Vittoria Freedom tyres : Anyone know the date of manufacture?

[drystonepaul]

I recently purchased a pair of the Vittoria Freedom Duel HDC tyres listed on eBay from Italy.
They arrived today and look pretty good.

But does anyone know anything about them?
In particular, when they would have originally been available?



EDIT: Having done a little research, I suspect these are pre 1997, based on the fact that Vittoria used the Geax brand for their mountain bike tyres from 1997 up until 2005.
Still keen to get a more definitive date though.

 

[beanfield1980]

Hi there
How did you get on with these tyres? I just ordered a pair as they seem crazy cheap and I think they are early versions of the popular peyote! It’s really hard to find information on them so just thought I would see how you got on with them

 

[kingoffootball]

Well, I can't help with the question of year, or give any feedback yet about how they ride, but I bought a couple of pairs of the 26x2.125 Duels and a some 2x2.00 Manta and Spinx too:

 

[beanfield1980]

I actually sold mine on before using them, I mounted them and they came up a lot smaller than 2.1 they were closer to 1.8

 

[konacarl]

I fitted a pair on one of my bikes but they don’t seem to run perfectly ‘round’. I might try them again but I’m not in a rush.

 

[beanfield1980]

They did have to go high pressure to pop on the bead around 40/45psi but mine were perfectly round fortunately

 

[GT-TJR]

They did have to go high pressure to pop on the bead around 40/45psi but mine were perfectly round fortunately

Just got me a set of these, took ages to arrive from the Italian seller. Very happy with them, yes they are narrow but that's how old tyre sizes were. As above, it took a lot of pressure to get the bead to seat properly about 80 psi in my case. But ran really nice and true once properly seated.

What no one else has mentioned is the weight and construction, these are folding bead rather than steel. Weighed in at 600g's each, which is light.

They also have a nifty reversible tread pattern, rotate different directions for front and back, little arrows on the sidewall to indicate this.

Happy overall and would recommend.

 

[GT-TJR]

Just got me a set of these, took ages to arrive from the Italian seller. Very happy with them, yes they are narrow but that's how old tyre sizes were. As above, it took a lot of pressure to get the bead to seat properly about 80 psi in my case. But ran really nice and true once properly seated.

What no one else has mentioned is the weight and construction, these are folding bead rather than steel. Weighed in at 600g's each, which is light.

They also have a nifty reversible tread pattern, rotate different directions for front and back, little arrows on the sidewall to indicate this.

Happy overall and would recommend.

So update on these. I got a serious case knob rot. See pictures below.

It’s worse on the front tyre.

I’ve used these for general pedalling around and a few proper off road rides. Including some fast descents and rock gardens.

Not sure if I should keep using them. Any opinions on this?