c. andrews wrote:
>with the usual caveat "your mileage WILL vary.." I've tried a number
of high-zoot clinchers, including the
>Vittoria open CX, on very high-quality period clincher rims (Mavic Mod
series), and they can't compare to a
>Clement silk.
I've never ridden Clement silks, but I doubt any cotton tubular rides like a Clement silk, so that's a pretty high expectation for any clincher to ride like it. I don't recall anybody who makes a silk clincher, but that would be really neat. I'd love to try that. Nowadays, I'm a die-hard Vittoria guy and IMHO, the Open clinchers are as close as you can get to a quality cotton tubular.
One advantage I find with the Open clinchers over tubulars is roundness.
I'm not talking cross-sectional roundness but circumferential. Every
tubular I've ever tried has always had that slight lump where the base
tape overlaps or where the valve stem is. It's much less pronounced in
the quality tubulars (almost unnoticeable) versus something like a
Rally, but it is still there and detectable (at least to me).
>I've tried Continental Sports (not bad, but only that), and Continental
Gator-skins. Paselas too. I haven't
>tried Veloflex clinchers, so I haven't tried everything yet...but they
seem as if they'd be very similar to the
>Vittorias...perhaps someone who knows can clarify this.
I just got a pair of Veloflex Paves and they are very similar to the old
Vittoria Opens. I prefer the Opens since they come in a 23mm vs. 22mm
for the Paves, but the Vittorias are very hard to find with the
traditional tan sidewall. Everything is all black nowadays.
>The Roly-Poly has the closest ride to a Clement CdM that I've
experienced. Not the same, but in the same
>league. The R-P is lively, very comfortable, fast, and not too heavy.
I wonder if this has more to do with size than anything else. I've yet to find a nylon tire ride better than a cotton cased tire, like the Vittoria Open or Veloflex Pave. The Roly-Poly is nylon cased, no?
Doland Cheung
SoCal
Silk > Cotton > Nylon