness offered by the cotton casing is definitely their biggest asset, or the most noticeable. It’s like riding on a magic carpet. They roll effortlessly, the grip in wet conditions is up there with the Control models, and cornering is sure-footed and confidence inspiring. Set-up for tubeless was relatively painless, I say relatively as road tubeless are usually a bit more finicky to get seated due to the higher pressures needed. I removed the valve cores and cranked the compressor up to 100 PSI and they let out that satisfying ‘pop’ pretty much straight away. Vittoria sealant was used, I’ll admit it’s not my favourite as I experienced some balling/hardening of it in some MTB tyres over time, so keeping an eye on it and freshening up maybe once a year could be the answer.

The real winner with the Corsa Pros though is they only come in tan walls! That may not please some people, but a bit of old-school pro look has always been a winner for me. (A real bummer though is the QR Code or whatever that scanny thing is on the sidewalls. Do we really have to have ‘connectivity’ to every fucking thing? It’s a tyre ffs, just let it roll free.) But it’s the performance that matters, and this is, in my opinion, Vittoria’s best tyre ever. Fast, comfortable, light, durable, good-looking; all the things I ain’t, everything I need. If only they did them in Pavé green…

*Thanks to Vittoria NZ / Cycle Sport for the opportunity to test the Corsa Pro, and for their continued support of Chainslap and Chainslap Garage. Cheers!