Tubular evangelists - advice needed

[Jonny69]

At the budget end of the spectrum for daily tubs, I've had more luck with Continental Giro being actually round than Vittoria Rally. Vittoria Rally kept turning up with bulges and defects and I gave up on them after a while. Tufo are always good but people are REALLY snooty about them so expect to get some snotty comments. Challenge have been fine - I've tried the old shape Strada Bianca with the ribs and the Vulcano. I have a pair on my classic lightweight and they look very period 50s or earlier despite being a new tyre. The tanwall colour on them ages well.

 

[Nob]

Tufo are OK but in the wet they are dreadful......that my personal experience...
Back in the day enjoyed training on Wolber International & Neo Pro Tubs grippy on wet roads...Even the Wolber Junior was pretty good to.

 

[Holiocornolio]

Re:

Amusingly Decathlon have actually supplied 25mm Vittoria Strada tyres rather than the 23mm Rally's ordered. I can't be arsed sending them back, I will just use them. I can't find any accurate info about these tyres anywhere on the internet... even Vittoria's own website. They look exactly like the Rally in every sense, except for the label. Decathlon do list the strada as a road training tyre with a latex tube. Anyway, they are round, hold air and seem to be ok. The bike they are destined for will be a pampered princess so I'm not overly worried about puncture protection, as they won't be seeing any wet roads. That being said, I did have a pair of Vittoria Corsa TLR tyres on my summer bike, and the regularity with with they would spray sealant was embarassing, and they never saw wet roads either. Time will tell how these hold up, I'm relying on 120psi being the main thorn and flint deterrent anyway.

 

[Ruimteaapje]

My personal experience with the affordable Vittoria Rally and Continental Giro tubes is that they are okay (but not great) as long as they stay dry but quickly loose their shape and go wobbly after one or two rainy rides. For a good quality tubular tire with tan sidewalls for a classic bike I go 23mm Vittoria Corsa G2.0 or Dugast Strada

 

[Holiocornolio]

My personal experience with the affordable Vittoria Rally and Continental Giro tubes is that they are okay (but not great) as long as they stay dry but quickly loose their shape and go wobbly after one or two rainy rides. For a good quality tubular tire with tan sidewalls for a classic bike I go 23mm Vittoria Corsa G2.0 or Dugast Strada

Nice bike. What's going on with those handlebars? Looks like they have an extension at the end of the drops, or is that an illusion? Also, just copped the brakes! nice! . Do they slow the bike down at all?

 

[Old Ned]

You can thank Greg Lemond for those bars! He designed them for getting 'aero' by holding the turned-in bits and crouching but they didn't catch on and he seemed to abandon the idea himself after a short time.

 

[Ruimteaapje]

For Lemond it was basically a billboard for a personal sponsor with its big Scott decals. For me they're part of the history of this bike: I have this set op drop-in bars since 1993 when I used them on a Peugeot with the exact same color scheme.
Delta brakes, when properly set-up, are not better or worse than other brakes from those days (before the industry switched to double pivot brakes) and I don't mind using them in steep descents.

 

[Holiocornolio]

For Lemond it was basically a billboard for a personal sponsor with its big Scott decals. For me they're part of the history of this bike: I have this set op drop-in bars since 1993 when I used them on a Peugeot with the exact same color scheme.
Delta brakes, when properly set-up, are not better or worse than other brakes from those days (before the industry switched to double pivot brakes) and I don't mind using them in steep descents.

The bars are an interesting idea. Never seen them before. As for deltas, I would love to try them out, but I doubt I ever will. I live in one of the flatter parts of England and there are no steep descents to worry about anyway, but it's nice to hear someone describe them in realistic terms, and good to know that they do actually do what they're meant to do as well as looking fantastic.

 

[Holiocornolio]

To digress for a moment, this is the perfect era for me in bike terms. It's just right there in peak aesthetic. Aero brakes (cables under bar tape), downtube shifters, skinny steel tubes, steel fork and loud paint. It's got it all. Love it!

 

[Ruimteaapje]

Color scheme is certainly loud as was customary in those days. The other bikes in my small collection have more modest paintjobs but I had to keep this one as a teenage memory: my first ever full-size road bike had the exact same paintjob: here I go in 1991...