ALMOST as great a tire as the Open Corsa CX. Better durability but sacrificing a bit of the tubular feel of the Open Corsa. These are my late fall, winter, and early spring go to tires. And now you can actually buy them without the green stripe, yippie! I put these on my wife's bikes too.
Recently tested on beyond rough road and few high speed descents, maybe the 25mm rim had something to do with the performance, but I was amazed. I've never leaned over so far and felt so secure before (new wheel with new tire). Great damping and roll. Expensive tire but the best feel I found yet and at 55mph you have to trust your tires.
I prefer to ride the Open Corsa CX, but when the roads have a lot of debris in the winter/spring, these are my preferred tire. The little bit of extra rubber in the middle make these more reliable than the Open Corsa CX while sacrificing only a little of the feel. Great tire! (I like the 25mm version as I use these with ENVE 3.4 carbon clinchers.)
The open pave 27mm is the most comfortable tire made that will fit in the fork of my Italian go-fast. I'm a big boy, 6'3. 215 lbs. About 1500 miles on a pair, finally hit a chert pile in the road with a sharp-enough stick to tear a casing. I feel had already rolled over more than a few things that would have done this earlier, so I wasn't a bit surprised. This tire is a replacement for my rear, and it was not far from worn. The front tread should double this life. But I get good life with these, extreme comfort, and extreme speed. Can't beat that, especially at this price. They roll very efficiently at lower than rated pressure. They also fold up very small to carry a spare.
I've only owned these for a short time and have taken a handful of rides on them. I bought them as a winter tire to deal with central Pennsylvania roads in winter salt, cinders, potholes. They replaced Vittoria Rubino Pro IIIs that I have been quite happy with for riding in winter. But had to try these babys so I spent a few bucks and got em. I cannot say anything about their durability yet. But here's what I can say they are oh so comfortable. The supple ride was noticeable immediately and quite an improvement over the rubino pros. I also have a bike with Conti Four Seasons and the Pave CGs are still noticeably more supple than those.
So far I am very happy to have splurged for these. If you want to spoil yourself they are worth a try.
Only gave them four stars because I don't have a ton of miles on them yet and can't vouch for durability.
Great feel. Very good grip in wet and dry. Puncture resistant. Long wearing for its category. An exceptional all rounder. My favorite tire.
Don't believe claims of gaining 2-4 mph, that's not realistic for any tire. But a great ride, excellent cornering and stability, especially on 50 mph descents, and noticibly smoother. Can't comment on durability with only 500 miles but they handle rocks, cracks, and debris well. So far, no flats, knock wood! I'll put my Rubino Pro's back on for routine rides but will replace with these for races & Gran Fondos. The only down side - I've paid less for steel-belted radicals for my car!
I am pretty much sold on Vittoria tires but my real problem is up until I tried these the Open Corsa was my tire of choice but these ride just as nice. Currently have these on a set 25's on a Boyd Altamont wheel set and really like the wide rim and these tires. I generally ride Corsa Evo's 23 on a narrower Williams Carbon clincher and it's a great nice weather combination. I do not experience the flats and so on that others write about(knock on wood) and wonder if some of it is tire pressure. Any way I would not hesitate to buy these again. Pricey but it is the only contact with the road and it's not much but it's effective.
Pretty picky with tires. Most of my riding is road commute but I do a few races season. I've tried several types on my Ridley XFire 'cross (Continentals GP4000s-Utrarace-Speedride, Kendas, Vittoria RubinosZaffiros) to see which gave good ride quality and quantity.
I found these Vittoria Open Pave CGs to be a 1)generally smoother riding tire than others, 2)fairly robust even after 1-2K riding miles, and 3)very nice wet weather tire - definitely better than Conti GP4000s. I think the wet weather handling (wet pavement to driving rain) aspect was best feature as these Vittoria's improve the ride quality and bike handling considerably -at least on pavement. I think they corner and hold the road better than the lower priced Vittorias and def better than the Continentals (x23 or x25mm). The reason that I didn't give the Open Pave a higher value rating is they are $65-85 per tire which is an absurd price to pay for a tire for the type of riding I do. I did get these at a steep discount (basically 2 for 1) but probably wouldn't get them more than 1x per yr.
I've taken these out on local CO Front Range roads and classicsCX courses which have a variety of surfaces (smooth, debris laden, packed dirtgravel, sand andor marginally rideable). I found that they perform well but depending on the road type (paved road vs trails) require a bit of tire pressure manipulation to dial in ride quality.
The pavement in my neighborhood is horrible. So no matter where I ride, I always leave and return through bumpy, cracked-up crumbly crud. I also like to take a lot of unpaved shortcuts. Because of the places I ride, I'm finding that I like a bit more rubber than most of my roadie friends. I tried a set of Vittoria Rubino Pro Tech 28s, but had a slight bit of rubbing on the rear brake when out of the saddle, so those had to go to another bike. With the Open Paves, I'm riding the 27s with no clearance issues on my primary road bike. So far with 2,500 miles on them, they're my favorite tires ever. I'm a 160-pound rider on wider rims, inflating to 80 psi front and 90 psi rear. At this rate, their durability has been better than par. Their feel over roughness and grip through corners is superb. The green side walls are a nice visual bonus.
I'm on my 2nd set on these tires and my experience with them mostly mirrors how others have described them with durability being the main exception.
I ride the 27mm version at around 100psi mounted to Hed Belgium wheels and cuts through the casing that ultimately resulted in flats have been a constant problem.
Ended up replacing the rear tire with less than 200 miles on them after suffering a number of cuts, and the replacement has suffered a similar fate with roughly 600 miles on them at this point.
Love the tire, but given the durability issues the price is a bit bothersome.
I put a pair of these on my Synapse at the suggestion of an bicycle engineer colleague. They are a revelation in terms of both ride on the typically broken roadways of New England and handling. In fact, they are as close to cornering on tubulars as I have come.
This summer I am recording rides for a book of rides in Connecticut. With the Open Pave's I have encountered lightly and tightly packed gravel, sand, mud and wet cobbles all of which these tires have handles with aplomb.
Previous tires on this bike have been Hutchinsons, Vredsteins, Vittoria Rubino Pros, Vittoria Open Corsas.
If you're seriously into any riding that is not a criterium - these are the open tires (non-tubular) to have.
Hands down, I've never been through so many tubes in my life. I've gone through total of 4 of them since mounting this tire onto my beloved ENVE 45 wheels. It always seems to go flat on its own after a rough ride through some gravel areas here in LA and Hollywood Hills. The reason I bought these tires, because Los Angeles roads are so terrible. Perhaps the casing is so stiff that it punctures the tires? I don't know. Every single time a tube has blown, I check for thorns or sharp objects embedded within the tire. And every time (like it claims) is really puncture resistant. No thorns, no nothing. So what gives? Perhaps the tire or tube isn't seated correctly? I've thought that over a million times. But I'm a guy coming from the Holy Grail of tires. The Continental 4000S. Hands down the best tires I've ever ridden. Wear indicator is gold, also mounting the tire only requires one lever instead of doing a workout with two. Perhaps I think.. well maybe I should've gone with the 27C width? seems like that's what the pros are using and perhaps maybe that was my mistake of not looking too deep into the reviews and going for it. But the 25's really are like continental 23C.. and I can only guess that the 27C is like Continental 25's. I say save your money and either go with the 27's and let me know how it goes, or just stick to what you know and go with the 4000S.
I put a set of the 27mm tires on this spring, on Hed Belgium Plus rims. The end result is right at 27mm wide. I've previously had several sets of the 24mm version. The 27mm seems like the same only better. Fast rolling, comfortable ride. 150 miles so far and one flat, which was caused by a piece of glass. Probably approaching 40 miles of gravel out of that distance with no issues. The tires do seem to wear somewhat quickly. Overall, I think its hard to find a tire with this combination of ride quality, speed, and puncture resistance.
I am sold on wider tires, the ride feel, better handling and lower rolling resistance is without comparison I race on 23mm front and 25mm rear Vittoria Corsa Evo tubulars and use 25mm tires front and back on most of my bikes now, so I thought I would give these 27mm clinchers a go on my training hoops. I can't notice them being slower but I do notice a better ride quality. Carbon frames have become very stiff and a wider tire with a lower pressure seems to work.
For the 'shoulder' season these tires make perfect sense but I will stick with 25mm for the ride season.
being an avid fan of vittoria clincher tires with their higher tpi count paired with latex tubes, i had some concerns about any changes to the classic pave, 700 x 24. new wheels with the wider rims made me rethink my tire sizing and i opted for the new version of the pave in 700 x 27. gotta say, i like it. running lower pressures allow me to ride in the off season without worrying so much about wet leaves, sticks, and debris in the road. that said, now i wish i had put these tires on before the fondo i rode in. i might have fared a bit better on my descent on a gravel road. for training and racing, i always ride vittoria tires.
I bought these in a 27c size and mounted them on my road bike (Tarmac) for use in gravel races. I weigh 150 lbs and run them att 62-65 psi and they do well as long as the course is hard-packed and there's not too much deep stuff.
The surprise with these tires, though, they ride so nice with the extra volume that I think they'll become my training tires for road use, too! For pavement, I bring them up to 70 psi and they're fast and oh so comfortable! When my buddies are whining on their 23c's about a crappy stretch of pavement I just smile and tell them that I don't know what they're talking about.
Only negative, from an aestetic point of view, the green shoulders really don't do much on a red & silver bike. Wish I could buy them all-black or in other colors (like red shoulders).
I ride group events with pals on mainly chip coated country roads and train on these same roads. So far this season 2900 miles. I've had only one flat but when I see the center of the tire worn bald I change the tire. Vittoria tires roll incredibly fast as well as providing a glued to the road confidence . I'll not sacrifice these benefits by trying to squeeze every possible mile from them. I love starting a downhill on not so nice chip coat because I'm confident about a smooth ,fast and in controll trip down.
I recommend riders new to these tires experiment with tire pressures . By doing so you can dial in to the road surface to maintain all the benefits this tire offers.
I have mine mounted on HED C-2 Belgium wheels and awesome combo.
The Original Bobster
I have ridden several hundred miles on these tires and have had no issues with cuts, flats, or holding traction on the road. I have gotten several compliments from folks on how they look, which is nice but not a reason to go out and buy them.
most supple riding road tire I have ever used.
surprisingly good puncture resistance.
excellent grip. good wear.
I use it with latex tubes (filled with 10ml Caffe Latex)
55-65psi on graveldirt roads (I weigh 135lb)
27 width
I like to ride the dirt mountain roads around Boulder
