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TECH NEWS
Veloflex Corsa Race TLR 1-2Veloflex launch 2020 tyres with new 350TPI tubeless Corsa
If you like your tyres handmade and Italian then you may well have ridden Veloflex. While they have only recently approved tyres featuring their ‘sidewall protection system’ for use with carbon clincher rims, the latest designs look to be bang up to date with a tubeless-ready design boasting a 350TPI casing.
The new range consists of several variations of the Corsa, Record and ProTour models with a mix of clincher, tubeless-ready and tubular tyres available.
Tubeless options
Veloflex’s Corsa Evo and Race TLR look like the most interesting of the new models. The Race TLR is a performance-focussed tyre featuring a 350TPI (threads per inch) cotton casing. Veloflex says that it uses an “air-lock membrane to minimise air pressure loss.” We assume that this is a flexible latex coating that has been applied to the inside of the casing, making the tyre impermeable.
This would be similar to the method used by Vittoria on its Corsa Speed Tubeless tyre. The method worked well for Vittoria, sealing the tyres well while allowing the tyre to maintain much of the suppleness provided by the high thread count casing.
We would expect a tyre with such a high thread count to be very supple and Veloflex claims as much, saying that the casing offers “low rolling resistance and great flexibility to adapt to any road surface.”
Veloflex is using an “ultralight non-extendable Zylon” bead for the TLR tyres. While the Corsa Race TLR is only available in a 25mm width, the Corsa Evo TLR also comes in a 28mm width for increased comfort on rough roads. Both TLR models are available in black or tan sidewalls.
The difference with the Corsa Evo TLR can be found in the casing where a 320TPI build is used. Both the Evo and Race models feature “resilient kinetic belt” puncture protection. Veloflex says that this belt of “extremely tenacious yarn” runs under the rubber compound, supposedly without affecting the rolling resistance.
Clincher and tubular options.
The Corsa Race and Evo tyres also come in a clincher version alongside the Record TT clincher.
A Kevlar bead is the only change for the Corsa Race and Evo.
While there aren’t many users of tubular tyres outside of the pro peloton these days, Veloflex ProTour, ProTour Race and Record TT tubulars.
Here are the tech specs with claimed weights
The tyres are all available now.
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11 comments
Can I assume that these new tires can be ran with tubes? And do these tire wear out fast like racing tires do?
If anyone is thinking of getting the tubeless tyres I'd wait a bit longer. I received a set last week. Fitting and inflation were a breeze. The ride was amazing but after 1 ride both tyres deflated and 1 of them is now so baggy I can't get it to inflate. That's after wrapping the rim with tape 3 times to make it a tighter fit.
Oh and there's no way the coating on the inside stops air from escaping. These are the most pourous sidewalls I've seen on a tyre. Sealeant stopped this but I found small bobbles of sealant on the outside of the tyre. But like I said, the ride was amazing and the initial install was easy.
oh and the smell of them is amazing!
I'm awaiting a reply from Veloflex.
They were porous even in the tubular version. It is artisanal assembly AND artisanal R&D. # days tublars flat. Conti? 6 months later they still are 60-70 psi. So Veloflex rolled its tubular expertise in tubeless, and you got a problem. Obviously for tubular they are a benchmark, even after compound changes in 2017/2018. Basically 50,000 kms and barel y8 punctures, most end of life punctures so any latex inside got me back home. Far safer and better than any tubeless tech. BUT, tubeless is a non-standardized unsafe science. My last blowuts over a drain convinced me to ditch them. The first 10 k tubeless I had to many close calls. NONE in 50,000 kms tubulars, and I ride often flatou 35-50 km/hr....
Close calls ?
I used these three years ago and fell in love. I just bought the new model directly from Veloflex and they arrived in two days from Italy. They look spectacular. I will mount them tomorrow on latex tubes.
Great, no sooner do I finally get used to their confusing different-name-for-each-different-width-and-colour system, they go and simplify it to just ProTour
Not sure you should assume the air-lock membrane "is a flexible latex coating that has been applied to the inside of the casing, making the tyre impermeable."
Have you ever used latex inner tubes; not very impermeable...
The latex coating inside the Vittoria Corsa Speed is much thicker than the wall of a latex tube. Those Corsa Speeds that I had on test retained air just as well as any other tubeless tyre that I've tested
Old stock of the Master is on sale at Bike24 for ridiculously low prices. Pair of handmade 320tpi tyres for under £50? You'd be mad not to. I've stocked up enough to see me through the next decade as I can't see me ever riding anything else on my dry weather bike. They just seem to cope very well with the roads round here, hedge trimming, flinty gravel and all.
The Master is such a lovely tyre
Veloflex are beautiful tyres