Vittoria Rubino Pro 3 :(
Well, having used the Vittoria Randonneurs for a few thousand kilometres in all sorts of conditions, I had quite high expectations for the Rubino Pros but I have to say that they have definitely failed to impress, and in fact I would say that they have definitely under whelmed. Within 1000 kilometres, I have now had two tyres fail on me, not normal puncture situations but a rip in the tyre causing a big tear in the tube. I don’t know how tyres are constructed especially not folding bead tyres, but it just looks like the seam has come apart or something. I discovered the latest tear today when I went to pump up the tyres and couldn’t believe it, I’d only ridden the bike once in the past few weeks and only for about ten kilometres. So I put a new tube in and tested pumping it up only to see a bulge in one section of the tyre, exactly the same thing that happened last time. So as good as the tyres look, it seems the durability of the tyres is terrible which is not a good thing because I already invested in several other sets, red and white ones for both my bikes :(. Let’s just hope that the previous bunch I got were from a bad batch or something and the latest ones I bought are okay, but certainly my expectations have been lowered significantly.
[update]
I really don’t know what to think now, I got back from Japan and went to pump the tyres up and found a tear in the front tyre, I don’t remember if it was torn before I left (if not, it is truly bizaare). I put one of the old trusty Vittoria Randonneurs in and pumped it up, next day I checked it, the tyre was flat (new tube by the way), there didn’t seem to be a puncture because I can pump the tyre up but maybe it’s a very slow leak, it could be the inside of the wheel rim that is causing it but I’m not sure right now.
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Just to mention that I hadn’t changed these tyres recently, I changed them when I got the last rip and that was it, so it seems unlikely that it was user error, I pump up the tyres every week, and actually haven’t ridden this bike very often recently.